Presentation to FAEO – September 2019 • Begin with a question. Can we honestly say capacity building has been a success in Africa? Has it led to measurable improvements in organisational and individual performance? • Some would say yes has been over the last decade growth, peace, stability and some success in human development indicators. Others saying performance of public sector deteriorating given pressures, eg population growth, unemployment, little job creation. • Whatever the consensus is a need for radical transformation in performance at national, ministry and individual levels – a renaissance. • According to the Africa We Want Agenda the critical enablers are; mobilise African resources to finance infrastructure and industrialisation and strengthen governance; accountable leadership ; responsive accountable and participatory institutions ; changed attitudes and mindsets – self reliance, hard work, collective prosperity; learning from experience. 1
• These are all aspirations of WHAT needs doing, NOT HOW to do it except the last one – learn from experience, that is, reflect on what we’ve done, learn from this process and mistakes made then define remedial action and JUST DO IT . • This is the core of action learning but the problem is we don’t learn from experiences, we don’t question custom and practice because it’s not popular so we make some mistakes over and again. This is the core problem of institutions – the learning dilemma. • I’ve been wrestling with this problem for decades. • Began 50 years ago in Nigeria. 17-year-old VSO volunteer, then in Oxford’s African social anthropology department, then in Manchester’s slums as P.O., then in industry as behavioural scientist, IR manager and HR director. • Approach of HR specialist’s wrong – my experience of 6 weeks at a lading UK business school – based on knowledge transfer NOT how to improve organisational performance. 2
• The true value of education (training) lies NOT in knowing more but in behaving differently. (John Ruskin) • It’s not enough to know what is good, you must be able to do it (George Bernard Shaw) What we have to learn to do, we learn by doing. • Managers learn how to become more effective by pausing to reflect on these experiences, learning what did wrong, deciding what needs to change and then ‘just doing it’. Involves a step CHANGE in approach to improving organisational and individual performance. This is what Africa being asked to do. Question is HOW ? 3
• Need a radically different approach to management development. • My suggestion is via action learning as pioneered by UK’s 1st action learning business school . • IMCB adopted an action learning approach with the following characteristics; Were delivered in single organisations over 2 years part-time. Content was customised to the needs of each organisation. Involved 25 managers who, in small groups of 5/6, did group projects solving organisation-wide problems. Each also did individual projects based on improving the TFP of their departments. Also did personal development, competency-based plans (PDPs). New knowledge workshops delivered by subject matter specialists and local directors. Each programme had a set adviser – the architect of the learning process. Assessment based on the quality of projects and individual and group vivas. Involved an external examiner and executives from the organisation. 4
ACTION LEARNING AN ANSWER 4 elements; group projects, individual projects, PDP, knowledge workshops. eg Shell programme • Won the UK national training award. • Company newsletter; ‘The results of the individual projects have already led to savings of more than £250,000; group projects to more than £1 million. Other improvements included; demonstrable improvements in service levels to external customers; development of a critical mass of managers committed to TQM and continuous improvement; erosion of the traditional functional boundaries and constraints; identification of waste by outside contractors’. 5
• Institutions attacked the AL ethos; destroyed IMCB. • My reaction was to create ICOM with AL diploma and MBA. • Accredited by Oxford University (UODLE) and later Cambridge University (UCLES) and Bradford University. • These institutions accepted could assess performance via on-the- job projects (group and individual), PDP and new knowledge workshops customised to client’s ‘industry’ and delivered by experienced directors and academics. • Produced measurable improvements in departmental and individual performance. 6
The diploma programme became the flagship of ICOM. We delivered 60 of these part-time, 12-18 month programmes in the UK, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei, Barbados, Ghana and Abu Dhabi and used the approach on shorter programmes in India, Saudi Arabia and St Lucia. All these programmes were customised to the ‘technology of the clients’ in construction, house building, telecoms, ports and shipping etc. Customisation was done by specialists in each technical area in conjunction with ICOM faculty and senior managers from each client, ie co- design of programmes, not ‘off the shelf’. 7
Majority of participants were engineers by training Their projects were about engineering in construction, water, power, ports, shipbuilding, hotels, telecoms, manufacturing, aerospace, highways. 8
Evaluation of these programmes The initial criteria we established to judge the success of each programme were; • Did participants accept the action learning process? Was the process transferred to their own management teams? • Did they adopt the process in improving their personal managerial performance? • Did they create high performing teams in their group projects during the programme? • Did they transfer the action learning methods and team building competence in particular to their own departments and improve the overall performance of these departments? 9
Using these criteria these programmes were highly successful. BUT we wanted more, ie impact on whole organisation and into the community. Did this in Barbados. 10
The Barbados programme was an in-company MBA conducted in the leading all-inclusive hotel company on the Island. It had the following characteristics; Was delivered to the whole top management team including the Chief Executive. Was customised to solve the problems being faced by the Company in its highly competitive market – tourism in the Caribbean. The group project team analysed the market and defined a new business plan and how it was to be implemented. Individual projects dealt with defining and implementing the participants’ own business strategies and tackling the operational problems including engineering. PDP focused on improving the technical and managerial competencies needed to excel in their roles. Workshops included presentations by tourism and hospitality experts from the region, its universities and from politicians such as the Minister of Tourism. 11
The results of the programme were exceptional leading to significant improvements in operational performance, in the performance of each individual and success in achieving the diploma and MBA However, this programme was the only one done for the top management committee of our client organisations. Our aim was to replicate the Barbadian experience in all our future programmes. 12
Change in Strategic Direction A key element of action learning is reflecting on experience, learning from this process, determining whether improvements can be made and mistakes rectified and then taking remedial action. We conducted such a review and decided to refocus our programmes on; The top management teams of politicians, senior civil servants and their organisations in Africa. Specific African countries and how they were implementing their development strategies at national, ministerial, departmental and project levels, ie the cascade of the NDP. Improving the effectiveness of the infrastructure sector and in particular the role it can play in solving two of Africa’s major problems; youth unemployment and closing the skills gap. Focus initially on water and sanitation. IWRI. 13
Aims of the new strategy • Create a ‘critical mass’ of C&C to deliver the renaissance – needs groups not just individuals. • Need an organisation culture which aims for operational and individual excellence; HPWO; CI & CL; personal responsibility for their departments and their own outputs. • Via PPAL – problem focused, project driven, action learning. For politicians, top management down to coal face. • Focus on infrastructure, public-private sector involvement project C, Q, D; social multiplier; into community; focus on involvement of the people, skills development, job creation (SMEs) private sector CSR ++ 14
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