The first masterclass discussed the “future of the metaverse and digital transformation”, while the second one highlighted the “10X Rule and how to boost productivity”. The third masterclass addressed the “importance of computational thinking in developing institutional operations.” In total, around 1400 federal government officials and employees attended the masterclasses.

The First masterclass on the 10X Rule and how to boost productivity

The first “Jahiz” masterclass, which was held in March, was hosted by the world-renowned author and speaker, Grant Cardone, CEO of Cardone Capital and Founder of 10X Movement.

In her opening speech, Her Excellency Ohood Bint Khalfan Al Roumi, Minister of State for Government Development and the Future and Chairwoman of the Federal Authority for Government Human Resources stated that the United Arab Emirates was among the first countries to adopt the 10X Rule with unparalleled success evidenced by the remarkable and successive achievements the UAE has made on many levels.

Her Excellency also pointed out that the government of the UAE has adopted the 10X government accelerators approach several years ago to accelerate and double the rate of achievement among government institutions, enhance the state's competitiveness and governmental efficiency, and consolidate the state’s global leadership status in various fields. Such efforts will ultimately help fulfill the aspirations of the UAE’s leadership headed by His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the United Arab Emirates and His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President, Prime Minister, and Ruler of Dubai.

"The skills associated with accelerating and doubling the rate of achievement have been adopted as a work methodology in the UAE from the very beginning. What the UAE has accomplished in half a century through this approach would have required hundreds of years of planning, implementation, and effort had the rate of work been slower. Doubling the rate of achievement is one of the main principles of the concept of the “Possible” adopted by the UAE, which enabled the country to establish itself as one of the top 10 countries in the world across 432 competitive indicators”. Her Excellency stated.

Furthermore, Her Excellency said: "Competition in today’s world requires doubling the efforts, building a better future for the next generations, and working at least ten times more than others in order to maintain a leading status. Doubling the rate of achievement raises the ambition ceiling and helps create agile and proactive government leaderships that embrace challenges and risks”.

On his part, Grant Cardone explained that the 10X Rule is a new business model that helps an organization’s team double its efforts and increase the number of activities and responsibilities of the employees to accelerate the rate of work and achievement tenfold.

Cardone commended the achievements the UAE has made on various levels in such a short period of time and mentioned that the UAE has achieved in a few decades more than what other countries could achieve in centuries thanks to the clear vision and earnest will of the UAE’s leadership which never settles for anything less than first place.

Cardone pointed out that organizations wishing to adopt the 10X Rule as a work methodology must first adopt an innovative and unconventional approach to accomplishing tasks, launch specific initiatives that contribute to growth and progress, enhance competitiveness, and establish a culture of teamwork. He also explained that organizations that adopt the 10X Rule usually set goals that are seemingly impossible to achieve within a short period of time. This is where leaders come into play as they play a key role in motivating their employees and creating a positive work environment to help them reach their full potential.

Moreover, Cardone said that a successful leader must serve as a source of inspiration for his/her team and to help them remain totally focused on the tasks assigned to them by not allowing their personal life to affect their workflow and productivity. He also said that it is paramount for any leader to surround him/herself with positive people and remove negative pessimistic people.

Cardone further pointed out that adopting the 10X Rule as a work culture will not overburden the employees. Instead, it will help them experiment with new things and perform tasks that are different from what they are used to, which will help increase their productivity and enhance their job satisfaction. He finally stated that all institutions need to develop alternative work plans and strategies to tackle emergency situations or circumstances.

The Second masterclass on the future of the metaverse and digital transformation

The second masterclass was organized under "Jahiz" and was attended by H.E. Khalfan Belhoul, CEO of the Dubai Future Foundation (DFF), Marc Carrel, Managing Director of Global Technology Research & Development at Accenture Technology, and Lucy Cooper, Head of Customer Innovation - EMEA & APJ at Microsoft.

In her opening speech, H.E. Laila Obaid Al Suwaidi, Acting Director General of the Federal Authority for Government Human Resources, stated that "Jahiz" represents a new model for government work that focuses on enhancing readiness for the future. It is one of the leading national initiatives that was designed to upskill and empower government talent and enhance their capabilities to prepare a government workforce that can keep pace with a fast-paced world.

She pointed out that the Authority has launched four groups of critical digital future skills under "Jahiz". These are: Cybersecurity, Digital Transformation, Metaverse, and Cloud Computing) and was attended by more than 60,000 federal employees.

On his part, H.E. Khalfan Belhoul explained that the studies and research conducted by global technology corporations predict that the market value of the metaverse will reach $13 trillion within a few years, which reflects the high demand for this technology by governments and institutions alike. This technology has become an integral part of various business sectors and fields within a relatively short period of time.

Moreover, H.E. pointed out that the metaverse technology is expected to drive substantial changes across many sectors, including education, retail, government services, healthcare, tourism, and manufacturing, and emphasized the need to develop global collaborative legislations to regulate digital transactions in the virtual world.

On his part, Carrel stated that the metaverse has become an integral part of almost all sectors and industries, and the demand for it will only increase over the next few years. He also, pointed out that this technology provides decision makers in governments and institutions with accurate data and allows them to perform comprehensive and integrated scientific analyses of the data to take decisions in a more systematic and informed way.

Furthermore, Carrel described the main areas in which the metaverse is utilized today and discussed how ready the world's governments are to take benefit of the enormous advantages that this modern technology offers. He also stated that the UAE managed to establish itself as a leading and distinguished player in many fields globally, including technology.

Lucy Cooper said that many international organizations have taken advantage of the metaverse technology to establish dedicated centers for controlling and managing logistics operations remotely, automating services and converting them into smart ones, which helped reduce service provision cost and enhanced service availability.

She also stated that the metaverse will contribute to the development of new business models and will transform traditional work approaches and concepts in corporations and pointed out that the metaverse is an advanced version of the internet that allows users to go beyond browsing. Therefore, it is important for institutions to take into consideration protecting the confidentiality and privacy of their customers’ data when using the metaverse technology to design unique and rich customer experience.

The Third masterclass on the importance of computational thinking in developing organizational processes

The third Masterclass under “Jahiz” initiative was attended by Hakan Koç, Co-Founder and Vice Chairman of the Supervisory Board of AUTO1 Group.

In his opening speech, H.E.  Ibrahim Ahmed Fikri, Executive Director of the Support Services Sector at FAHR, commended the distinguished efforts of the ministries and federal entities toward supporting "Jahiz" initiative and stated that the initiative serves the UAE leadership’s objective of empowering employees with future skills, enhancing the capabilities of the human capital and enabling them to keep pace with the rapid global changes.

On his part, Hakan Koç explained the basics of computer programming, the current development environments and opportunities, and the latest future trends, and pointed out that the world governments are currently working on transforming government services into smart digital services as part of a global government transformation trend that aims to improve the quality of services provided and enhance customer experience.

Koç praised the remarkable efforts of the government of the UAE in the field of digital transformation and commended the great achievements it made in this regard which established the UAE as a regional and global benchmark.

He also emphasized the importance of developing regulations and legislations to provide a framework for the efforts being made to transform governments and institutions into digital ones while taking into account the need to maintain the confidentiality and privacy of customer data. Moreover, he said that institutions need to build and design interactive smart applications that allow them to listen to customers’ insights and suggestions regarding development in this field.

Finally, Koç discussed the "Chat GPT" technology which has become the talk of the town over the past weeks. This technology relies on artificial intelligence and smart algorithms and is distinguished by its superior ability to interact with users through conversation. It also possesses advanced learning capabilities that allows it to understand users’ needs and inquiries, write codes, solve software issues, and create scenarios.

"Jahiz".. 20 future skills

"Jahiz" initiative targets all federal government employees in the UAE and seeks to prepare and enable government teams to keep up with a rapidly changing world, understand new topics and emerging fields that will have a significant impact on the country’s future, and create a better tomorrow for future generations.

"Jahiz" offers 4 critical groups of future skills, including 20 skills for the future to be mastered within a year. The main skillset includes Digital Skills, 10X Skills to enhance productivity and accelerate delivery, in addition to data and artificial intelligence skills and new economy skills.

The platform offers each government employee a ‘Future Skills’ wallet which represents a personal digital file of every employee and is linked to his/her performance management system. Participants in the platform receive badges upon fulfilling the requirements of the respective future skills.

The outcomes of "Jahiz" initiative have recently been approved as a criteria for evaluating the Mohammed Bin Rashid Government Excellence Award, specifically the Readiness for the Future criterion, and was also adopted as part of the Indicators of Human Resource Enablers in the Federal Government and the Performance Management System for the employees of Federal Government.