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Building effective Muslim institutions in North America requires Islamic workers who can work in a skilled, goal oriented manner. After surveying the needs of Muslims and their organizations, we realized that many of the frustrations in our communities are caused by a lack of knowledge of effective techniques for working together towards common goals.
Dar al Islam continues to develop a program of activities aimed at increasing the effectiveness of Muslim organizations and individuals by providing them access to professional training.
Our objectives for this program are as follows:
- To increase both the number and the skill-level of Muslims who serve as group-process facilitators.
- To increase the knowledge of management skills as they pertain particularly to Muslim non-profit organizations.
- To encourage greater levels of cooperation among Muslims working in the fields of organizational and human resources development.
- To encourage Muslim organizations to include training of personnel in these fields and to provide support for organizations which commit to programs of training .
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As the first product of the program, the Consensus-Building workshop was developed to teach Muslim leaders basic skills in communicating, listening, and working together. During the course of the workshop, an analysis of ways people talk together is presented along with a model of the consensus-building process. Examples drawn from typical interactions among Muslims in America are used to illustrate the process. Exercises and activities centered around real-life issues challenging the Muslims of America are used to sharpen facilitation skills.
Designed for Muslims and drawing on both Islamic scholarship and expertise in the field of team-building & organizational development, the Workshop has already been tested in various communities across the nation.
We work with local coordinators to organize the workshop and we offer to do the following:
- Work together with the local organizers to define the needs in the subject area.
- Design the workshop and produce necessary hand-outs.
- Contract the trainer for workshop design and facilitation.
- Send Dar al Islam staff to support the trainer at the workshop.
We ask the local coordinators to do the following:
- Work with us to define the needs in your area.
- Engage 12 - 15 participants for the workshop. Attendees should preferably meet all three of the following prerequisites: first, they must not carry a negative preconception about the value of corporate-style training. Second, they should be already moderating at meetings. Finally, the attendees should be from diverse organizations.
- Pay for the trainer's airplane ticket to the workshops.
- Host the trainer and Dar al Islam staff during the course of the workshop.
- Provide facilities at which to conduct the workshop.
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