The Chronicles of a Konligo Intern - Care for each other
The Chronicles of a Konligo Intern will be a series of articles published every Friday for 5 weeks. With this series you will be able to see Konligo through the eyes of an intern and how our core values affect the way we work both individually and as a team. Ahmed Soliman was an intern for 2 months at Konligo in architectural engineering and R&D. Each week he will talk about one of our 5 core values at Konligo.
Core Value 5 -Care for each other
At Konligo, I was fortunate to build strong social relations with a lot of good people. The team celebrates, eats, drinks, and works together. I had to invest time to get to know people from diverse backgrounds and nationalities. I can truly saw that I have learned a lot.
The team has lunch together everyday. It became a habit discussing interesting life topics and stories during this lunchtime. We talked about sustainability, politics, culture, marriage, sports, personal dreams, religion, family, art, and even philosophy.
Those conversations were eye-opening and refreshing but also created a path for the strong bonds and connections I created with everyone. Konligo was an interesting work experience for me but it was also a place where I created good memories and friends.
I appreciate the experiences and knowledge built during these months and I will take it with me in both my professional and personal life.
In order to conclude the Chronicles of an intern, I, the intern can only say thank you Konligo!
Take a look at the other articles of the series Chronicles of an Intern and much more.
The Chronicles of a Konligo Intern - Dare to be opinionated and to be accountable
The Chronicles of a Konligo Intern will be a series of articles published every Friday for 5 weeks. With this series you will be able to see Konligo through the eyes of an intern and how our core values affect the way we work both individually and as a team. Ahmed Soliman was an intern for 2 months at Konligo in architectural engineering and R&D. Each week he will talk about one of our 5 core values at Konligo.
Core Value 4 - Dare to be opinionated and to be accountable
Previously, I have worked in some big institutions. What is different about this internship is that the company is going through a scaling process. This means more flexibility and less bureaucracy. Even so, it's not just about the scale of the company.
Konligo is built on the concept of partnership, which means everyone has something to add. This spirit was reflected in how interns can approach their role at the company. I was given the chance to share my opinion on a lot of crucial topics. The team listened and took into consideration everyone's opinion. This opportunity to participate in discussing major company decisions came with a price: responsibility.
After 3 weeks in the internship, I was fascinated by the space given to the interns to take initiatives, for which I felt more responsible to present only the ideas that I believe could be worth a constructive discussion. I had to ask tens of questions and listen before I even suggested anything. This show me how there is always room for improvement.
I quickly realized that this is part of the learning curve, and understood that being part of an ongoing project takes time and patience in order to absorb all the details. Someone once said: “starting a job feels like you’re a new character on the fifth season of a tv show”. I found this statement very fitting to the situation. I needed to be more patient and read everything about the previous four seasons. With this I can say that in the last 5 weeks of my internship my initiatives and suggestions became more mature, promising, and realistic.
I can wholeheartedly say that if you give people responsibility it makes them grow and work twice as hard. I never felt like a mere intern, but always part of the team.
Take a look at the other articles of the series Chronicles of an Intern and much more.
The Chronicles of a Konligo Intern - Have fun and enjoy while working for Konligo
The Chronicles of a Konligo Intern will be a series of articles published every Friday for 5 weeks. With this series you will be able to see Konligo through the eyes of an intern and how our core values affect the way we work both individually and as a team. Ahmed Soliman was an intern for 2 months at Konligo in architectural engineering and R&D. Each week he will talk about one of our 5 core values at Konligo.
Core Value 3 - Have fun and enjoy while working for Konligo
During my time at Konligo, I simply had a lot of fun. The positive environment is driven by the sense of fulfillment and trust between the team members. Konligo makes sure to choose its employees and interns very precisely, and like so, the people fit together. The team enjoys working together and laugh while doing so.
During my two-month internship, I played a lot of basketball matches with the team, during breaks or after work. I’m thankful that the games are not part of my evaluation, as I lost almost all of them! We also participated in an after-work sports competition with other companies in the same establishment. We played badminton, tennis table and even more basketball. Although those fun activities were meant to strengthen our bonds as a team, it also refreshed our minds and raised the creative performance.
The fun environment is not just a result of having a lot of outside-of-work activities, it is a reflection of a successful selection process of the employees, in which everyone should fit in his job description and duties. Accordingly, the team is passionate about what they do every day.
At Konligo I learned that choosing a team candidate according to his passion and cultural awareness is sometimes more important than choosing talent and long experience.
Konligo Employees enjoying their break
Take a look at the other articles of the series Chronicles of an Intern and much more.
The Chronicles of a Konligo Intern - Communicate Openly and Transparently
The Chronicles of a Konligo Intern will be a series of articles published every Friday for 5 weeks. With this series you will be able to see Konligo through the eyes of an intern and how our core values affect the way we work both individually and as a team. Ahmed Soliman was an intern for 2 months at Konligo in architectural engineering and R&D. Each week he will talk about one of our 5 core values at Konligo. Today the topic is communication, a concept that can have different facets and make or break a team. Konligo makes it a priority, let's see how.
Core Value 2 - Communicate openly and transparently
Every month, Konligo has a “Frizby meeting” procedural concept. Two people conduct a closed meeting to discuss everything they experienced that month, but most importantly to give feedback. It is a skill to accept criticism but also to give a constructive one.
Transparency was one of the major points that caught my attention in Konligo. I have middle eastern work experience, in which secrecy and ambiguity are at times part of the managerial mentality. At Konligo, I knew the weekly plan of each member of the team, I discussed the vision of the company and asked about financial funds. There were no secrets in that company apart from a secret birthday party! I openly discussed the professional strengths and weaknesses of my colleagues, supervisors, and myself hearing at times “I failed to do that” or “I wasn’t that good".
Given the fact that the team is highly skilled and achieving, transparency was just a means to improve. I should mention that working at Konligo was less stressful than my past working experiences even though it was more challenging.
The Chronicles of a Konligo Intern - Adhere to humanistic values which are built around empathy
The Chronicles of a Konligo Intern will be a series of articles publish every Friday for 5 weeks. With this series you will be able to see Konligo through the eyes of an intern and how our core values affect the way we work both individually and as a team. Ahmed Soliman was an intern for 2 months at Konligo in architectural engineering and R&D. Each week he will talk about one of our 5 core values at Konligo. Starting with adhering to humanistic values which are built around empathy.
The core values of Konligo can best describe my time in the internship. Along with the vision of the company, those values were always inspiring and guiding the team members during their daily work. My internship experience can be summarized in relation to those values.
Core Value 1 - Adhere to humanistic values which are built around empathy
Konligo strives to magnify the humanistic values of its team, it prioritizes the notion of “let’s be good persons” before being “good employees”. Considering that being “good” is a very relative criterion, the team was always caring, selfless, and empathetic. I think it’s distinctive to work in a team that wants to be better on a personal scale before a professional scale. It may sound magical and definitely could have some downsides from the competitive capitalist perspective of modern society, but it’s working.
Surely, It’s all about money at the end of the day. But for everyone in Konligo, money is just the tool to make an impact in the world. It’s the way to survive and sustain, but it's not the goal, at least that was my impression. Unlike most of the huge modern monster companies, those core values about empathy and change are not just media propaganda, it’s what the company stands for. I think if the world stands a chance, companies like Konligo are the ark that everyone should jump in.
At Konligo I have learned to bring my personal issues to work. It may sound unprofessional, but it definitely isn’t. It’s just more realistic and again more result oriented. Opening up and being vulnerable is usually a faster way to solve problems. While this concept is very new to me in a professional environment context, it widened my vision to have a better understanding and empathy towards my colleagues. People are not machines and personal life does matter.
If you are trying to make an impact on the world, you could first try to make a positive impact on the colleague beside you.
And the Winner is ...
This past September Konligo was present at Municipalia, a trade-fair that aims to present (local) government representatives and public officers with solutions to help them improve services in their towns & cities.
That day we offered a challenge to our visitors: to guess how long it took us to set up the structure with the (white) membrane. The correct time was 6 minutes and 21 seconds.
And the winner is ...
Rose Marie Wilmotte from R.E. Wartet Football Club who guessed 6 minutes and 33 seconds.
Congratulations! We will contact you as soon as possible to discuss when you would like to make use of your prize: a €750,- voucher for the rental of a Konligo structure at one of your events.
There is a lot more to discover about Konligo checkout the rest of our website and our social media to find out more!
Cultural Intelligence
I started my internship at Konligo 1 month ago in Marketing and Communication. I was challenged to write an article and after some deliberation I realized a great topic would be to focus on cultural diversity. In our team we have Ahmed from Egypt, Cyril from France, Simon from the Netherlands, Arnaud from Belgium, Aushim with background from Bangladesh, Lara half Portuguese and me from Portugal. We find ourselves having conversations about our different experiences and cultures which brings a new perspective to our work. This brings me to my next point.
We are no longer strangers to concepts such as IQ (intelligence quotient) and EQ (emotional intelligence), however a new wave of social research has introduced cultural intelligence. Culture is part of what builds our identity. It is extremely present in our lives, it affects gestures, actions, opinions, who we are and how we act. Being that we live in a multicultural world it's important to understand how to navigate this diversity and how to make it an advantage. This is where cultural intelligence comes into play. Experts define it as the skill to understand different behaviors and being able to work across cultures while adapting to the diversity. It is important because it creates bridges and helps in dealing with unfamiliar scenarios.
Julia Midleton said in a TEDTalk that cultural intelligence will change the world. I found it to be a huge affirmation but the longer I sat with this thought I realized that it could in fact be true. Cultural competence creates an environment where everyone is welcome, builds integration and maximizes the productivity of any interaction.
And how do we work on our cultural intelligence?
We educate ourselves, the first step is to realize there is much more out there, so much to learn and so many different cultures, and just because it is different it does not mean it is wrong.
It might seem simple but we only realize how culturally challenged we are until we have contact with different people from different backgrounds. We should meet people from different communities and social groups so we can actively work to eliminate cultural intolerance.
When it comes to a company's health within a team it's important to take into consideration open communication and acceptance. Konligo tries to dedicate time in cultivating a good work environment, liberal and autonomous. It’s crucial to encourage psychological safety and equal speaking time as well as inclusivity in decision taking. Part of this also means to take into account the cultural differences of our team members, who come from different backgrounds and different parts of the world. By creating a culturally diverse team we want to broaden our own perspectives and create an inclusive team where everybody feels welcome.
Especially for companies in the event sector it is crucial to take into account cultural diversity of its (potential) visitors in this increasingly multicultural world. Cultural Intelligence will be increasingly important to attract a large enough audience and to effectively engage with them.
If everyone is open minded and works on understanding diversity, perhaps we CAN change the world and make it a better one, or we can at least organize better events.