Taking a step back

“There are these two young fish swimming along, and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says, ‘Morning, boys. How’s the water?’ And the two young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of them looks over at the other and goes, ‘What the hell is water?’” — David Foster Wallace

Reflecting on my journey over the last 20 years working in independent media in the Arab World has forced me to reckon with a number of deep-rooted challenges. Our perspectives are shaped by the people and the forces around us, and for better and for worse, that becomes our metric. And despite being immersed in the independent journalism community in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), as Foster Wallace continued in his speech, some of “the most obviously important realities are the hardest to see.”

My journey to join the John S. Knight Journalism Fellowship at Stanford forced me to reset these metrics; this opportunity has allowed me to examine paradigms and question the seemingly unquestionable.

Reflecting began with the application for the fellowship; then, arriving in Palo Alto and spending time at Stanford and the Bay Area, created new spaces to gain new perspectives and be exposed to new people and ideas.

7iber (meaning ‘ink’ in Arabic) was the first organization I co-founded in Jordan in 2007 with a number of colleagues. It evolved many times over the years from a blog aggregator, to a citizen journalism platform to a professionally produced online political magazine. We tried to make a cafe, a co-working space, and we hosted guest speakers from around the Arab world. We were young, idealistic when we published the first post of 7iber, which could most accurately be described as a manifesto. It was both fun and one of the hardest things one can do. And yet, we built something that is still producing arguably the best socio-political-economic content in Jordan.

I joined Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism (ARIJ) as the program director at another moment of great change. Having been self-taught until this point, my eyes were truly opened to different possibilities. A different mandate, focusing on the whole MENA region not just one country, and the potential for bigger budgets showed me what ‘could be’ if I only dreamed a bit larger.

Taking these experiences with me, I co-founded Sowt Media, a podcast studio, in 2016. We timed the podcast market right, we grew quickly and built a large catalog of content. We acquired two companies and financed growth through a number of financial instruments including grants, service contracts and loans. We worked with big media companies, museums and content creators. And for the last 8 years, Sowt and my partners have pushed me to become a better leader and a better version of myself.

At the same time media and journalism changed dramatically. The Arab Spring came and went. The excitement around the internet and social media led to a de-centering of the role and power of traditional journalism, which allowed more voices to be a part of the conversation, to challenge power in different ways, but also create more fragmented conversations.

Many of us were tricked into believing that social media could be good for societies. Unfortunately tech companies vacuumed up our data and exploited our wageless labor to increase their own power and to enrich themselves and their shareholders. All this without being held responsible for the havoc they wrought.

Now sitting here, on Stanford’s campus, having had a few months to reflect on this unintentional journey, new questions appear in the small interactions with my Arabic poetry professor or the students in my Balkan History class. Over lunch with my Graduate School of Business professor, he helped me realize that most of our journeys are unintentional and offered sage advice; always ask yourself, what was my role in this situation?

Having taken an unintentional journey from grassroots, citizen-led journalism, to a podcast production company, where can a more intentional intervention help independent media in the Arab world?

Charting forward

In ‘Conversations in Management’ at the Graduate School of Business, we have read case studies of difficult ethical questions, where either decision might be wrong. This forces us to focus on what is good leadership and how we make difficult, often urgent decisions.

Our professor described the importance of relationships based on shared values, what they look like and techniques to build them. These relationships take a lot of time to develop and yet can be torn down in seconds; how being honest and clear is the most valuable type of communication. Set our ego aside and understand what ‘good’ looks like.

While I’ve dealt with some of these scenarios having started and run my own organizations, this class provided me with a new perspective, through discussions and role playing, and examining what is leadership.

When reflecting on why I started my own organizations rather than simply going to work for an existing one, I often have said that I believe we can build better organizations for the employees and the world. Run away capitalism has forced us into an artificial binary; oftentimes when making a decision we only see two options: A or B. But many times there are more options and alternatives, if we only look at the problem differently.

As I step back to change my perspective, I reflect on the interactions here at Stanford. I find myself asking what values, ethics and morals are important for a leader. How can my leadership journey change and develop to help people be the best version of themselves?

I’m not under the illusion that there are solutions or answers but each interaction helps clarify what good looks like.