In this episode of Organizational Intelligence, I sit down with Salma Bin Breik, an Emirati strategy executive at AD Ports, with more than 20 years of experience across strategy, operations, advisory, and transformation in the UAE and wider region. We talk about something I’m increasingly obsessed with: why organizations can be full of smart, capable people and still struggle to make decisions and get things moving. We unpack meetings that feel productive but lead nowhere, the difference between consultation and consensus, Shura, decision ownership, governance, respectful disagreement, and the relationship between strategy and execution. One of my favorite ideas from the conversation: Strategy is the hypothesis. Execution is the experiment. Because strategy might look perfect in a nice room at the Four Seasons, but execution is where customers, resources, dependencies, assumptions, and reality finally show up. We also turn the lens toward the UAE and ask a question I want to explore much more on this podcast: What can this region contribute to the global conversation about how organizations work? Salma talks about the UAE’s combination of enormous ambition, decisive direction, clear mandates, trust, relationships, and the ability to move remarkably quickly once a decision has been made. In this conversation, we explore: Why a good discussion is not necessarily progressWhy consultation does not have to mean consensusShura and the role of consultation in decision-makingWhat happens when decision ownership is unclearHow to challenge authority respectfullyWhy good governance should help people act, not simply control themWhy your customer does not care about your organizational chartStrategy as hypothesis and execution as experimentWhat the UAE can teach us about ambition, decisiveness, trust, and speedOne simple practice to make meetings more useful Organizational Intelligence: People, Practice and Possibilities at Work is my exploration of how work actually works: the meetings, decisions, habits, relationships, structures, and everyday practices that shape our organizations. 🎙 ORGANIZATIONAL INTELLIGENCE Organizational Intelligence explores how organizations actually function, through the intersection of teaming, culture, systems, leadership and the human experience of work. Subscribe on your favorite podcast platform: https://organiztionalintelligence.buzzsprout.com/ Follow Organizational Intelligence on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/organizational-intelligence-oi/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Organizational-Intelligence/ #OrganizationalIntelligence #FutureOfWork #TeamEffectiveness #OrganizationalDesign #Leadership #DecisionMaking #WaysOfWorking #AIatWork Organizational Intelligence is a podcast about people, practice and possibilities at work. We explore how organizations actually function: how decisions get made, how information moves, how teams learn, how power works, and the everyday systems and behaviors that make work either harder or better. Host — Yosr Najjar: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yosrnajjar/
