Francis Wade | How government executives can inspire staff

Imagine that you lead a government ministry, department or agency – referred to as MDAs. As you approach the season for submitting annual and five-year reports, you realise something is missing. The very reason you serve is being lost in the paperwork.

Each year, more than two hundred Jamaican state organisations hand in their detailed plans to parent ministries. This rigorous process, envied by private sector executives, has kept Vision 2030 top of mind for 16 years. It’s a miracle of execution.

However, as an insider, you couldn’t be less excited.

No one in your organisation is looking forward to completing the templated requirements, before waiting on the usual negative feedback. It’s all become a deadly piece of bureaucracy. How can you lead your institution out of this situation?

First, acknowledge that ‘compliance’ with Vision 2030 Jamaica can become a trap. To understand why, let’s back up to 2009.

According to the document’s forward by Dr Wesley Hughes: “Today, our children … have access to technologies that were once considered science fiction. They seek opportunities to realise their full potential. This plan is to ensure that, as a society, we do not fail them. We have a duty to ourselves, to the sacrifices of past generations and to the hopes of future generations, to preserve the best of our country and to transform the worst. The outcome in 2030 is dependent on the decisions we make today.”

Beyond the checklist

There’s nothing in his aspiration about a deadening bureaucracy, dreaded by most civil servants. How did that happen?

Well, one problem is that most MDAs complete their plans before “aligning” them with Vision 2030. In other words, the final step in the process is to comply with a checklist.

If this sounds backwards, it should. It’s a bit like deciding to travel to Montego Bay from Kingston before even knowing why.

As such, hundreds of civil servants engaged in planning are not inspired by Vision 2030. Instead, they feel constrained by it. How should you respond to this phenomenon?

As a leader, if this article has raised some anxiety, consider that a good thing. Why? You care. Perhaps your strategic instincts say that bureaucratic minimums are insufficient for the challenges ahead.

For example, transform ‘What does the ministry want in this report this year?’ into the following questions:

• What does Jamaica need from my organisation to accomplish Vision 2030?

• What game-changing outcomes aren’t written into Vision 2030 but have become important?

• What fresh goals should be included in a new national development plan?

Fortunately, as I mentioned in my Gleaner column of April 14, 2024, there are specific steps to take to inspire staff. As a leader, you can intervene to get them going. How?

A new mindset

Get ahead of the prevailing compliance mindset by returning yourself and your employees to the original purpose of Vision 2030. For example, connect them to the deeper reasons they joined the civil service. To help, memorise and recite lines from Dr Hughes’ forward daily, out loud, just like Japanese firms do.

This could work because most public servants didn’t join the government to get rich. Or merely pay bills. While we accept that some are cynical and resigned, experience tells me that most want to accomplish more than mere survival. Build on this insight.

Stop following vision 2030. Lead it.

The truth is, you lie on the cusp of a unique opportunity. In your position, you can turn the remaining four years of the Vision 2030 project into a Churchillian “finest hour.” Understand the research showing that human beings routinely overestimate what can be done in the short-term, while under-estimating what can be done in the long-term.

Furthermore, there is some evidence pointing to the slow-building nature of all long-term plans. They tend to accomplish their greatest gains at the very end, sometimes with exponential impact.

If there is any truth to this data, consider converting your organisation to the point where it takes a leadership role for our country, rather than merely following an imposed process.

This calls for courage and foresight. Recognise that the most dangerous leaders aren’t the corrupt ones, but the super-compliant ones. The ones who are ‘nice’.

The question isn’t whether you have the authority to lead transformational change – you do.

Right now, as you read this, hundreds of top MDA officials have the same choice. Will you spend the remaining four years of Vision 2030 perfecting your compliance reports? Or, do you intend to use them as the foundation for breakthrough leadership?

History won’t remember executives who filed the best paperwork. Instead, some will transform their corner of Jamaica when it mattered most. The choice is yours.

Francis Wade is a management consultant and author of Perfect Time-Based Productivity. To search past columns on productivity, strategy and business processes, or give feedback, email: columns@fwconsulting.com