It was a real privilege tonight to attend the Helen Joseph Memorial Lecture delivered by Professor Kader Asmal on the theme of ‘Law, morality and ethics in public life in South Africa’. I am fortunate to count myself as a former student of Professor Asmal at Dublin University, and so this was not the first lecture of his that I have attended!
Asmal spoke eloquently of the need to create an ethical society, based on tolerance and mutual respect founded on a sense of a common shared destiny. He made a passionate plea for people in public life to take a stand on issues of morality, and not to fudge the distinction between right and wrong. Calling for respect for the institutions of democracy, he made a strong case for cementing our young democracy by assuming civic responsibility. Working simply according to rules is not enough, he argued, citing the bizarre ‘conflict of interest’ when MPs under investigation in the Travelgate scandal are able to brazenly vote for the abolition of the Scorpions – while what they did was not illegal or in breach of conflict of interest rules, he argued that they should have recused themselves from the vote. He also cited as unethical the 27% pay increase awarded to the Governor of the Reserve Bank, Tito Mboweni - a pay increase that is four times the upper limit of the inflation target band set by the Reserve Bank!
Asmal made a strong case for businesses, universities and other institutions to make clear breaks with the practices of the past where they do not serve the new democracy, in the same way that the Constitution of South Africa and the Bill of Rights make a decisive break from our apartheid history.
Asmal of course has been a long-standing member of the ANC, and until last year was on the ANC National Executive Committee, so his voice on these matters is important and carries weight. In the context of our current political context, his call for people to make decisions on the basis of what is right and what is wrong, rather than on the basis of personalities, or who is left and who is right, is refreshing.
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Measuring, reflecting, knowledge management, M&E and learning
It was really interesting this week to work intensively with one of our clients who is playing a leading role in stimulating a learning culture in her organisation. After working together for a day and a half we stopped to reflect on the learning process and she shared 2 important new insights. One is the importance (for her) of the fact that we were not working with pre-determined models or frameworks that she needed somehow to 'transplant' into her organisation, but instead were focusing on her particular organisation throughout, and what could be useful or appropriate there. The second insight related to her own learning process and what had made it powerful, and her realisation that the learning for her had been especially successful because it was collaborative, and she had participated actively in creating her own learning.
For me this second point was especially interesting, as it validates the idea that learning is best when it is a social process in which people engage and are involved together in working to learn, solve problems and be creative.
Too often we fall away from real learning opportunities, and rely on more linear approaches to capacity building, assuming that organisations learn in the same way that learning happens for us in school or as students, and that employees can then be 'taught' how to do things.
And frequently we then get caught up in a demand for 'measuring impact' of change and learning processes. I recently interviewed Nancy Coulson, an independent health consultant who works in Southern Africa, about the question of 'monitoring and evaluation', or 'M&E'. We have shared a concern that M&E processes, and the drive for measuring, can mitigate against real learning opportunities, and that M&E has become a self-sustaining 'industry' - particularly in the development sector - in which thousands of people are employed in almost ritualistic endeavours to assemble and package data and information in order to 'prove' to absent sponsors or donors that a specific project is working well.
See Nancy's interview here:
Yesterday we had one of our Kessels & Smit days in Johannesburg, and I realised how privileged I am to be working with such great colleagues. Philippa Kabali-Kagwa was with us from Cape Town, and I am very excited that she has now also joined the blogging community. I have added a link to her blog Shift is Happening on my list of recommended blogs. 'Shift happens' has become something of a key phrase in our company recently, incorporating the idea of change (and its inevitability), but also as an affirmation of the richness that comes with persevering through difficult change processes.
For me this second point was especially interesting, as it validates the idea that learning is best when it is a social process in which people engage and are involved together in working to learn, solve problems and be creative.
Too often we fall away from real learning opportunities, and rely on more linear approaches to capacity building, assuming that organisations learn in the same way that learning happens for us in school or as students, and that employees can then be 'taught' how to do things.
And frequently we then get caught up in a demand for 'measuring impact' of change and learning processes. I recently interviewed Nancy Coulson, an independent health consultant who works in Southern Africa, about the question of 'monitoring and evaluation', or 'M&E'. We have shared a concern that M&E processes, and the drive for measuring, can mitigate against real learning opportunities, and that M&E has become a self-sustaining 'industry' - particularly in the development sector - in which thousands of people are employed in almost ritualistic endeavours to assemble and package data and information in order to 'prove' to absent sponsors or donors that a specific project is working well.
See Nancy's interview here:
Yesterday we had one of our Kessels & Smit days in Johannesburg, and I realised how privileged I am to be working with such great colleagues. Philippa Kabali-Kagwa was with us from Cape Town, and I am very excited that she has now also joined the blogging community. I have added a link to her blog Shift is Happening on my list of recommended blogs. 'Shift happens' has become something of a key phrase in our company recently, incorporating the idea of change (and its inevitability), but also as an affirmation of the richness that comes with persevering through difficult change processes.
Saturday, October 11, 2008
SoL comes to SA, fun and games in the ANC
Yesterday I attended a meeting about setting up a South African ‘fractal’ of the Society for Organizational Learning (SoL). This is an exciting initiative, aimed at bringing together people (consultants, researchers and practitioners) who are passionate about organizational learning, and who wish to share this passion with organizations in this country. A small group of people are leading this process, and it is planned to have SoL established by early next year. In the interim, interest is being sounded out with local companies and organisations, and a number of learning events are happening in which interested people are starting to share ideas about learning. One of the interesting things for me is that SoL recognises the idea that learning is a social process, which is consistent with how we see learning in Kessels and Smit The Learning Company.
We continue to live in interesting times in South Africa. It appears very likely that a number of high profile ANC figures will establish a breakaway party in the next few weeks. Mosiuoa Lekota (formerly referred to by ANC people as ‘Comrade’ Lekota, but now offered the designation ‘Mr’ Lekota) has declared his intention to call some kind of national convention in 3-4 weeks and sees this as a process of ‘serving divorce papers’ on the ANC. What does this mean? Is this the long predicted spilt?
The real question is whether any new party will offer a new or different set of policies to the electorate. Mere difference of style or leadership will not be enough to win significant political support, however disillusioned some sectors of society may be with the pace of service delivery. There is little sense yet that a breakaway faction will offer an alternative set of policies or a different programme from the current government, even while Lekota espouses a core allegiance to the ideas of the Freedom Charter. What is more likely is that the breakaway group will make alliances with the United Democratic Movement – led by former ANC member Bantu Holomisa – and other opposition elements. In this sense, my feeling is that the significance of the breakaway is that it will ultimately represent more of a continuing realignment of smaller opposition groupings, rather than establishing a real and credible alternative government.
But then, I may be wrong (as we know from previous blogs)!
We continue to live in interesting times in South Africa. It appears very likely that a number of high profile ANC figures will establish a breakaway party in the next few weeks. Mosiuoa Lekota (formerly referred to by ANC people as ‘Comrade’ Lekota, but now offered the designation ‘Mr’ Lekota) has declared his intention to call some kind of national convention in 3-4 weeks and sees this as a process of ‘serving divorce papers’ on the ANC. What does this mean? Is this the long predicted spilt?
The real question is whether any new party will offer a new or different set of policies to the electorate. Mere difference of style or leadership will not be enough to win significant political support, however disillusioned some sectors of society may be with the pace of service delivery. There is little sense yet that a breakaway faction will offer an alternative set of policies or a different programme from the current government, even while Lekota espouses a core allegiance to the ideas of the Freedom Charter. What is more likely is that the breakaway group will make alliances with the United Democratic Movement – led by former ANC member Bantu Holomisa – and other opposition elements. In this sense, my feeling is that the significance of the breakaway is that it will ultimately represent more of a continuing realignment of smaller opposition groupings, rather than establishing a real and credible alternative government.
But then, I may be wrong (as we know from previous blogs)!
Monday, October 6, 2008
Cry the Beloved Country
On a regular basis I come across new initiatives aimed at building and supporting a better and nicer South Africa. Sometimes these are government programmes, but as frequently they are initiatives taken by ordinary people, by non-government organisations, or by the private sector. A good example is the SATheGoodNews initiative (see their website on my recommended list). It is possible to subscribe to a weekly e-mail update from SATheGoodNews.
Another good example is the Stop Crime, Say Hello initiative. Like many other good ideas this is small and simple! Stop Crime, Say Hello encourages people to greet each other in the course of their daily interaction. It sounds simple, even naïve. In some ways it is troubling that we have to see this as important, but a small idea like this can be the first step in building a connected and connecting society. There are parts of the world where people avoid connecting and greeting each other – infamously the London Underground is a place where people do not greet even the person sitting next to them. This can be one of the first symptoms of a sick society – where we lose the opportunity to greet strangers.
A reluctance to greet a stranger can arise from fear – a fear of not wanting to know, of being afraid of what happens when we get to know people and share what is going on. So we retreat and let our fear take over. And fear starts to govern all our relationships. Alan Paton, in his Cry the Beloved Country, wrote about the fear of bondage and about the bondage of fear – we have known both in South Africa of course.
By staying in our fear, we victimise ourselves and disempower ourselves as people that can take responsibility for our future. So, how to liberate ourselves from fear. Three ideas are important here. One is to accept responsibility for our situation (we alone can change things). The second is to take the first steps to move away from our fear – and this is where the Stop Crime, Say Hello initiative is important – it encourages us to take some first steps to get to know each other, and to build bridges with strangers. This is the first step to building new social capital in society. The third idea is that we have to decide to trust. Trust ourselves and our ability to change ourselves and our situation.
If we embrace these three ideas we can liberate ourselves from our fear (of others, of our situation). Alan Paton acknowledged the cry of our beloved country “for the unborn child that is the inheritor of our fear". We have freed ourselves from the fear of tyranny, now we need to free ourselves from the tyranny of fear.
Another good example is the Stop Crime, Say Hello initiative. Like many other good ideas this is small and simple! Stop Crime, Say Hello encourages people to greet each other in the course of their daily interaction. It sounds simple, even naïve. In some ways it is troubling that we have to see this as important, but a small idea like this can be the first step in building a connected and connecting society. There are parts of the world where people avoid connecting and greeting each other – infamously the London Underground is a place where people do not greet even the person sitting next to them. This can be one of the first symptoms of a sick society – where we lose the opportunity to greet strangers.
A reluctance to greet a stranger can arise from fear – a fear of not wanting to know, of being afraid of what happens when we get to know people and share what is going on. So we retreat and let our fear take over. And fear starts to govern all our relationships. Alan Paton, in his Cry the Beloved Country, wrote about the fear of bondage and about the bondage of fear – we have known both in South Africa of course.
By staying in our fear, we victimise ourselves and disempower ourselves as people that can take responsibility for our future. So, how to liberate ourselves from fear. Three ideas are important here. One is to accept responsibility for our situation (we alone can change things). The second is to take the first steps to move away from our fear – and this is where the Stop Crime, Say Hello initiative is important – it encourages us to take some first steps to get to know each other, and to build bridges with strangers. This is the first step to building new social capital in society. The third idea is that we have to decide to trust. Trust ourselves and our ability to change ourselves and our situation.
If we embrace these three ideas we can liberate ourselves from our fear (of others, of our situation). Alan Paton acknowledged the cry of our beloved country “for the unborn child that is the inheritor of our fear". We have freed ourselves from the fear of tyranny, now we need to free ourselves from the tyranny of fear.
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Networks – what’s it all about?
My LinkedIn profile shows that I am “connected” to 46 other people. These 46 can connect me with around another 3,600 people, and through them I can connect with 599,400 others (i.e. with 2 introductions). This is a potentially incredibly valuable network – even the 3,000 who are only one introduction away. Some people in my network are connected directly with over 500 others, so the size of their wider networks must be immensely huge!
And yet I don’t know what to do to mobilise this potential! Through LinkedIn I have made a good connection with one other person that I did not already know – Reut Schwartz-Hebron (you can find a link to her KindExcellence blog on the left). I hope that Reut and I will be collaborating on a couple of writing projects together. But what about the other 599,999 people? We all have such incredible networks, if only we can find ways of really connecting with each other. Ideas welcome!
I wrote my last exam this morning for my MSc studies in Public Policy and Management through London University. These studies have been a good, if solitary, learning experience for me, and have given me deep insights into public management theories. Part of the value of the programme has been its comparative nature, and I have had the opportunity to read case studies from all over the world. A particular focus of the programme has been on theories of New Public Management, and an exploration of the tensions between rational, linear processes and more chaotic, ‘garbage can’ processes that need more flexible, iterative thinking. The importance of learning processes for public agencies has also been highlighted.
It appears that our new cabinet is receiving some luke-warm and tentative support, which is good news. Barbara Hogan is the new Minister of Health and her appointment has been widely applauded. It is good news that she has now said that she is making HIV and AIDS her top priority (and what an indictment that this is finally happening only late in 2008).
And yet I don’t know what to do to mobilise this potential! Through LinkedIn I have made a good connection with one other person that I did not already know – Reut Schwartz-Hebron (you can find a link to her KindExcellence blog on the left). I hope that Reut and I will be collaborating on a couple of writing projects together. But what about the other 599,999 people? We all have such incredible networks, if only we can find ways of really connecting with each other. Ideas welcome!
I wrote my last exam this morning for my MSc studies in Public Policy and Management through London University. These studies have been a good, if solitary, learning experience for me, and have given me deep insights into public management theories. Part of the value of the programme has been its comparative nature, and I have had the opportunity to read case studies from all over the world. A particular focus of the programme has been on theories of New Public Management, and an exploration of the tensions between rational, linear processes and more chaotic, ‘garbage can’ processes that need more flexible, iterative thinking. The importance of learning processes for public agencies has also been highlighted.
It appears that our new cabinet is receiving some luke-warm and tentative support, which is good news. Barbara Hogan is the new Minister of Health and her appointment has been widely applauded. It is good news that she has now said that she is making HIV and AIDS her top priority (and what an indictment that this is finally happening only late in 2008).
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