GRIP, Internships Abroad Fika and Scrum

Liwwa, Inc. - Amman, Jordan

Every morning fresh coffee brews on a table perpetually stockpiled with sweets, in an open plan office, where the dress code is casual but the competitive drive to succeed in MENA [Middle East and North Africa region] is all business. In such an ambitious and driven environment, having a sweet tooth for the occasional toffee seems to be the only weakness of Liwwa's dedicated team. However, between achieving quarterly goals and creating new targets, Liwwa knows that all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. Hence, why it has Fika: one of my two favorite peculiarities of this start-up.

Fika: a Swedish word meaning "to have coffee" accompanied by pastries/cookies.
At Liwwa, fika is a bi-weekly celebration of food and community where a member of the team is assigned the duty of arranging food for the office. So far, I have experienced three fikas, consisting of traditional Arabic savory pastries, Mexican burritos, and the infamous local Gerard ice-cream respectively. But regardless of the cuisine, the purpose of fika is always the same: for the entire office to sit around a table, have a laugh, and eat delicious food before they head home for the weekend.

But the team doesn't get to home just yet because following fika is the weekly scrum.

Scrum: A software development term where work is divided amongst developers who update each other on the progress of their segments through 15 minute stand up meetings called daily scrums. It is also known as my second favorite peculiarity of Liwwa. In software development, modules are created because different components can be designed independently. However, each module can seldom be operated autonomously which is why daily scrums are required to update other developers of the progress. Liwwa believes in the same philosophy. Each department at Liwwa, from Customer Service to Credit to Data Analytics, is its own autonomous unit that works like an exceptional cog in a well-oiled machine. But the executives are very aware of how vital each cog is to the business. Hence why they have weekly scrums to keep the entire team in the loop. Each department gives a summary of what they achieved in the previous week. 15 minutes of amazing learning for me. When I hear each department give its weekly update, I get the opportunity to see Liwwa holistically beyond the lens of a Business Development intern. I get to see what it takes to get a business up from the ground and running. Scrum is when I get to see what it takes to succeed.

Like Liwwa slowly grows with each weekly scrum, I too have seen myself grow in the past five weeks that I have been at this company. There is much I will take away from this experience, most of which is intangible. I know for sure that if I am ever in a position to do so, the two things I will incorporate in any business that I work for are fika and weekly scrum.