Report :

After the lapse of around seven months on what was dubbed as the Arab Spring, and the blow of the winds of change over the Mediterranean, the main driver of change could not have been solely the demonstrations erupting in a small town in Tunisia, Sidi Bouzaid. Nonetheless, the main driver behind dismantling oppressive regimes that have existed for decades was the desire by people for change; changing a reality, not even thought to be possible in the wildest of dreams. It was a radical change called revolution.

Three years ago, in 2008, President Obama won unprecedented support, never given for any American president within the Middle East. The support of this region was not the product of a thorough reading of his platform, plans for withdrawal from Iraq, or even his views vis-à-vis the Palestinian question; it only came as a result of supporting the idea of the access to power in the US by a black president for the first time in history.

It came in support of the idea of change, which was greatly missed by many Middle Easterners at the time. Imagination won, and no one knew then that there is yet another greater victory for imagination to happen shortly after less than two years, whose main theatre would be the Middle East this time.

The winds of change have blown and will not calm down, its impact could even reach China or further. In July 2011, almost 4,000 Km away from the Middle East, in a calm town like Sidi Bouzaid, by the name of Gummersbach in Germany – 600 Km away from Berlin – I together with 22 activists of diverse nationalities participated in a workshop around change, organized by FNF.

Indeed managing change could be said to be the main characteristic of successful change and achieving desired results, without being taken by the waves of change so that they leads us ultimately to results contradictory to those for which change was sought!

If the Egyptian revolution erupted for obtaining a true democracy, social justice, and freedom, then the path of the revolution must be steered in the direction leading to the achievement of the demands and goals of the revolution. Change and its management was the topic of discussion and the work taking place in Gummersbach over seven days.

The participants were divided into regional groups: Europe, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East. I was part of the Middle East group that gathered Egypt, Jordan, and Israel. Despite the diversity and the difference in the project of change in each country, there was a common factor, not only geographic, gathering the participants.

The project of change in Jordan could have been establishing a constitutional monarchy, in Egypt achieving the goals of the revolution; but in Israel the issues were rather economic – the demonstrations in Tel Aviv had not happened yet, and because imagination is always more limited than reality, we were not even able to predict them.

Change has three axes: firs, what is to be changed; second, means of achieving change; and third, identifying results of change. The participants also discussed typical and atypical means of change, the diverse means of change, the worth of change, and the method of managing change in a manner that could ultimately lead to achieving the desired outcomes.

In fact, the methods of managing change could vary from one place to another depending on the environment, topic of change, psychology of those undertaking change or target groups. Nonetheless, the phases, and framework of managing change is hardly different from one place to another.

The workshop came to an end on 17 July 2011 and the participants each returned to his/ her own respective country to pursue the fulfillment of projects of change.