Wednesday, July 4 2012

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Unisex crew: A crew of men and women paint the lane markings along the Priority Bus Route in San Juan yesterday. ...

THE EDITOR: Ronald Reagan’s success can be described by one word, leadership! Reagan understood his role and the critical difference between leadership and management. He surrounded himself with competent and knowledgeable advisers, specialists in their respective disciplines. Delegation of authority (with responsibility and accountability) to qualified and experienced managers is a fundamental success factor in leadership.

Ministers who micro-manage rather than build management capability defeats organisational effectiveness because the ‘power of one’ construct inferior limitation. The “power of two” principles of organisational effectiveness (amplifying reach-competent decision making) engineers managerial structure at all levels, exponentially compounding the ability to perform (deliver).

The first essential requisite is to hire qualified people (eg A CEO who cannot interpret a financial statement, a director that cannot critically think, or a leader unwilling to listen, are failures in progress).

Contrary to popular belief, the German army during World War two was an effective organisational structure because commanders in the field had the authority to make decisions in real-time. Many failures in battle were realised when the political command deconstructed the organisational effectiveness by defeating field commanders competent advice/decision making. Sustainable success is impossible without an effective organisational structure.

Ministers and State board directors must invest in hiring qualified human capital, then mandate management to design the organisational architecture aligned to the organisation’s vision. With architecture in place, mandate well-defined goals and objectives engineered to performance metrics. Then, lead by example, and be an example, and empower the organisation at all levels to unleash capability/performance. Leaders and managers are paid to deliver solutions, not excuses! Remove incompetence decisively, before it infects the mission.

Continually audit and stay the course anchored primarily on effectiveness measured by alignment to the mission. All tasks/projects must be defined by its deliverables (output), not by work done, and disciplined by a time-line for its delivery. Applaud effort, but only reward performance.

No ministry or State company should take longer than two phases of 90 days (180 days) to plan and implement the architecture and engineering of their respective organisations. A full scale technocratic/academic advisory team of experts directed under the control of the OPM should be formed to participate/lead organisational development in each ministry and State enterprise, and measure/audit effectiveness (performance).

We must confidently innovate to change, and change to rise!



Brian Stone

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