CSR Activities in Abu Dhabi: A 90-Day Plan for Teams, Delivered Online

The CSR activities in Abu Dhabi that last are staff-led and planned in three months: month one to listen, month two to choose and run one small act of giving, month three to reflect and set a rhythm. Your team does the giving locally; my part, the listening and story circles, is delivered online.

I am based in Dubai, and I work with Abu Dhabi teams entirely online, so this plan is written for people who will carry it themselves, in their own office and their own community.

Why a 90-day plan works better than a single event

Most teams I meet have already done the one-day version: a morning of volunteering, a group photo, a line in the newsletter. It is kind, and it is quickly forgotten. Nobody is at fault. One day is simply too short for people to find out what they care about together.

Ninety days is long enough to build a habit and short enough to hold everyone's attention. It also fits neatly into a quarter, which makes it easy to explain to leadership and easy to repeat. I think of the three months as three verbs: listen, give, reflect.

The plan below is deliberately modest. It asks for small amounts of time, no large budget and no outside production. What it does ask for is consistency, and a willingness to let staff, not the communications team, decide what the giving looks like.

Week zero: three decisions to make first

Before day one, settle three things so the plan does not stall in week two.

1. One sponsor. A senior person who protects the time and attends as a participant, not as a presenter.
2. A small volunteer circle. Four to six people from different departments and levels who will carry the plan. Ask for volunteers; do not appoint them.
3. A time budget. Agree how much working time each person may give across the quarter and write it down. Staff-led giving that depends on evenings and weekends quietly becomes unpaid work.

If your organisation has a CSR, HR or compliance lead, bring them in now. They will know your internal policies and any approvals you need, and it is far better to hear that in week zero than in week six.

Month one (days 1–30): listen before you give

The first month has no giving in it at all. That surprises people, and it is the part I would defend most strongly. A team that has not listened to itself will choose the cause its loudest member prefers.

• Week 1: open the question. Ask everyone the same two questions in writing: "What do you care about outside work?" and "What have you seen in this city that you wish someone would help with?" Keep answers short and optional.
• Week 2: hold the first story circle. Small groups, cameras on if it is online, one person speaking at a time while the others only listen. Each person shares one short story about a time someone helped them. No discussion, no advice.
• Week 3: gather the themes. The volunteer circle reads the answers and notes what repeats. Usually three or four themes appear: children and learning, older people, the environment, colleagues in need, newcomers to the country.
• Week 4: share back. Present the themes to the whole team in plain language and let people add what is missing.

By day 30 you should have a short list of themes that came from your own people. That list is the foundation for everything that follows.

Month two (days 31–60): choose one cause and run one small act

Month two is where the giving happens, and the discipline is to keep it small. One theme, one act, done well.

• Week 5: choose. Let the team vote on one theme. Then the volunteer circle looks for a suitable local partner or channel, checking with your CSR or compliance lead that it is an appropriate and properly authorised route for giving.
• Week 6: design the act. Decide what you will give: time, skills or items. Skills are often overlooked. An accountant, a designer or a logistics planner has something specific to offer that money cannot buy.
• Week 7: do it. Run the activity once. Keep the group small enough that everyone has a real task, and make sure people who cannot attend have another way to contribute.
• Week 8: thank and record. Thank the people involved by name, internally. Write down what worked, what was awkward and what you would change.

Resist the pull towards a second and third activity. A single act that people remember will carry more weight inside the team than five that blur together.

Month three (days 61–90): reflect and set a rhythm

The last month turns one good experience into a way of working. Without it, the quarter ends and the energy goes with it.

• Week 9: second story circle. Same format as the first, with a new question: "What did you notice about your colleagues during this?" This is usually the session people talk about afterwards.
• Week 10: ask the partner. Have one honest conversation with whoever received your help. Was it useful? What would have been more useful?
• Week 11: decide the rhythm. Choose something you can sustain: one act a quarter, a monthly hour, a standing skills offer. Smaller and regular beats larger and rare.
• Week 12: hand over. Rotate at least half the volunteer circle so the plan belongs to the team and not to a few names.

On day 90, write one page: what we heard, what we did, what we learned, what we will do next quarter. That page is your report, and it is more convincing than any photograph.

How the online part fits CSR activities in Abu Dhabi

Everything practical in this plan happens with your own people, in your own workplace and community. My contribution is the listening side, and it is delivered online from Dubai.

Through Unmute, that usually means three things:

• An online briefing for the sponsor and volunteer circle in week zero, so everyone understands the shape of the quarter.
• Facilitated online story circles in month one and month three, where I hold the structure and your team does the talking.
• A simple reflection guide the volunteer circle can use on their own between sessions.

Online works well for this. People join from their desks, from home or from another site, so shift workers and remote colleagues are not left out. The format also keeps the circles short and focused, which busy teams appreciate.

What to keep out of the plan

A few things reliably weaken staff-led giving, and it helps to name them early.

• Compulsory participation. The moment giving is mandatory, it stops being giving. Invite, and accept a no gracefully.
• Publicity first. If the first question is how it will look on social media, the team notices. Do the work, then decide together what, if anything, to share.
• Counting only hours. Hours are easy to count and tell you little. Ask instead what people learned about each other.
• Leaders speaking first. In a story circle, the most senior person goes last, or simply listens.
• Too much ambition. A plan that needs perfect attendance and a large budget will not survive a busy month.

Your next step

You do not need to wait for a new financial year. Pick a start date within the next few weeks, find your sponsor and ask for four volunteers. That is week zero done.

I work with teams in person in Dubai, and online with teams in Abu Dhabi, across the GCC and in Singapore.

If you would like the listening sessions facilitated, or simply want to see how story circles and staff-led giving fit together, explore the Unmute programme for teams and see whether it suits the quarter you have in mind.