Even the best project plans fail when roles are unclear. That is why tools like the RACI matrix are so valuable; they bring structure to teamwork. 

Effective project management requires more than detailed timelines; it requires absolute clarity of roles and responsibilities. The RACI matrix provides a structured framework by assigning tasks across four categories: Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, and Informed. 

By defining these roles at the outset, organisations reduce the risk of overlap, gaps, or delays. Each stakeholder understands their specific contribution, ensuring alignment, accountability, and efficiency throughout the project's lifecycle. This approach strengthens execution while enhancing collaboration and communication across teams. 

RACI allows individuals to focus on their responsibilities with confidence, while ensuring that collective goals are achieved with precision. 

At Gameplan Training, we equip organisations to build clarity through proven frameworks and strong leadership practices. We prepare teams with the capabilities to perform effectively and deliver sustainable results. 

Let’s talk about how we can help your teams achieve clarity and impact. 

As year-end reviews begin, many managers struggle with giving feedback that is honest, fair, and still motivating. One tool that helps keep these conversations constructive is the DESC Script (Describe–Express–Specify–Consequence), widely used in assertive communication training, but incredibly effective in performance discussions too. Here’s how it works: 

• Describe: the behaviour or situation factually 

• Express: why it matters and how it affects results 

• Specify: what change is needed moving forward 

• Consequence: the positive outcome if the change happens 

Applied in a review discussion, it might sound like this:

“When weekly reports are delayed (Describe), it slows decision-making for the whole team (Express). From January, can we commit to submitting them by Thursday? (Specify) It will help us plan faster and avoid bottlenecks (Consequence).” 

DESC helps managers stay calm, clear, and consistent, especially when discussing sensitive performance issues. It also builds trust by showing employees exactly what good looks like for the year ahead. 

At Gameplan Training, we support organisations in equipping managers with such practical tools to run meaningful, growth-focused performance conversations. Get in touch with Gameplan Training to learn more.  

“Chinese whisper” is a game where a message is whispered from one person to another, and by the end, it’s often very different from the original. The catch is that, as it travels down the line, it usually gets hilariously distorted — highlighting how easily meaning can shift.

In organisations, communication often works the same way. As messages move across teams, details blur, and intent gets lost. The challenge lies in keeping the original message clear, so outcomes align with expectations. 

The Whisper Game demonstrates how miscommunication happens and why active listening, clarity, and teamwork matter. When used in leadership programmes, it strengthens collaboration and decision-making, ultimately improving organisational performance. 

At Gameplan Training, we use the Whisper Game in our leadership workshops to let teams experience these challenges firsthand. Participants enjoy the laughter that comes with it — and leave more aware of how clarity, connection, and trust shape effective communication. 

Support your teams in communicating better. Learn more about our leadership workshops. 

Most FMCG teams are not underperforming because of bad technology. The problem is rarely the software.

Predictive analytics. Automation. Real-time inventory systems. The infrastructure is there. Yet the returns aren't there.

A sales team that cannot read its own data. A supply chain specialist working in isolation from the commercial team. A manager making decisions on instinct when the numbers are right in front of them.

Tools alone cannot fix that. People do — when they know how to think, adapt, and work across functions with confidence.

The FMCG companies pulling ahead are not necessarily the ones with better systems. They are the ones with better-prepared teams.

At Gameplan Training, we work with FMCG teams to build the capabilities that technology cannot replace — critical thinking, cross-functional collaboration, and confident decision-making.

Let's talk about your workforce.

Before choosing between upskilling and reskilling, most organisations skip a step that changes everything. 

An honest audit of where the workforce stands today and where the business needs it to be in five years.

That clarity determines which skills are still relevant, which are becoming redundant, and where the real gaps are forming. Without it, the choice between the two becomes guesswork dressed up as a strategy. 

Upskilling makes sense when the foundation is strong and the role is evolving. 
Reskilling is necessary when the role itself is changing — or disappearing entirely. 

The difference matters. Upskilling the wrong people for roles that no longer exist wastes time and budget. Reskilling too late leaves the business exposed. 

The most effective workforce strategies are built on uncomfortable but necessary clarity — about where the business is going, what it will need, and whether the current team is being developed for that future or the one that has already passed. 

Sometimes, the most valuable thing is figuring this out before the budget goes in the wrong direction. Gameplan Training does exactly that. Give us a call and let's work it out together. 

More organisations are investing in performance management. The intent is right. The pushback, however, is real. 

When measurement and tracking are introduced, resistance follows from employees and managers alike. Not because people don't want to perform. But visibility is uncomfortable when accountability has never existed before. 

Suddenly, goals are visible. Progress is tracked. Gaps cannot be quietly ignored. For those used to operating without that scrutiny, it feels exposing. But that discomfort is not a sign that something is wrong. It is a sign that the culture is finally becoming honest. 

The organisations that navigate this well don't force the shift — they build trust around it. Clear goals, consistent feedback, and transparent tracking change the conversation from evaluation to growth. 

That is exactly where Profit.co makes a difference. It gives organisations a clear, structured way to manage performance — through goal alignment, real-time progress tracking, and feedback that keeps teams moving forward with confidence. 

At Gameplan Training, we support organisations through this transition — implementing Profit.co and building the people's capability around it, so the shift feels like growth, not pressure. 

From click-to-collect journeys to AR-powered pop-ups, technology is quietly redefining how people experience malls. Generative AI is shaping retail discovery, with many shoppers trusting AI assistants more than social media for recommendations. AI guides shoppers’ choices online, but malls remain critical for guiding, validating, and enhancing those decisions. Operators applying AI-driven marketing are already seeing measurable improvements in footfall and visit intent.

In the MENA region, this shift comes with important nuances.  While the market leads in AR-led activations, immersive screens, and experiential retail, AI adoption within property and mall operations remains largely at the pilot stage.

Data protection is a central consideration. Many markets still lack clear, unified frameworks for consumer data usage, leading developers and operators to take deliberate steps to protect trust. Cultural expectations also matter. Face-to-face service, discretion, and privacy remain highly valued in the region. Any AI-led solution must support these values, adding insight while preserving the human nature of retail.

In selected assets and markets, AI is increasingly enabling asset owners and leasing teams to support data-backed decisions through:

• Footfall and movement analytics to understand dwell time, circulation patterns, and zone performance

• Behavioural data that reveals how shoppers engage with categories and adjacencies

• Tenant-mix optimisation to identify performance gaps, adjacency risks, and category-level growth opportunities

• Mall apps are becoming decision-support tools, linking real-time shopper behaviour to leasing and operations.

The objective is not automation for its own sake, but clearer judgment that protects asset value and reduces execution risk.

The next advantage will come from mastering micro-moments. Those points where customers enter, pause, decide, or disengage. When managed well, technology creates a seamless online - offline loop that strengthens relevance and loyalty.

Beyond the customer layer, AI will increasingly shape the property function itself. Leasing decisions will shift from past performance to forward-looking models, helping with planning, forecasting, and early intervention.

Black Dalia Consultancy brings over 23 years of regional retail property experience and an on-the-ground perspective informed by real asset performance. The future belongs to owners and operators who combine strong physical assets with intelligent digital layers. 

Say this in a leasing meeting and watch the room go quiet. Vacancy pressures are real. Luxury tenants pay premium rents. The temptation to say yes is strong.

But luxury doesn't work through availability; it works through scarcity, experience, and careful curation. When luxury brands appear in assets that can't support the positioning, the brand weakens. And when the brand weakens, so does the rent it can command anywhere else in the market.

Overexposure creates three problems:

• Luxury loses its signal value when customers can access the same brands in environments that don't feel premium

• Brands start negotiating harder on rent because the exclusivity they're paying for no longer exists

• The category itself becomes less viable across the entire portfolio when positioning is inconsistent

The question isn't whether a luxury brand would lease space in your centre. The question is whether your centre strengthens or dilutes what that brand represents.

Protecting luxury equity requires conviction:

• Which assets in the portfolio can deliver luxury experiences authentically?

• Where does accessibility help the market, and where does it harm positioning?

• What standards must be met before luxury brands are even approached?

The hard part isn't asking these questions; it's acting on the answers. It means holding space empty rather than filling it with the wrong tenant. Sometimes, saying no to rent today is the only way to protect positioning tomorrow.

Overexposure is the easiest way to make a luxury brand ordinary. The centres that get this right don't chase every luxury brand. They earn the ones that fit. They understand that luxury performance across a portfolio depends on strategic restraint, not maximum distribution.

At Black Dalia Consultancy, we partner with shopping centre operators to protect luxury positioning across portfolios—particularly when selectivity strengthens the category.

If you're navigating luxury tenant positioning in your portfolio, I'm offering a limited number of 2-week Tenant Mix & Leasing Healthchecks for GCC centres—focused on category mix, zoning/clustering, unit sizing, and leasing frameworks that protect brand integrity while driving performance.

Retail development conversations in 2026 still open the same way. How many square meters?  How many anchors? What is the occupancy target?

The wrong questions are still the first ones asked.

The assets that are genuinely performing have reframed the conversation entirely. They are not asking how much space they can fill. They are asking what kind of demand they can build. That shift changes everything downstream.

• Relevance over size: Properties that enable experiential tenants to flourish are seeing stronger customer loyalty, higher foot traffic, and greater tenant stability. Not because they are the largest, but because they are the most defined. Size without relevance is just square meters. A defined customer and a clear proposition will always outperform scale alone. Scale is easy to build. Relevance takes conviction.
  
  

• Experience over tenancy: The tenant list is not the destination. It never was. What keeps a customer returning is not which brands are present but how the visit feels from entry to exit. Assets built around experience consistently outperform — with higher sales (2–7%) and longer dwell time. The tenant list fills the directory. Experience fills the car park.
  
  

• Curation over occupancy: An empty unit is a visible problem. A misaligned tenant is a silent one — and far more damaging over time. The assets that hold their positioning under leasing pressure understand this clearly. Filling space is easy. Protecting what the space stands for is the real discipline.

The best retail destinations in 2026 are not chasing tenants. Tenants are chasing them. That is not luck — it is the outcome of consistent, disciplined positioning built on Relevance → Experience → Curation.

That clarity does not happen at the leasing stage. It happens long before, in the conversations most developments skip.

At Black Dalia Consultancy, these are the conversations we have before a single lease is signed. Not just what space is available, but what demand is being built, what experience is being protected, and what the asset will mean to the market five years from now.