The five-star Kabul Serena Hotel is an unlikely venue for revolution, but the heavily-fortified enclave of calm and good living in the middle of the dusty Afghan capital was just that for ten days in November 2007.

At least that's what two British trainers and their MOD colleagues hope. Under the Bonn Agreement of 2001, Afghanistan's Ministry of Defence agreed to undergo "civilianisation", and the UK is responsible for making it happen.

In Afghanistan, the MOD is run by men who 20 years ago were guerrillas fighting the Soviet occupation. So while there's no doubting their warrior credentials, their management techniques may be a little out of step with modern thinking.

That's where Brendan Jordan comes in. He and his colleague Iain Evans are trainers with MOD's DB Learning, based at Foxhill in Bath. They are in Kabul to deliver two five-day courses to help ease the top echelons of the Afghan MOD (senior officers in their fifties and sixties) into a civilian mindset. This is the first phase of the civilianisation programme. At some point in the future, "real" civil servants will be recruited to fill the generals' posts.

But for now Brendan works through one of the course's three interpreters to get across some basic management skills, and begins by asking for some definitions. What is a leader? What is a manager? Some of the answers are textbook-perfect, while others have a definite local flavour. One delegate suggests that a person who gets bitten by a scorpion has performed an act of great sacrifice.

There's a lot for the Afghans to get to grips with, including the "learning cycle": the endless round of ideas being tested against reality, modified, and tested again.

By the end of day four, Brendan Jordan was satisfied that things were becoming clearer:

"You can tell by the way they ask questions that they're thinking in a different way," he said. "To see the light-bulb come on �?there's really nothing better."

Both sides seemed to have come away from the culture clash with satisfaction. Lieutenant-General Mohammed Moin Faqueer, Afghan MOD's head of personnel, said:

"We are working with the modern forces of the world for a brighter future. We should learn from them and then act �?based on our own traditions."

He also provided a neat metaphor for the Afghans' practical attitude towards benefiting from new experiences:

"Whenever you catch a fish from a river, it is fresh."

MOD Civilian Deborah Bradley manages the civilianisation programme, with a budget of £500,000 from a central British Government fund.

For the moment she is concentrating on two things: "reprogramming" the elderly generals, and getting the first 15 Afghan civilians to the UK's School of Government next year:

"It's been really exciting," she says, "But I'm the kind of person who likes immediate results."

Deborah has also been involved in creating an entrance exam for Afghanistan's future civil servants, tailored to local requirements. A new Military Service Act is in Defence Minister Wardak's in-tray. Once it becomes law, ex-military personnel will be able to retire, and the ministry will have a sudden demand for staff:

"I've tried to explain that you can't drum up 800 civil servants just like that," Deborah says. "If the law is approved by the President, this time next year they'll be desperate to recruit civilians."