Tunnel vision, oversight, and empowerment

THE EDITOR: Without a doubt, the world is held in the grip of an unfolding civilisation – a civilisation in which the younger generation is becoming increasingly more vociferous and demanding, while the older ones who experienced the hardship of the 1950s and the 1960s have forgotten what life was then.

Indeed, young and old now seem stuck in the years of the oil boom when citizens – rich and poor – suddenly acquired affluent tastes and lifestyles.

Since 2015, this unfolding civilisation seems to have made its presence felt in more compelling ways. The dynamics of social media, sexual lifestyles, crime and religious formats, and economic and political scenarios have become more complex.

Without a doubt, TT has been changing. However, what has not changed are aspects of our culture – such as our laisez-faire approach to living, work, partying, and political participation.

Perhaps, what can be blamed for this state of affairs are our failure to pause and reflect on the direction the world is taking and the tunnel vision of architects of our political and education systems and captains of industry. To paraphrase Alvin Toffler, we cannot solve modern problems with ancient solutions. We must begin to think anew.

Perhaps when we begin this process, our politicians will find strategies for helping our people to start thinking more realistically and the drivers of our society would become more concerned with analysis and evidence-based decisions and oversight.

Indeed, when I talk about a failed state I see the problem in terms of ineffective oversight. To a man or woman, our leaders, managers, department heads, and supervisors have not been pursuing oversight professionally.

Further, oversight cannot be useful in the absence of an organisational philosophy, organisational core values and strategic and development plans – all of which should be immersed in national development, organisation development, organisational development (different from organisation development), and organisational effectiveness.

Critical to all of this is an ideology designed to empower our people to cope with the turbulence of the times and to seize the opportunities that emerge.

RAYMOND S HACKETT, Curepe