People Dynamics - May/June 2019

WWW.IPM.CO.ZA MAY-JUNE 2019 VOL39 NO.6

PEOPLEFUL

SUCCESSION PLANNING

LEADERSHIP

JOB

ADVANCEMENT STRATEGIES BURNOUT SCARE

DARE TO

DREAM! J O U R N A L

O F

T H E

I N S T I T U T E

O F

P E O P L E

M A N A G E M E N T

CONTENTS 4

12

17

10

14

Mental Health and Job Burnout

4

Leadership

7

Organisational Culture

10

Organisation Effectiveness

12

Employee Relations

14

Trends

17

Succession Management

18

Succession Planning Model

23

Entrepreneurial Leadership

25

Business Leadership Strategies

27

Strategic Leadership

28

Opinion

33

Development Strategies

35

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Leader

When you speak, I listen!

And still, I dare you to dream… He didn’t say that. At least not in so many words, but President Cyril Ramaphosa heard his critics loud and clear after delivering the latest 2019 State of the Nation Address.

He didn’t run for cover.

W

hen People Dynamics took pains to highlight the need for Responsive Leadership in alignment to the World Economic Forum’s 2016/7 theme and Klaus Schwab’s call for ‘Responsive and Responsible Leadership’, it hoped that South Africa was, indeed, listening.

What exactly blocked the President’s SONA 2019 message?

Expectations. With so much pressure that the government is under to bring about working solution to things such as unemployment, poverty and inequality, there’s growing impatience. Few people were ready for a dream. A vision, rather, as we see it. So, after what looked like a failed attempt to inspire and transport his audience beyond the bleak horizon, the statesman came back, reaching down to the reality of the citizens.

It’s not so much that he was off-point. It’s just that South Africa was not ready.

Yes, Ramaphosa, arguably, is in touch with South Africans’ reality. He is much aware that ‘people are living in precarious situations, searching for identity and meaning in a fastchanging world’ that seems to be rapidly marginalising the poor and dislodging those thought to be South Africa’s hope of a growing middle class.

Not only do people want to regain their sense of purpose, they want the ‘New Dawn’ crystalised, and its effects felt by all. So, without any illusions of heaven, the President came back to ‘honestly explain the breadth and complexity of issues and the solutions that his young administration has generated, including actions taken based on key challenges’ faced by the people of South Africa.

Schwab says, ‘ultimately leaders are measured on the basis of their values, vision and actions.’

There’s a lot on the president’s plate, but there’s a whole host of leaders at the table, you included.

Let’s all be attentive to not just him, but to every PEOPLE DYNAMICS | May - June 2019

leader’s conduct, behaviour and actions – beyond, above and below Mr Ramaphosa, to see if we live up to expectations. We all answered the call offering ourselves to be sent by South Africa in bringing about much needed solutions in areas of our oversight. Ramaphosa’s delivery is through all the leaders at the table, as each one makes a difference in their assigned corner. You are empowered to make what difference your role allows you. Dare to Dream!

We are half way through 2019, and no doubt you had your dream, vision and goals for the year.

You have a set of values to guide you. How did you fare? How well have you delivered?

One of our contributors, responds to ‘the call’ by offering some “Unsolicited advice to the President” on leadership optics. His article is on page 33, following the President’s Official SONA Reply.

In this issue, HR executives and Labour Unions are drawn to the quint-essential Art of Negotiating, with emphasis on creating value and making a sound case for the superiority of human capital over any other asset on page 14.

We also have a look at workplace trends which form progressive alternatives alongside the gig economy, discussed on page 17. This phenomenon is expected to improve work-life balance, avoiding Job Burnout, elaborated on, on page 4. There’s much in this issue to reinforce fearless leadership (from page 7). Contributors equip us with powerful strategies… to strengthen organisation delivery through sound leadership pipeline and Succession Planning (page 18); to sustain business through entrepreneurial leadership (pages 25 and page 27) and to advance our careers and networks beyond school alumni (page 35).

We hope you enjoy the read and the reflections that come with it. And that you dare to dream - working hard, smart and collaboratively at bringing that dream into a live reality!

People Dynamics is the monthly journal of the Institute of People Management (IPM). The IPM is dedicated to the effective development of human potential.

In terms of fast-emerging global challenges, it is critical to champion the strategic role of human resources and to acknowledge that both development and management are catalysts for growth. In the spirit of progress and support, the IPM provides members with effective leadership and access to appropriate knowledge, information and the opportunity to network with key local and international players.

People Dynamics provides a forum for debate and discussion on all issues affecting HR practitioners in South Africa, the African continent and beyond. People Dynamics is distributed to all members of the IPM and to other key decisionmakers in the industry.

To receive People Dynamics regularly and enjoy additional benefits – including discounts on HR-related services and professional networking events - contact Welile Mabaso on welile@ipm. co.za.

The views expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect the views of the IPM. ISSN No - 1019-6196

AFRICAN HUMAN RESOURCES CONFEDERATION

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Mental Health Trends Review

Don’t let your stars burn out.

POWER THEM!

BY: NALELI WASA

On sick leave suffering from what?

Is that even a thing? Well, wait until it hits you!

PEOPLE DYNAMICS | May - June 2019

Yes, it’s a thing. It is called “Job Burnout”!

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has just announced that job burnout is now recognised as an official chronic health condition.

This means that it can be formally diagnosed by regular health practitioners. You can be sure that among a variety of prescribed pills, will be rest. Yes, something that will keep your stars away.

Mental Health Trends Review

So, what is job burnout, exactly?

WHO defines job burnout as persistent work-related stress that has not been successfully managed. Mayo Clinic’s definition is slightly more elaborate. It defines job burnout as ‘a state of physical or emotional exhaustion that also involves a sense of reduced accomplishment and loss of personal identity’.

Several cases of depression in the workplace have been found to be originating from job burnout.

What does this mean for the workplace?

It means that aside from ailments that result from work related stress, such as lower back ache, persistent headaches, compromised immune system and such, the workplace is about to be hit by absenteeism that arises directly from the source of these ailments. Yes, that will be even more sick leave, less people in their posts, less productivity, more people covering for absent co-workers - themselves risking job burnout, absenteeism and a depletion of group medical savings.

Can you duck the wave?

Is there really any way one can avoid job burnout, when WHO actually identifies it as a global problem? How should HR help organisations deal with the threat of this chronic ailment and avoid its costly effects?

First: Know the symptoms

The World Health Organisation identifies the following as some of the symptoms of job burnout: • Feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion • Increased mental distance from one’s job • Feelings of negativism or cynicism related to one’s job • Reduced professional efficacy The Mayo Clinic adds the following questions for a pre-diagnosis test: • Have I become cynical or critical at work?

• Do I drag myself to work and have trouble getting started?

• Have I become irritable or impatient with co-workers, customers or clients?

• Do I lack the energy to be consistently productive?

• Do I find it hard to concentrate?

• Do I lack satisfaction from my achievements?

• Do I feel disillusioned about my job?

• Am I using food, drugs or alcohol to feel better or to simply not feel?

• Have my sleep habits changed?

• Am I troubled by unexplained headaches, stomach or bowel problems, or other physical complaints?

Second: Understand the negative effects of job burnout and raise awareness

One or more affirmative answers to the self-test questions above suggests a potential job burnout, and requires that an employee consults a doctor or mental health practitioner as soon as possible.

Research shows a strong link between job burnout and the increasing levels of mental illnesses in the workplace, which include depression and suicidal tendencies.

The effects of job burnout may vary and manifest differently to different people. Stay on the lookout for anyone suffering from or complaining about fatigue, insomnia, sadness, anger, irritability, alcohol or substance misuse, skin eruptions, high blood pressure or compromised immunity, and ensure that they get proper diagnosis and treatment, as well as the necessary line support to deal with problem at source.

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A variety of job burnout factors that challenge human capital management • Lack of control. An inability to influence decisions that affect one’s job — such as one’s schedule, assignments or workload — could lead to job burnout. So could a lack of the resources one needs to do one’s work.

• Unclear job expectations. If one is unclear about the degree of authority one has, or what their supervisor or others expect from them, they’re not likely to feel comfortable at work.

• Dysfunctional workplace dynamics. Perhaps one works with an office bully, or you feel undermined by colleagues or your boss micromanages your work. This can contribute to job stress.

• Extremes of activity. When a job is monotonous or chaotic, you need constant energy to remain focused — which can lead to fatigue and job burnout.

• Lack of social support. If you feel isolated at work and in your personal life, you might feel more stressed.

• Work-life imbalance. If your work takes up so much of your time and effort that you don›t have the energy to spend time with your family and friends, you might burn out quickly.

Third: Encourage line management to stay vigilant and supportive

Up to this point, even in the absence of formal diagnosis, sufferers likely call in sick when they feel job burnout. Left unchecked, this will continue to affect productivity and compromise the organisation’s long-term effectiveness. Taking the “hard line” with employees will not help if root causes have not been dealt with. Line managers should ensure that they provide a conducive work environment as well as appropriate tools-of-the-trade for employees to do the job to required professional standards.

Fourth: Encourage company-wide self-evaluation, help develop remedial action and fight future risk

Although finer aspects of official job burnout diagnosis are only due in 2020, according to WHO, pioneers in the workplace health space do their own studies. The Mayo Clinic, for instance, released its work in an elaborate article as early as November 2018.

The Clinic has developed questionnaires that help individual employees and executives reflect on their mental wellbeing in the context of their work situation. Good HR executives and innovative leaders are hard at work, empowering employees and increasing their resilience using tools like these. You can be just as proactive, thus avoid the detrimental effects of the looming job burnout threat.

The self-evaluation Mayo guides in the boxes might help you and your organisation identify and quantify risk, to know where to focus remedial strategies.

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Mental Health Trends Review

Risk factors that can affect employees as much as executives

Personal Guide to taking charge and handling one’s own burnout

• Identifying so strongly with work that one lacks balance between one’s work life and personal life • Having a high workload, including overtime work • Trying to be everything to everyone • Being in a helping profession, such as counselling, life coaching • Feeling that you have little or no control over your work • Having a monotonous job

• Evaluate your options. Discuss specific concerns with your supervisor. Maybe you can work together to change expectations or reach compromises or solutions. Try to set goals for what must get done and what can wait.

• Seek support. Whether you reach out to coworkers, friends or loved ones, support and collaboration might help you cope. If you have access to an employee assistance program, take advantage of relevant services.

• Try a relaxing activity. Explore programs that can help with stress such as yoga, meditation or tai chi.

• Get some exercise. Regular physical activity can help you to better deal with stress. It can also take your mind off work.

• Get some sleep. Sleep restores well-being and helps protect your health.

• Mindfulness. Mindfulness is the act of focusing on your breath flow and being intensely aware of what you’re sensing and feeling at every moment, without interpretation or judgment.

In a job setting, this practice involves facing situations with openness and patience, and without judgment.

• Keep an open mind as you consider all remedial options. Remember that no job is worth sacrificing your life, so try not hang on to a job so demanding that it undermines your health.

Fifth: Address resource deficiency and adjust policies

Mobilise review of self-evaluations and encourage a scrutiny of the work environment, processes as well as tools or resources availed to different teams - testing for adequacy. Adjust policies where necessary, and revamp employee empowerment programmes to ensure that people can enjoy: • some level of autonomy • a measure of self-directedness • sufficient work variety • regular feedback • proper recognition, and • affirmation.

Having half your workforce compromised by something that management can avoid is counter revolutionary and so last century.

For each of the symptoms or factors Mayo Clinic identifies as posing threat of job burnout, HR and line managers can clearly identify the appropriate action to help employees avoid languishing in the deep, dark place of poor mental health.

PEOPLE DYNAMICS | May - June 2019

Fearless Leadership

Fearless

Leadership F

ear is an educated feeling that cautions creation or creatures against potential harm.

Among babies, fear is instinctive and the reaction to it is (mostly) involuntary. The reaction is a natural, built-in mechanism for selfpreservation.

Real leaders are not all about self-preservation. They are about furthering a purpose and realising a vision first and foremost. This doesn’t mean they are out to court harm or are self-destructive.

Leadership is borne from a stable position of knowledge, reason, insight and foresight. Once a professional decides on becoming a leader, the focus and obsession becomes that of moving others toward a commonly envisioned state - the achievement of a common goal and the serving of a common purpose.

Focus belies fear

Someone spotting a prized tattoo will tell you how worthwhile the pain was, no matter how much fear they may have initially experienced.

The dread of a needle point soon got drowned as one imagined and focused on the end-result.

Leaders’ fears

Like all humans, leaders are not immune to fear. They are exposed to both healthy fears and unhealthy fears.

Healthy fear vs Unhealthy fear

An example of a healthy fear is one’s dread to do harm or hurt others, including himself or herself. When a leader is so fearless that he OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF THE IPM

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Fearless Leadership

decides to hang or shoot himself, he betrays a lack of healthy fear.

Another healthy fear is the fear of breaking the law. In the case of breaking a law, the reasoning is that all laws are designed to preserve life, keep order and harmony, and to protect the rights of others. In that regard, therefore, breaking a law would be tantamount to harming or hurting other members of the universe.

Another example of healthy fear is the apprehension one experiences when about to venture into uncharted territory. This fear is healthy in that it requires that a leader does proper homework, to identify potential dangers that may be encountered and to study possible solutions. This fear helps the leader minimise risk of failure in the venture or limit the impact of failure, should there be some failure.

Given that life has no guarantees, fear may linger, but the assurance brought about by the precautionary measures taken give the leader courage to plough on with a decent amount of confidence or faith.

Unhealthy fear

Unhealthy fear is fear that frightens and freezes one from taking action. This type of fear is what holds a leader prisoner, getting him or her stuck at feasibility study- or analysis- phase. Unhealthy fear traps its prisoner into protracting minor issues or procrastinating action until the vision gets blurry and the mission fizzles out. This, unfortunately, is said to be predominant in our public service.

“You can’t underplay the strength of this fear, mind you”, comments Philly Mathibela, a career public servant who participated in a Fearless Service pre-coaching focus group. “It pretty much determines your length of service and the amount of pension you take to retirement. You initiate something and it fails, you don’t only cut your career short, but you earn the wrath of your principals as they get scathing criticism from the opposition. Worse still, if there should be an outcry from their own constituency. Personally, I can’t say I blame civil servants who do the least they can get away with. There are no PEOPLE DYNAMICS | May - June 2019

heroes in public service, only tools and scapegoats!”

If a seasoned public servant like Philly has had such sentiment, there clearly is much work to be done in our public sector. New leaders, in particular, ought to wipe the fear slate clean; eradicate blame games and eliminate victimisation that retard innovation and kill the much needed entrepreneurial spirit among civil servants.

Another type of unhealthy fear that one organisational behaviour specialist highlighted to the focus group, is paranoia. She described paranoia as “an unfounded fear based on idle suspicion or propaganda”. Paranoia, like fear of failure, deters progress. Instead of its victim focusing on the positive and getting on with work, the focus is on all things negative. One criticism is taken for condemnation; innocent commentary or encouragement taken for sarcasm.

“You would think this type of fear is only among the younger practitioners or the less experienced. Surprisingly, it’s not,” she cautions. “You find among seniors, managers obsessed with office politics and even asking their employees to act as spies, simply because they think ‘so and so is out to get me’. I wish I could say HR executives are exempt, but sadly no.”

Healthy fear in HRM

Fear of failure is healthy, so far as it motivates one to take positive action to avoid failure. The acquisition of knowledge from academic theory, observation, case studies or personal experience helps one eliminate or minimise the chances of failure as one starts and continues to apply the knowledge.

But where can HRM fail?

Failure always lurks everywhere, throughout HR operations and HR-driven initiatives. Something as “minor” as loading the incorrect payroll file could see an organisation paying salaries to dead or retired employees. Recovering these monies can be harder than extracting wisdom teeth. Any organisation will have zero tolerance for this type

Fearless Leadership

of error – not when the officer has the entire month to test, check and re-check the information.

At strategic level, HR may advise Exco on what is an ideal structure to support the business’ mission, or give an ideal employee profile to drive the high-level strategy. Yet, in executing advice and implementing the plan, curve balls may pounce, smacking the HR executive hard between the eyes. A simple re-structure exercise could blow up, or what you regard as positive employer brand implementation or employee profile alignment may well be taken for unfair discrimination, leading the company to the Courts. Read the case study.

Failure, however, is by no means final unless you allow it. Real leaders never give failure the last word. They soldier on in pursuit of lofty ideals and stunning goals, navigating treacherous terrain, overcoming ridicule or negative sentiment; willing the organisation to unfathomed success.

The worst HRM fear

Whatever fear HRM can experience, it is an indictment for any HR practitioner to stand paralysed while corporate plans are being hashed to rid the organisation of human resources due to ‘obsolescence’.

Of course, organisations owe it to their stakeholders, including employees, to be profitable. But more importantly, organisations owe it to the Universe to be sustainable, through continued trading or through investment in people development. Responsible human capital development offers an organisation a legacy of ongoing utility and value through the capacity of people they let go as the organisation itself evolves and ultimately divests.

As a fearless HR leader, you need remove fear from your people by properly equipping them for the job at hand, as well as equipping them for a future beyond your organisation!

CASE STUDY

When I joined the LeoTard Group*, I encouraged the organisation to relocate its outsourced technical support service from a campus 10km away to a floor in a building adjacent to the head-office. The rationale was to have the client-facing technical support close to back-office technical specialists, to introduce an on-day resolution service-level and yield a reduced turnaround time where clients experienced problems with LeoTard products and services.

The motivation for this ‘re-structure’ was to align the organisation’s resources to deliver LeoTard’s (then) new vision to be “first with the customer” in a quest to win market share and increase shareholder value.

This ‘re-structure’ worked, in that the specialists would no longer ignore queries escalated to them by frontline contractors. The frontline team could literally walk across to non-responsive specialists’ offices or track them down to get necessary resolution to urgent client issues.

Frontline technicians were well-motivated to see all matters to their successful conclusion before leaving their desks for the day, making their jobs more fulfilling. There was joint ownership of customers’ problems and joint accountability for service delivery. Higher levels of engagement were recorded among both full-time LeoTard employees and the contract support team.

This reflected positively on the group’s bottom-line. LeoTard enjoyed higher customer preference and grew its share of market. The group topped the stakes on the Customer Satisfaction Index and got to be the recipient of the Annual Industry Award for Service Excellence adjudicated by AskAfrika.

A curveball was thrown to this new ‘structure’ when some of the

Failure, however, is by no means final unless you allow it. Real leaders never give failure the last word. They soldier on in pursuit of lofty ideals and stunning goals, navigating treacherous terrain, overcoming ridicule or negative sentiment; willing the organisation to unfathomed success. frontline technicians started demanding the same perks as fulltime employees. This, notwithstanding the fact that they worked an alternating 3-day and 4-day week, allowing them extra-ordinary flexibility which their full-time counterparts envied.

Predictably, the contractors’ company (Popserve*) could not entertain its staff’s sudden demands. When critical contract staff threatened to terminate their service, LeoTard offered their Popserve a buy-out, but hit a snag as the service contract, apparently, precluded client-supplier staff takeover.

The situation didn’t make my work any easier, given detractors and gloating by the lazy and ‘cowardice’ executives I found vegetating in the company. But leaders don’t quit, do they?

To hold on to the company’s strategic mission and avoid a decline of service standards, LeoTard negotiated a contractual penalty fee in exchange for absorbing the contract staff. With an in-principle agreement, individual contractor consultations ensued, but the project hit a snag yet again. Not all the contract employees wanted to forgo the 3-day/4-day flexibility since it particularly suited their lifestyle and family circumstances. Following a comprehensive personnel audit, it also turned out that a few of the contractors did not to meet LeoTard’s Recruitment Policy minimum standard for employment, leading to a loss of valued service providers.

While client-supplier relations had originally worked smoothly among the frontline technical support contractors and the technical specialists, unforeseen complexes surfaced at the prospect of a peerrelationship between these two groups. One was faced with a challenge of bridging two totally different corporate cultures.

The hurdles facing LeoTard: resolving legal, social, cultural and corporate policy issues, etc., could be construed as a failure of the project, if one chooses a half-empty glass view. This is because some good employees (service providers) had to be sacrificed. Also, a few contractors had to make compromises that posed difficulties to their respective family situations, just to keep their jobs.

On the whole, however, those contractors who prevailed have enjoyed a long and satisfying tenure with LeoTard – driving the corporate dream of being “first with the customer”. In return, LeoTard continues to benefit from the new (since evolved), seamless client service structure that merged frontline support and back office specialists.

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Organisational Culture

Honesty:

The Lonely Word PEOPLE DYNAMICS | May - June 2019

Organisational Culture

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were relating these to highlight the brutality of war, in the hope that future generations would learn a lesson and work to avoid conflict. For me, their heart-breaking honesty was refreshing.

Today, we live in a world of untruths, fake news and hidden agendas. We seem to be bogged down in lies and corruption. Honesty is a rare commodity. A ‘lonely word’ as Billy Joel lamented. ‘Truth’ is whatever I (or social media) says it is. Images are photoshopped to hide the ugly truth. Politicians lie to serve their own best interests – and lie some more when the Zondo Commission finds them out.

Corporations misstate results or use ‘spin’ to sell you a dream.

Steinhoff, Enron, Thanos, Madoff, and more recently, Tongaat Hulett, come to mind. Facts are immaterial, truth is inconvenient and honesty has suffered. And, we’re living with the consequences.

Without honesty, we have no trust, no transparency and no accountability. It’s hard to build lives and companies without it. It’s impossible to deliver on promises made. The ‘Silent Generation’ D-Day veterans would tell you that honesty is ‘the right thing to do’.

Billy Joel would say that it’s ‘mostly what I need from you’. So, how do we cut through the ‘fake news’ noise and live (and work) with honesty and truth?

Practice (Radical) Honesty

It’s not always easy to be honest. Sometimes, it’s simpler (or it works in our favour) to keep quiet – like when a waitress forgets to charge us for a meal. But, truth matters, and it starts with the small things.

Honesty builds transparency and trust. Make honesty a personal habit and foster a culture of honesty in your team.

Reward transparency and come down hard on untruth. The road to transparency isn’t always straightforward and can be lined with criticism – but if you stay strong and have the courage to tell the truth, trust will follow. You should know, though, that the bald truth can hurt, so how you deliver feedback is important. Remember to temper honesty with kindness. Always be mindful of your delivery.

Own Your Mistakes

I’ve always been passionate about truth, honesty and transparency. So, listening to the Zondo Commission findings, watching all of the layers being peeled back and realising just how much we’ve been lied to, is sickening.

BY: GEORGINA BARRICK

Tiger Brands learned this lesson the hard way. After CEO Lawrence MacDougall denied responsibility for the 2018 listeriosis outbreak, claiming that there was no direct link between any deaths and Enterprise Food products, the company lost R5.7 billion in value, spent R377 million on a product recall and is now facing a class action suit.

Take accountability for your actions and those of your employees.

Remember that you’re accountable to your employees and that they rely on you to be honest – especially when you’ve made a mistake.

If you’ve messed up, get out in front and own the mistake. Apologise and make things right. Encourage your staff to own their mistakes by reframing mistakes as learning experiences.

Also, stand up for what you know is right. If you witness improper behaviour, don’t keep quiet – even if speaking the truth puts you in the firing line. Remember that bad things happen when good people do nothing.

Facts, Facts, Facts

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he country is seeing the full spectrum: from outright lies to the avoidance of the truth. But, I believe that truth is important and will prevail. And, that it’s better to be honest from the outset.

Talk of honest moments, having watched the recent coverage of the 75th anniversary of the D-Day landings, I was struck by the veterans’ stories. Alongside a recounting of what they had done on that fateful day, many spoke, with searing honesty, about the fear that they had felt and the horrors that they had witnessed. Some mentioned that they

When you are moved to report or adjudicate a case of improper behaviour, base everything on hard fact – not feelings. Decisions based on fact leave little or no room for misunderstanding, and can be tracked and easily reviewed by all. So, stick to the facts – and encourage your staff to do the same.

Being honest isn’t always easy, popular or welcomed. But, at the end of the day, it’s all we really have to offer. Work hard to be a wo(man) of your word. You and the world around you will be better for it. Speak truth always. Stay strong!

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Organisational Effectiveness

Chart the path to a

Learning Organisation BY: LITHA MOKOENA

Topping your class doesn’t guarantee you success in life.

Ask the sea of mensa hobo’s lining city parks!

M

any gifted people excel academically, but not all of them really find their star or successfully carve themselves a career niche.

On the other hand, you will find tail-enders who struggled getting the math sums or spelling right at school now heading multinational organisations and running successful enterprises.

You wonder why?

There may be different reasons, but our resident coach suggests that attitude and intent have a lot to do with those school tail-enders turning into real-life achievers.

“Naturally gifted people tend to take their abilities for granted.

While nature does Her bit for them, they fail to rise to their full potential because they don’t do their part. They don’t exert themselves nor create a purpose for their studies. Sure, they might have PEOPLE DYNAMICS | May - June 2019

accomplished academically, but they may not have learnt much.”

What does it take to learn?

While learning can be effortless, the most effective learning takes place when a person has purpose, specific goals or objectives. Take a simple comprehension test, for instance. If one group is given a passage to read followed by a few questions on what they read, and another group is given the set of questions upfront then the passage to read, there is always more understanding and recall of the points in the paragraph for the second group. They find it easier to answer questions relating to what they read.

Sharpen your learning

Goals sharpen learning. Curiosity or having a keen interest to find answers, to explain things, to find better ways to accomplish things, solve problems, improve quality, save time, etc. makes you more attuned to learning at any opportunity and from many situations.

It heightens your propensity to absorb and gain ability to apply your learnings, thus synthesising lessons with real life or business situations.

A learning journey fueled by purpose and intent doesn’t only answer questions pedagogically, it powers you toward achievement

Organisational Effectiveness

of your goals – whether it’s solving a problem at hand or equipping one with lessons and wisdom for future application.

acutely conscious of their role to making the system work and the organisation succeed.

What about Learning Organisations?

In a learning organisation, each individual continually questions him/ herself: • Have I honoured my (committed) contribution to the team?

• Have I timeously and successfully supported those whose delivery relies on my facilitation, input or co-operation?

• Have I delivered on my objectives, met my targets for the week, month, quarter, semester, year?

• Have I prepared the way for the next cycle’s delivery, e.g. by identifying and committing resources in time, including securing an executive sponsor for all major projects that require interdepartmental collaboration and external support?

Taken literally, learning organisations would be those that continuously seek and acquire knowledge to solve specific problems, improve processes to increase efficiency and quality, thereby adding sustained value and worth to their businesses.

According to Peter Senge who made this phrase official in the organisational development lexicon, learning organisations are dynamic and responsive to the environment in which they do business. He further describes learning organisations as those organisations “where people continually expand their capacity to create the results they truly desire”.

This applies as much to results that individual employees aspire to - as far as optimising their careers and personal talent, as it applies to the organisation’s vision and ideals about its industry influence, market position and triple bottom-line. Essential to this is keeping abreast with industry developments to reflect on the continued relevance of the organisation’s vision, strategic direction and plans.

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This is foundational. A lot goes into the planning of organisations’ programmes: key performance areas, resources, success indicators and timelines. Each programme, division, department, team or individual feeds into the organisation’s system. The faltering of one can easily impact the entire organisation – hence a holistic (systemic) view in organisational planning and performance management.

Condition ONE for success

In order to be a learning organisation, Senge identifies two conditions.

The first is the ability to design the organisation to match the intended or desired outcomes. In shaping this, it is imperative that business strategists work with both operational specialists and organisation’s HR architects to make sure that the organisation’s structure is fitfor-purpose, matching responsiveness to external environment to the organisation’s internal capacity and continuously expanding the latter.

This talks very much to staying on top of things: keeping good market intelligence, having a robust talent management strategy which promotes continuous technical and professional development.

Joint Performance Review

Condition TWO for learning organisations

Learning Organisations typically • Are curious – continually scan the environment for threat and opportunities • Are alert – continually glean and share industry/market intelligence • Are humble – always find something new to learn from, from rivals and partners alike • Are competitive – always compete with themselves or others for continuous improvement • Encourage collaboration – work systemically • Feed on feedback – encourage and act on feedback internally and externally • Effect corrective measures swiftly – do not let mistake fester • Make quick and informed decisions • Utilise centres of excellence to capitalise on strengths and accelerate organisation-wide learning • Effect quick-turnaround projects to take advantage of market • Form circles of experts to exploit internal intellectual capacity for ideas development • Are intolerant of poor work ethic, shoddy service or mediocre output • Manage negative influencers out of the organisation before they derail the rest

The second condition is for the organisation to have the ability to recognise when the initial direction of the organisation is different from the desired outcome and follow the necessary steps to correct this mismatch.

This challenges HR executives to ‘create’ a malleable human resource who can adapt to changing industry demands and operational needs, to ensure that market gains are maintained. As a base, HR needs to ensure that there is sufficient business acumen, analytical skill, critical thinking capacity and astute decision-making in its human capital basket, as much as there is academic agility and emotional resilience.

Taking the organisation forward and managing fitness for purpose and continued alignment, a dynamic performance management culture needs to be inculcated, to quickly identify when the organisation misses its intended targets or fails on its desired outcome.

Building the blocks for learning organisations

While it is each individual’s responsibility to drive his/her personal and professional development, HR has to lead line management in motivating teams to manage and consistently increase their contribution - thus the value they add to the organisation.

This does not suggest making teams turn out excessive hours that take away from a good work-life balance. It encourages focus and quality input that benefits the growth of the organisation.

Performance Management and Discipline

Learning organisations promote self-directedness and self-regulation.

Commitment and engagement levels are high as each member is

A learning organisation plans and works systemically, and systematically evaluates performance in every area – identifying weaknesses or potential “weak” links. Every member is actively engaged and interested in the success of the next function as much as they are in theirs – whether physically involved or not.

Status and performance reports are shared across and discussed briefly in a typical strategic SWOT fashion. Where gaps or opportunities are identified, they are acted on immediately, to continually gain advantage (or avoid slipping) in the industry.

Are you a learning organisation? Have you identified gaps you’d like the organisation to address to remain relevant to its economy? Have you identified gaps in your human resource capacity? Don’t be the weak link in what could be a learning organisation. Address gaps or deficiencies now.

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Employee Relations

Perfecting The Art of Negotiating Negotiating is an art. But far from being employed to amuse or entertain, it is a survival tool in the employment sector.

BY: JOS WATSON

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or HR managers and employee representatives, negotiation is a critical skill, demanded for the boardroom and for the shop floor.

It is necessary to ensure that executives understand and appreciate human capital value, and that workers can relate to real challenges facing the business leaders and investors.

Economic climate and prospects

Given the grim economic climate and negative outlook, wage negotiators in particular, can only expect so much from cash-strapped employers, without forcing retrenchments, premature market exits or business closures.

According to Dr Azar Jammine of Econometrix, the contraction of employment in the last few quarters has had greatest impact among smaller businesses with hires in the double-digits and the informal sector. Employers in these categories, with lower margins and reserves PEOPLE DYNAMICS | May - June 2019

Employee Relations

to cushion them against ravaging effects of the recession, have been forced to close doors. Large employers in manufacturing, media, retail and financial sectors, on the other hand, have been shedding jobs.

The haemorrhage continues, with mines, PPC Cement, Multichoice, Standard bank, among others, announcing plans to cut jobs.

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Demonstrating value

There are essentially two kinds of workplace negotiations: contentious or combative, and integrative. An example of a contentious negotiation is adversarial bargaining such as an attempt to resolve an impasse where a dispute has been declared and parties are at loggerheads.

An integrative negotiation, on the other hand, is a means for parties to find each other and get to an agreement or contract that favours all sides. In integrative negotiation, the focus is value creation that balances value to be derived. It is all about increasing your opponent’s satisfaction even as you achieve the outcome you desire. It’s a sales pitch or motivation rather than a demand. Responsible ER officers and labour unions are proactive in facilitating favourable working conditions, and aim for integrative negotiations.

Integrative negotiations enable each party to create value in their offer and draw value from their counterparts. During the negotiation process, the objective of each party is to ensure that its created value is appreciated, recognised as being on par or superior to what counterparts would give. A strong persuasive factor is demonstrating how the value created will stand and remain desirable for the duration of the relationship or agreement period.

The objective about the value each party wishes to draw is such that it is at minimal cost to their counterpart or at least, commensurate to what the other party derives, thus yielding a fair exchange. Fair, in this case, can be a loaded adjective. It may mean monetary value, or it may factor market dictation, economic determinants and possibly opportunity costs.

If your offer is not readily accepted to your counterpart, it is vital to demonstrate the weight and potential growth of the value you created and how it will multiply or sustain. You may gain some points if you can prove its (heavy) cost to you, any sacrifice(s) or extraordinary measures involved in its delivery.

More on the positive motivation side, you may have to prove the uniqueness of the attributes of the offer and its distinction, e.g. the only such in the industry/sector or market environment. The other party needs to recognise the exclusivity of the offer - the benefit and advantage it gives them over competitors or peers. If it’s the union offer to a company, the union representative needs to convince the company representatives how the organisation will, for instance, get an operational edge, gain customers or make their clients happier than opposition can.

This means, if you are a labour representative, you have to extol and demonstrate the value of the workforce you represent – their skill, commitment, work ethic, sense of responsibility, how they conserve resources, help keep operations safe, introduce improvements that cut unnecessary cost, etc. thus creating extraordinary value to the client/ employer.

Moving for anchor advantage

Knowing what you are up against

Wise labour representatives do not wait until things come to a head and parties are bleeding before negotiating. They take keen interest in operations, keeping communication lines open; being proactive about ad-hoc and short-term agreements such as wage increases, as well as about long-term benefits and perquisite reconfiguration.

It would be folly for labour representatives to wait for a company to table an (unacceptable) offer, e.g., for wage increases – with them having done no homework or put feelers out ahead of time. Astute representatives study the industry, understand the market(s), know the economics and trends affecting the company locally and globally.

They would demonstrate their insights as they maintain a cordial mutually-respectful relationship with the company.

Where lacking, unions should “buy” this competence by hiring actuarial and economic experts, until they have built the capacity within their own ranks. Sectorial union membership, after all, takes for granted that union leaders take an active interest and acquire an appropriate mastery of the sector they represent.

Arming the union with industry and economic knowledge and insights makes for more productive discussions and encourages more respect and transparency between union- and employer representatives. A robust knowledge and understanding of relevant economic factors allows union representatives a constructive anchoring advantage – the tabling of pre-negotiation proposals that can kick-start as well as shorten the negotiations.

Always remember, you are a salesman, if not necessarily to the employer, then to the investor. You have as much interest in having your members gainfully employed and well-remunerated, as the investor has an interest in making the best return on his capital.

You need to demonstrate that the “best possible return” isn’t necessarily maximum interest rate, as cash in the bank might offer.

And pray that was or is not, indeed, the sole driver for investment!

Demonstrate the value of human capital – how people (or represented communities) also represent a market and offer sustainability to the investor’s business, through consumption of products or services.

You can emphasise the point that people represent a living and breathing investment, increasing the worthiness or cause of the business. Continued employment of the workers mean that the employees, local families and communities live in ongoing appreciation as they experience growth and enjoy better quality of life. Overtly or covertly, this promotes the investor’s corporate image and employer brand. The community successes and human triumphs infuse such sense of pride as only a dynamic legacy can.

As a human resource advocate you need to demonstrate how human resources add superior value to the business as the only workplace “tool” that grows with experience, making it easy for the investor to recoup his investment if he should want to sell at some stage.

Demonstrate how your members can and will help build or extend the market through their collective skill, and how they can and will

The burden

Sadly, in retrenchments, notwithstanding technology ‘takeover’, human intervention is needed in managing new processes, and the remaining employees and line managers often sag under new operational pressures. The burden is, of course, higher, as economic difficulties mount for families and dependants of retrenched staff. The loss of jobs as things stand, no matter what Industry 4.0 would have us think about global progress, has more negative impact in South Africa than any advantages the new-age technologies have brought thus far.

Such is the weight that rests on the shoulders of those who try to save jobs, like HR executives and labour representatives. The future of many is dependent on their business acumen and negotiation skills. The idea is to handle negotiations for what they ought to be: the seeking of a win-win result that is fair and sustains all parties.

Integrative or Combative?

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Employee Relations

help in expansion of the market to lengthen the life (cycle) of the business and to maintain the company’s profitability. You would have to make sure that your members do, indeed, live up to your promises, hence it’s your duty to ensure their ongoing skills upgrade and continuous professional or technical development.

Successful negotiations

Yes, negotiating is an art. At the negotiation table, many things can drive success. Things such as a positive disposition, genuine personal interest in the business and discussing different aspects of the organisation rather than zooming into the matter at hand. But most critical are the rational aspects of your offer, hence the creation of value and a persuasive demonstration of its superiority to your counterpart.

Rather than thinking of each other as adversaries or antagonists, businesses and employee representatives need to recognise each other as value partners.

For a more academic guide to handling of negotiations, enjoy some of the tips we thought would be useful from subject-matter experts like Katie Shonk, courtesy of Harvard Law School.

Develop a rational strategy. Analyze and cultivate your best alternative to a negotiated agreement or BATNA. In both

integrative negotiation and adversarial bargaining, your best source of power is your ability and willingness to walk away and take another deal. (Not such an option if concern is for workers who need to make a living and deserve the best working conditions the employer can afford)… Before arriving at the bargaining table, wise negotiators spend significant time identifying their BATNA, and taking steps to improve it.

Negotiate the process. Don’t assume you’re both on the same page

when it comes to determining when to meet, who should be present, what your agenda will be, and so on. Instead, carefully negotiate how you will negotiate in advance. Discussing such procedural issues will clear the way for much more focused talks.

Build rapport. Although it’s not always feasible to engage in small

talk at the start of a negotiation (particularly if you’re on a tight deadline), doing so can bring real benefits, research shows. You and your counterpart may be more collaborative and likely to reach an agreement if you spend even just a few minutes trying to get to know each other. If you’re negotiating over email, even a brief introductory phone call may make a difference. This is one of the most valuable negotiation skills to master.

Listen actively. Once you start discussing substance, resist the

common urge to think about what you’re going to say next while your counterpart is talking. Instead, listen carefully to her arguments, then paraphrase what you believe she said to check your understanding.

Acknowledge any difficult feelings, like frustration, behind the message. Not only are you likely to acquire valuable information, but the other party may mimic your exemplary listening skills.

Ask good questions. You can gain more in integrative negotiation

by asking lots of questions—ones that are likely to get helpful answers. Avoid asking “yes or no” questions and leading questions, such as “Don’t you think that’s a great idea?” Instead, craft neutral questions that encourage detailed responses, such as “Can you tell me about the challenges you’re facing this quarter?”

PEOPLE DYNAMICS | May - June 2019

Search for smart tradeoffs. In a combative or distributive

negotiation, parties are often stuck making demands and concessions on a single issue. In integrative negotiation, you can capitalize on the presence of multiple issues to get both sides more of what they want.

Specifically, try to identify issues that your counterpart cares deeply about that you value less. Then propose making a concession on that issue in exchange for a concession from her on an issue you value highly.

Be aware of the anchoring bias. Ample research shows that the

first set of numbers mentioned in a negotiation, however arbitrary, exert a powerful influence on the negotiation that follows. You can avoid being the next victim of the anchoring bias by making the first offer (or offers) and trying to anchor talks in your preferred direction.

If the other side does anchor first, keep your aspirations and BATNA at the forefront of your mind, pausing to revisit them as needed.

Present multiple equivalent offers simultaneously (MESOs).

Rather than making one offer at a time, consider presenting several offers at once. If your counterpart rejects all of them, ask him to tell you which one has some appeal and why. Then work on your own to improve the offer, or try to brainstorm with the other party an option that pleases you both. This strategy of presenting multiple offers simultaneously decreases the odds of impasse and can promote more creative solutions.

Try a contingent contract. Negotiators often get stuck because

they disagree about how a certain scenario will play out over time.

In such cases, try proposing a contingent contract—in essence, a bet about how future events will unfold. For example, if you doubt a representatives’ claims that workers can improve annual output volumes and quality to a desired level in three months, propose a contingent contract that will penalize them or exonerate you from their demands for not meeting target and/or reward them for early and consistent meeting of target. If they truly believe in the commitment and capability of the workers, they should have no problem accepting such terms. And the workers’ success will represent a win-win.

Plan for the implementation stage. Another way to improve

the long-term durability of your contract is to place milestones and deadlines in your contract to ensure that commitments are being met. You might also agree, in writing, to meet at regular intervals throughout the life of the contract to check in and, if necessary, renegotiate. In addition, adding a dispute-resolution clause that calls for the use of mediation or arbitration if a conflict arises can be a wise move.

An overarching element in negotiations, of course, is respect for constitutional rights of all concerned and adherence to labour legislation, ensuring that things such as human dignity, human and property safety, health, etc. are not compromised.

Even on what would ordinarily be regarded as a combative negotiation, to quote Katie: “Wise negotiators recognize the value of both collaborating and competing at the bargaining table. They look for ways to increase the pie of value for all parties, often by identifying differences across issues and making tradeoffs.”

Katherine Shonk is the editor of Negotiation Briefings newsletter, a monthly source of negotiation advice for professionals published by the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School.

Trends

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The 9-Day Fortnight – FAD OR FANTASTIC? It’s always a good thing for HR professionals to keep on the lookout for better ways of doing things. Observing someone else’s experience and learning from their mistakes is a lower-risk way of experimenting.

BY: GARY TAYLOR

T

he concept of a 9-day working fortnight has taken off abroad, but is not quite recognised locally. Let’s see what the concept has to offer, examine the possible problems and consider whether this is something we could add to our mix.

Workplace flexibility continues to be a major upwards pressure on HR departments, especially in white collar environments, and more so among millennials. Working mothers especially are juggling a myriad of priorities, but this concept is proving a hit across the board. So, how does it work?

The 9-day fortnight is a form of flexitime, where the employee retains the same pay, same working hours (at work) and same output requirements. However, as a 40-hour work-week translates into an 80-hour fortnight, this deal requires people to come in for just 9 days instead of 10 each two-week fortnight. The 8 hours “lost” in that 10th day gets spread over the remaining 9 days in the fortnight, i.e., roughly one hour extra per day.

Employees like it because they get to enjoy long weekends, or take

a Wednesday off for shopping, sport, family, reading or even part-time studying. Planned medical appointments can be made for that off-day, or even charity work. The longer working day often helps people to beat peak traffic more effectively than before, which means the days are not necessarily so much longer away from home.

Employers like it because they can choose to keep a call centre/

store open to clients for an additional hour at no cost, for instance. They might have staff training from earlier in the day, or have an hour when

the phones are quiet, and meetings or routine admin can be performed in relative peace. Employers should encounter less false “sick” days from people needing to perform week-day chores, and the policy is a great recruiting tool.

The interesting lesson from employers is that not every employee wants a Monday or Friday off. Several staff like the mid-week day for me-time: sleeping in, a long cycle, tea with friends, a whole morning dedicated to a hobby without interruptions, etc. Therefore, the “spread” of days off for the employer is pretty even, without having to force it.

Employers who have gone down this road have got smart, and passed the scheduling of time off to the staff themselves, empowering them to make arrangements with colleagues. The positive impact on teamwork can be great, as staff are making compromises and accommodation with each other, and “owning” the solutions.

Sure, there are some things to consider which need guidelines: • What if I am sick on an “off” day?

• What if I am sick for several days and mess with the agreed schedule?

• How do we schedule meetings and training if some people are always off?

• What about critical skills which are needed at key times/days/ seasons?

There are issues relating to fatigue which need to be monitored and managed. Switching to a 9-hour day from an 8-hour day will require fairly firm practices relating to the taking of breaks and so on.

However, very few of those who have switched into 9-day fortnights have abandoned the practice. It is also not just applicable to large departments. It is very popular in professional practices, and you can imagine why.

For workplaces which have already ventured into shift-work, working from home, or other forms of irregular hours, the culture is likely to be quite receptive to a new form of employee-driven flexibility. Arguably, this configuration overcomes many of the concerns relating to working from home, for instance, as the employees are still on-site the same amount of time as before.

To some extent, people working in hospitals have been doing something like this for years, whereby people are on staggered working times throughout the week, day and night. This is not just for people in Silicon Valley. The concept of a 9-day fortnight certainly is worth considering, and then asking that useful question: why not?

Gary is a former Vice President of the IPM and recipient of the IPM President’s Award, having been made a Fellow of the IPM and Master HR Practitioner (SABPP).

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Organisational Design Feature

SUCCESSION PLANNING Succession planning recognises that an organisation has certain roles and functions that are critical to the enterprise’s success, without which operations would be compromised.

S

uccession planning is a process by which management identifies the most critical roles within an organisation and plan to ensure that there is a pipeline of suitably qualified successors to fill them as the current cadre exits or retires.

Functions and Context

Much as succession planning is a tool to manage organisational leadership risk, it also serves as a talent management mechanism through which employees’ career development aspirations are addressed. Succession planning addresses risk in an HR or people context and in an operational continuity context.

Succession Planning Essentials

A robust succession plan strategy and policy are necessary in order to successfully manage succession planning. A policy is important to help manage employee expectations and to guide managers in objective talent identification that is well-integrated with the organisation’s performance management system, the talent management program and the workforce plan.

PEOPLE DYNAMICS | May - June 2019

Organisational Design Feature

Process Overview

In a succession planning process, critical roles are identified, with key outputs and requisite competences determined. Through performance management reports and comprehensive employee profile analyses, candidates with requisite skills, behaviours and performance levels are identified, including those who demonstrate potential currently occupying lower positions. Alternatively, or in addition, a batch of special leadership- and competence assessments may be undertaken.

Special assessments are particularly needed where an organisation’s performance evaluation system is not robust. Career discussions are then held with the suitable candidates, and personal development plans are followed to address any gaps that may have been determined through performance management reports or special assessment results.

Succession Planning Implementation

As each critical position is set to be vacated, it is advertised, and candidates identified for the succession plan program are invited to apply, depending on their readiness. In an event that internal candidates are not quite ready, interim appointments may be made, where a retiree or an external recruit is given a short/fixed term contract, shadowed by the internal prospect(s) until internal candidates are ready and fully qualified/competent to assume the position.

Case for Succession Planning in Small Businesses

The approach to succession planning differs based on the size of business. In small businesses, there are two key types of succession plans. An Exit Succession Plan (ESP), which is a guide on the transfer of ownership based on key partners’ retirement plans, and an Accident Succession Plan (ASP), which is a plan for one’s business in the event of their death or disability. In small private entities, owners generally nominate successors at the inception of the business, and begin grooming them from day one, particularly in case of family succession.

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easy, but it also makes any induction or handover process smooth, imposing risky.

In mature businesses, this is made even easier by an enterprise resource system which links all the operational aspects of the business, making transactions, monitoring, reporting, oversight and overall management seamless.

Succession Planning for Larger Enterprises and SOE’s

In larger businesses with multiple operating levels or functions, succession planning isn’t focused on retirement or death as eventualities, but on continued organisational growth and careerrelated attrition. Succession planning helps employees to acquire the skills and competencies they need to compete for key positions when they become available without guaranteeing promotions for individual candidates.

Big corporates and large state owned entities often have a diverse pool of talent from which the organisation can choose or groom successors. It becomes a much more elaborate process for HR and Line Management as the company seeks to optimise its operational success as well as ensure that well-deserving and most suitably qualified employees advance.

Human Resources Planning Review your business goals

Scan the Environment

Identify the gaps

Succession Planning and Management Identify key areas and positions

SP Approach and Advantages in Small Organisations

The succession plan may follow a formal or an informal programme – where each senior member is shadowed or works with an understudy.

A succession planning advantage in a small organisation is that prospective successors or understudies have high exposure to the business operations and are able to quickly build an intimate understanding of the company’s goals, strategies, markets, processes, contractual commitments by client groups.

Life insurance arrangements are commonly used to enable partnerships or family business successions, especially when there are multiple partners or siblings but only one to take over the business.

With the “chosen successor stated as the life insurance beneficiary, the insurance payout can enable the succession plan candidate to purchase the business from the rest, leaving everyone with some compensation and financial security”, and thus enabling the business to continue its operations with minimal disruption, according to Mark Teitelbaum of AXA.

Identify capabilities for key areas and positions

Identify interested employees and assess them against capabilities

Develop your plan

Develop and implement succession and knowledge transfer plans

Measure your progress

Evaluate effectiveness

Essentials for Succession Planning

In both large and small organisations, succession planning is facilitated through transparent policy guidelines, clear and articulate process maps, standard operating procedure manuals, clear role definitions, key programme objectives and activity plans for each division, function or unit. This not only makes candidate matching

This particular diagram, courtesy of CHRO Office of Canadian Treasury, depicts succession planning as an integrated, systematic approach to identifying, developing and retaining employees in line with projected business objectives.

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Organisational Design Feature

A Well-mastered but Rarely-implemented Human Capital Concept

It is not surprising that recent studies show that fewer and fewer companies engage in proper succession planning. These stats from a SHRM study are quite telling. Out of 426 organisations: • 23% claimed to have a formal succession plan in place • 30% of which evaluate or update their succession plans once a year • 16% said they had not yet given consideration to succession planning • 15% felt that the staff compliment is too small to warrant succession planning • 38% had informal succession plans • 43% stated that urgent requests take precedence over formalising or concluding a succession plan A matter of Urgency vs Importance?

A Depiction of the Succession Plan Process, Courtesy of DET, Victoria State, Australia Simplifying Succession Planning

Succession planning in larger organisations is also dogged by more complexities, risks and threats than smaller organisations experience. As one round-table colleague put it: It can be “a downright cumbersome process”. We can always try and make it less cumbersome. Seen in the following diagrams are easy to follow, logical examples of the Succession Planning process.

This particular guide helps you incorporate succession planning and management into your human resources (and workforce) planning process.

This particular diagram, courtesy of CHRO Office of Canadian Treasury, depicts succession planning as an integrated, systematic approach to identifying, developing and retaining employees in line with projected business objectives.

Here, succession planning is depicted in a cyclical seven step process.

Pictogram courtesy of Victoria State DET, Australia An example of a Succession Planning Template

This template guides you in populating potential succession candidates by different functions as well as by different timelines. It allows you to have a long-term view, thus enables you to build depth in the organisation’s human resource capacity. Succession planning recognises that the lower you go in the graph, the less certainty the organisation can work with. Notwithstanding risks involved in SP, the risks linked to an absence of a SP outweigh those presented by tenure uncertainties.

The last statistic comes as no surprise, given how elaborate the process can be, if it is to be rolled out right and serve the intended long-term purpose for organisations.

With everything we do in organisation management, the question of effort versus gain (or investment vs return) has to be posed. The larger the organisation, the greater the effort required, involving many stakeholders e.g. line managers and other organisational behaviour experts. Ironically, it is such organisations that are more at risk without, and stand to benefit the most from succession planning and a creation of a solid leadership pipeline.

Succession Planning and Government Efficiency

State-owned entities, for instance would be better served by embarking on proper succession planning, so that public service operations are not compromised or thwarted “even if appointees at arbitrary political level come and go”, as one group member advised. So far, none of the local SOE’s or government departments engaged have been able to share their succession planning documents with us.

Nonetheless, showing that it can be done and efficiently so, the Department of Education and Training, Victoria State, Australia, readily shares its model depicting the high-level approach and detailed process map. See next few page(s). Although the process is standard and straight forward, the Department elaborates on the different steps – making the process clear enough for any government entity to adapt with ease.

Turning Challenges into Opportunities

In our focus group, we discovered that despite the acknowledged importance of succession planning and an intimate understanding of the process among HR practitioners, organisations – some from experience - anticipate frustrations in the rolling out of succession programmes.

Comment

These were some of the challenges or fears expressed:

Keep in mind that the positions on the top row do not have to be restricted to Section Heads, but may apply to any position that is critical to the organisation’s operational success, whether line positions or specialist roles.

The principle of growing people for their own sake as well as for the business and the greater economy applies. No training or development is wasted on human resources. The return on investment may be indirect, but it will always be there in the economic system as long as the individuals are alive and actively contributing to the economy.

• It can take too long for posts to be vacated in a negative job climate, and people hold on to senior, well-paying jobs • Where multiple candidates are identified for one/same position in a succession plan, candidates (often the most qualified/talented) may become despondent and leave • Candidates, while in the SP programme are enticed by lucrative offers from competition, thus the organisation loses time and money invested in the extra training and development of the candidate(s) • Matching an external offer to avoid losing a candidate opens the

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Organisational Design Feature

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Template courtesy of Slideteam (www.slideteam.net) HR

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UP-NEXT: Ready NOW

ON-DECK: Ready 1-3 yrs

HI-POTENTIALS: Ready 6+yrs

This slide is 100% editable. Adapt it to your needs and capture your audience’s attention.

entity up to exploitation by the same or other candidates • Changes in external environment or corporate strategy often demand a different human resource profile Possible ways to negate these threats are:

• Top leadership contracts to be drawn for a fixed term and/or all senior roles to have a performance link with key strategic milestones or targets. This will promote incumbents’ focus and expedite exit of non-performing leaders.

• Robust career pathing/plans to be developed for high performing candidates, to include e.g. lateral assignments, exchange programmes, management of strategic projects, company representation at industry structures/fora, all of which keep candidates physically and intellectually engaged, motivated and professionally stretched within the organisation.

• Career development programme to be tied to corresponding-service (in time or cost), to deter premature moves, particularly if special training has been offered to the candidates.

• Special incentives such as share offer, to be made subject to service timeline (in listed companies), and special time+performancefactored bonuses offered for civil servants. These can keep candidates focused and increase commitment while they ‘wait’ for targeted position(s) • A strong Employee Value Proposition and a unique, positive organisational culture serve to distinguish an entity against from its competition, thereby making competition less attractive despite attractive monetary offers

In-built Agility

At recruitment, it is essential to hire as much for fit as one hires for adaptability of resources. This way, even if the trading environment or strategic direction of the organisation changes, the entity will have secured agile candidates that can still make a positive contribution to the organisation.

Broad Socio-Economic Outlook & CSR

Human capital executives and business leaders also do well to keep a positive attitude when embarking on succession planning programmes. Human capital investment is first and foremost, for the benefit of the organisation. However, it cannot be ignored that the candidates benefit, and their capacity stands to serve the economy in which the investing organisation will continue to participate and benefit – directly or indirectly. Training and development undertaken as part of succession planning, therefore, should not be regarded as a loss when candidates leave. The organisation that may, after all, also benefit from externally sourced candidates to plug the gap or to increase its leadership repertoire.

Internal Candidate Priority

The prioritising of internal candidates is a demonstration of the organisation’s commitment to its own people’s development. It builds a positive ripple or domino effect – opening growth opportunities at different levels or sections in the organisation. It is useful to motivate employees although not precluding the organisation from securing a most suitable candidate through external recruitment.

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Organisational Design Feature

DIFFERENT APPROACHES TO SUCCESSION PLANNING Merit-based Succession Strategy

This is also known as a Performance-Based Pipeline strategy. It predetermines performance levels and succession criteria based on qualifications, competences, behaviours, experience, performance quality, etc., and place successful, pre-qualified candidates in the company’s succession planning pool and granted equal-opportunity access to advance. When a vacancy arises, qualifying applicants are invited to apply, and may be subjected to further evaluation against the specific vacancy criteria.

Targeted Recruitment Succession Strategy

Following an ongoing identification of key competences to fill critical positions, in this approach, succession plans are populated with candidates identified at recruitment stage to form the succession pipeline for the organisation.

Targeted recruits are sourced in various ways, e.g.: • Students with outstanding results in the appropriate field are awarded scholarships and groomed through vacation exposure, leadership access and mentoring.

• Certain graduates participating in an internship programme are identified as candidates for succession planning, then exposed to an accelerated training programme with a view to filling key (specialist) positions in the company.

• Suitably qualified, high-performing individuals with the desired competence and/or leadership profile may be approached, and invited to fill certain strategic positions, following a thorough vetting process and/or (further) rigorous assessments to confirm a perfect fit.

Organic Succession Plan

A succession strategy could favour cultivating a succession pipeline from the existing corporate structure. Upon a vacancy being created by a departure, retirement or death of an incumbent, the incumbent’s right-hand or the person who deputised in the role would be appointed, barring some glaring, non-remediable issues regarding the person’s suitability. Although this is regarded as a lazy strategy, it is imperative that formal knowledge-transfer is facilitated between incumbents and their understudies. As can be seen in the Case Study, it is important that the qualification criteria are known and communicated to aspirant successors, to avoid complications.

Succession Planning Case Study

A CFO unexpectedly left the company, and the financial accountant who worked closely with and often deputised for the outgoing CFO PEOPLE DYNAMICS | May - June 2019

was recommended to take over as CFO. This was in line with the entity’s organic succession strategy. The Finance Committee of the Board, however, advised that under the new administration, entities were required to only appoint chartered accountants into CFO positions. The financial accountant didn’t have the qualification and was given a fixed period within which he had to obtain it.

While working toward the qualification, his sterling performance continued as has been the case while working under the previous CFO. He satisfactorily fulfilled the duties of CFO as Acting CFO, helping the company to yet another clean audit for the cycle.

When the set time elapsed, the position was duly advertised and the Acting CFO also had to submit a formal application. He didn’t get the job. He hadn’t qualified as a CA, and the job was given to one of the external candidates.

Back in his job as financial accountant, he continued serving under the new CFO, who was quite aware that he had contested ‘his’ CFO position. Although the relationships were cordial, the CFO much preferred to work more independently of the middle management.

Hardly six months in, the company suffered a major financial loss as a result of what some referred to as finger error. Following due process, the error was attributed squarely on the CFO’s shoulders. He was later relieved of his duties.

This unfortunate event brought unhappiness among the staff who protested that the financial accountant had done a much better job and deserved better given the experience with a candidate who had good credentials but came short in delivery and blending into what to him was a new environment.

Whether the financial accountant should have been afforded more time, or be subjected to alternate forms of evaluation whilst afforded more time to pass the requisite Board exams, it’s a topic for another time, especially now that SAQA strongly advocates for RPL… This case, nonetheless, represents a poignant lesson for the talent management team at the entity, and makes for a warning to all HR executives. It is imperative that HR and SP custodians stay on top of any changes in the legislative and professional landscapes - to have an updated log of requisites for critical positions in the organisations.

This will ensure a proper candidate-role (or incumbent-role) match; encourage currency of skill and proper qualification compliance among company resources eligible, in particular those eligible for succession. This will save candidates much disappointment and the company a lot of unnecessary losses.

Many examples and templates to help HR facilitate Succession Planning and keep tabs of their succession pipeline are readily available online. The following is yet another such example developed

by DET Victoria State.

Organisational Design Feature

SUCCESSION PLANNING – DETAILED PROCESS 1.

Project establishment

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ESTABLISH PROJECT TEAM

REVIEW GUIDELINES

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DEVELOP PROJECT PLAN

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SEEK APPROVAL FOR PROJECT PLAN Business owner approves project plan.

PEOPLE DYNAMICS | May - June 2019

9

CONDUCT RESEARCH

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IDENTIFY CRITICAL ROLES

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SEEK APPROVAL FOR CRITICAL ROLES Business owner approves critical roles.

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COMPLETE SUCCESS PROFILES

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VALIDATE SUCCESS PROFILES

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SEEK APPROVAL FOR SUCCESS PROFILES Business owner approves success profiles.

VALIDATE POTENTIAL SUCCESSORS Relevant director and managers of potential successors validate the potential successors are appropriate.

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Relevant director validates the success profile for each role is accurate and complete.

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IDENTIFY POTENTIAL SUCCESSORS Managers of critical roles assess candidates to identify 2 to 4 potential successors for each role.

Managers of critical roles use research findings to complete success profile for each role.

Project team use research findings to identify and prioritise the critical roles.

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CONDUCT RESEARCH

Assess staff

Managers of critical roles complete research activities to understand the capabilities, knowledge, attributes and experience required for each role.

Complete research activities including desktop research and meetings with key stakeholders.

Project lead develops a project plan, including a project schedule and key roles and responsibilities.

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DEVELOP RESEARCH PLAN

3.

Construct success profiles

Project team develops a plan to understand the strategic direction and critical work accountabilities and determine who is responsible for each task.

Project team reviews the succession planning guidelines and resources.

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2.

Identify critical roles

Business owner selects team members to form a succession planning project team and kicks-off the project.

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COURTESY: VICTORIA STATE GOVT. DET HRM, AUSTRALIA

CONFIRM POTENTIAL SUCCESSORS Managers of potential successors speak to them to determine interest and finalise selection.

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SEEK APPROVAL FOR POTENTIAL SUCCESSORS Business owner approves potential successors.

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Organisational Design Feature

SUCCESSION PLANNING – DETAILED PROCESS (CONTINUED) 4.

5.

Create development plans

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DEVELOP SUCCESSION DEVELOPMENT PLANS (SDP)

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Potential successor team and potential successor develop a SDP for each potential successor via PDP system.

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SEEK APPROVAL FOR SUCCESSION DEVELOPMENT PLANS

6.

Develop successors

COMMENCE DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITIES

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Commence the development activities outlined in the SDPs.

20 MONITOR DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITIES

Business owner approves SDPs.

REGULARLY REVIEW PROGRESS OF POTENTIAL SUCCESSORS At 4 and 8 months the business owner and potential successor teams review the progress of all potential successors for each role.

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ASSESS POTENTIAL SUCCESSOR READINESS At 12 months the business owner and potential successor teams assess the readiness of each potential successor, and adjust SDPs as required.

MAINTAIN POTENTIAL SUCCESSOR ENGAGEMENT Potential successor teams maintain engagement of potential successors by regularly reviewing their SDPs.

24 PLAN RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION When a critical role becomes vacant the business owner and potential successor teams develop a recruitment and selection plan.

Managers of the potential successors monitor development via the regular PDP process.

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7.

Successors ready

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Review and Adapt

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ANNUAL REVIEW OF SUCCESSION PLAN Business owner and project team to validate the area’s succession plan is current and complete every 12 months.

28 ADJUST SUCCESSION PLAN AS REQUIRED Complete the succession planning steps as required to update and adjust the succession plan.

ENCOURAGE POTENTIAL SUCCESSORS TO APPLY Encourage potential successors who are ready to apply for the role, while maintaining their expectations

26 DEBRIEF UNSUCCESSFUL POTENTIAL SUCCESSORS Meet with unsuccessful potential successors and provide feedback on their performance and ongoing development opportunities.

OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF THE IPM

Organisational Effectiveness

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Entrepreneurial Leadership with

Peopleness BY: PEOPLE DYNAMICS CORRESPONDENT

Technology and digitisation is accused of taking away jobs while countries like South Africa are in desperate need of employment opportunities from low-skill right up to the supposedly high-skill levels.

T

he real issue, however, is that while it is makes sense to take full advantage of automation and all things brought about by the latest industrial revolution, our entrepreneurial acumen has not caught up.

We have not developed a resourcefulness that helps us create new industries and enterprises that create new jobs, not even to subsist.

If anyone has seen the door of a university, a technical college, business school or professional training institution, their qualification exit project should have equipped them to be a self-sustaining individual who doesn’t have to join the job queues, but to create employment.

Having said that, however, solopreneurs and two-man shops can only serve to temper the growing trend of unemployment, not arrest it.

Established larger businesses have a higher success rate in sustaining entrepreneurial ventures. They have a solid base and structure from which to test ideas and launch new projects that grow into significant ventures. The development of new ventures benefits from a comprehensive and diverse pool of resources.

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Entrepreneurial Leadership

The reality is that, any experimentation happening in an enterprise can easily divert the attention of key resources from much-needed cash cow projects or bread and butter products/services - risking losses that leave the enterprise lagging behind their rivals.

The sea of eager and hungry graduates entering the workplace provide an opportunity for creative leaders to feed their entrepreneurial streak and run growth-targeting experiments with limited disruption of key human resources. In-house incubation centres or labs are a growing trend for organisations that want to keep reinventing themselves and stay ahead of the job-eroding obsolescence that less innovative companies will contend with.

The questions to ask, however, are: • Which direction should leaders take their experiments?

• Should they invest in ventures that entrench them in their existing markets and industry • Should the focus be on exploiting existing brand strength, competencies, business models and infrastructure? OR • Should they think of “crazy” new concepts and out-of-the-box services that can stretch the creativity of their human resources?

• Dare they leap into uncharted territories?

• Will risks taken be matched by corresponding reward?

• What would be the best route for PEOPLE, for shareholder PURPOSE and for long-term sustainability?

It takes brave, fearless leaderships to plough on despite uncertainties

PEOPLE DYNAMICS | May - June 2019

– ready to count the losses and chalk up the lessons where ventures do not prove a success.

A heated debate always ensues about what the primary responsibility of private enterprises is. Some strongly believe that it is to make a profit, hence it justifies leaders who keep searching for the easiest and cheapest route to that goal. That’s why service businesses are more attractive than manufacturing enterprises. The argument is that the responsibility of keeping people in jobs is a social issue which should be relegated to government. This is what leads to bloated government departments and an untenable government wage bill. Government had found itself taking the role of becoming the chief employer in the country, much to the chagrin of taxpayers who see more burdening tax channels and less service quality.

A more sensitive way some describe the primary responsibility of private enterprises is “to serve and satisfy stakeholders in such a way that they make sustainable profits.”

We would like to think that the primary responsibility of any entity is indeed to fulfil the needs of its stakeholders, and through their contribution – investment, hospitality, goodwill, sweat and custom sustain its ‘profitability’.

So, it’s not the just the what, but the how and the ultimate why that matters. Hence, if an enterprise was established by people to support or enrich people, then, people or humans ought to be a consideration in everything it does. That’s peopleness! And, to make enterprises work sustainably, all humans involved – from leaders to general staff and their representatives, should act peoplefully.

Business Leadership

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Specialisation, Generalisation, Intensification or Diversification

– Your Move!

BY: GEORGINA BARRICK

Business growth is essential to sustained employment. Do good leaders take a leap into the wilderness in anticipation of huge rewards or do they make conservative shifts to sustain the business?

H

ave you ever been presented with an opportunity that, on the surface, looks like a really good idea? The concept is fresh. The numbers are solid. It could open up new growth streams. The only issue is that it would require a shift off your company’s core focus. Do you, as Richard Branson would say, ‘screw it, let’s do it’? Or, do you walk away?

Single malt whisky. Single origin coffee and chocolate. Accountants and Recruiters who understand the intricate rules and workings of their specialist niches. Orthopaedic surgeons who only operate on hips or shoulders. Gone are the days when to be a ‘jack of all trades’ was prized.

Today, we live in the age of hyper-specialisation.

It’s said that the further you venture away from your core focus, the greater the risk.

Get it right – like Apple or Netflix – and you can create new revenue streams that may, with time, overtake your current core business. Apple did this with the launch of iTunes, shifting focus from hardware to services and spawning the legal music download industry. Today, the company makes more from Services ($10.9 billion last quarter alone) than many of its other business segments. Netflix’s move from streaming to content creation (think ‘Stranger Things’ and the ‘Queer Eye’ revival) reduced the company’s risk exposure by giving it complete control over (some) of the content on its platform.

But, get it wrong and you risk becoming distracted by the new initiative, leading to brand dilution, customer confusion, a drop in management focus and quality of offering, loss of target market share and, ultimately, lost revenue. Richard Branson’s Virgin brand has launched over 400 companies over the past 50 years (including music stores, airlines, alcohol and underwear businesses). Today, the privately-owned brand owns 60 around the world.

So, in a world captivated by novelty, how do you balance your need for growth and innovation with your tolerance for risk? Or, put more simply, how do you identify the ideas that would mean real change for your business from those that are really just shiny new objects?

Explore your core…

Start by fully understanding the opportunities available in your core business.

Is there potential for further growth in any of your business segments? Are there any ‘adjacencies’ (related business segments) that, if developed, could reinforce the strength of your core? Can you create new needs among your core customer base? Are there any internal functions – like talent acquisition – that you could outsource to free up time to focus on core issues? Make sure that you’ve wrung all that you can out of your core, before you make a move away from it.

Have a good reason…

Is your core business reaching saturation point, with limited growth opportunities? Is there a disruptive technology breaking into your space that’s forcing you to rethink strategy? Would you be ‘early to market’ with a non-core concept and have the chance to snap up market share?

Whatever is making you consider a break from core, ensure that your reasons are sound – and grounded in fact, not emotion.

Gather data…

‘Screw it, let’s do it’ might work for Richard Branson, but it certainly doesn’t cut the mustard with shareholders. Take time to educate yourself about the new initiative and its impact on your core business.

Assess the risks, potential outcomes and competencies you’ll need to manage both.

Before taking the leap, it’s important to ask the hard questions and gather all of the data.

Test the idea to minimise risk…

Is there a way to test the new concept, with minimal risk? Form a new business, with separate branding, resources and office space, to try out the idea. Steer clear of areas where you lack expertise or where the market is flooded with players who have the specialised skills that you’re missing. Do everything that you can to prevent diluting your focus, energy and accountability.

That way, if the idea fails, your core business is protected.

Set clear goals and accountabilities…

Before you start, set realistic goals (including measures of success) for the new venture.

Make sure that your staff is clear about what needs to be achieved in your core business – and who is minding the store. Someone needs to be accountable for keeping everyone’s eye on the ball.

Business growth involves taking calculated risk.

The choice whether to drive growth from within your core business or stray outside of it sits with you – which is both a burden and blessing.

Whatever you decide, choose wisely.

OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF THE IPM

Leadership

So, now? The SONA reply

Photograph: www.thesouthafrican.com

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You may have better ways of keeping tabs over the years, on the number of SONA’s that one State President has given in a space of eighteen months. South Africa’s current president has delivered three.

With each one, a picture has emerged, getting frighteningly clear that South Africa had been sitting on a ticking time bomb for way too long, despite a most acclaimed Constitution and impressive policies. Execution stewardship and implementation discipline have been found wanting.

S

o, when all is said but not yet done, one can only imagine the frustration among those who expected an expedited cleanup, renovation and redecoration of the country, starting from the innermost halls of government, rolling out onto the crammed, litter-filled streets and treacherous rural roads. To many, the new administration was set to bring South Africa instant relief from an inefficient government and a flailing economy. And they wanted to

PEOPLE DYNAMICS | May - June 2019

smell the fresh paint from Mr Ramaphosa’s speech.

Following scalding criticism for what opposition parties dismissed as a fluffy SONA, the President pulled it a planet down to unpack his visionary delivery, leaving his loyalists somewhat impressed and opposition’s criticism doused. To catch up on the latest SONA and the SONA REPLY, please visit the Presidency website. And, be inspired or infuriated positively – into nation-building action!

State Leadership

Here’s the reply by President Cyril Ramaphosa to the debate on the State of the Nation Address “… Honourable Members, allow me to extend my thanks to all the Honourable Members who participated in this debate, and to the many South Africans who have shared their views on the State of the Nation Address. I found the comments to be sharp, pointed, rich and most useful.

I was heartened by the comments that were made because they reinforced our conviction that we need a clear and common vision of the future. Members wanted to know how, when, where, by whom, at what cost and why (or why not). Through social media, in newspaper columns, in radio show call-ins and in messages sent to the Presidency, South Africans became part of the SONA debate.

I received a moving note from one of the officials in Parliament who said: “Dear Mr Pres, those of us who want to see our country prosper, share in your dreams! When we stop dreaming our soul dies; when our soul dies we die. We should never give up on our dreams, least of all allow our detractors to get in the way of our dreams. So let’s keep our dreams alive for the sake of our people and our country! God bless you.”

The vibrancy and vitality of such engagements – even where we strongly disagree – is an essential part of our national character. It is our experience, over a long and difficult history, that it is only through dialogue, through the frank exchange of views, that we can arrive at inclusive solutions. We share common challenges, we share a common future, and we need to forge a common path towards its realisation.

It is fitting therefore that we should gather here on the anniversary of the adoption of the Freedom Charter at the Congress of the People, the most representative gathering of South Africans in our history. It is exactly 64 years since the 26th of June 1955 – on a cold winter’s day on a dusty piece of veld – when the people of South Africa gathered in Kliptown to declare for the country and the world to know that: “South Africa belongs to all who live in it, black and white, and that no government can justly claim authority unless it is based on the will of all the people.”

From across the country, delegates came with thousands of submissions, written down on flyers, envelopes and scraps of paper.

More than half a century after it was adopted, the Freedom Charter remains the foundation of our shared vision of a just and equitable South Africa.

The Freedom Charter was a statement of extraordinary ambition, made a time when the majority of South Africans lived in conditions of repression, where their rights were denied and their opportunities for economic advancement deliberately curtailed. They looked beyond the dire circumstances in which they lived towards a country that was fundamentally different.

They were articulating a dream that many people thought would never be realised.

As Honourable Nzuza reminds us, the truth is often first ridiculed, then opposed and finally accepted as self-evident. That is precisely what happened with the Freedom Charter. There were those who initially ridiculed and dismissed and opposed it. Now it is the vision of the Freedom Charter that underpins our Constitution. It is the vision that informs the National Development Plan and our vision towards 2030, and it is the vision that must inform everything we do now.

The State of the Nation Address was not merely about dreams.

It was about the lived reality of our people and setting out what we need to do to achieve the South Africa we want. It was about articulating a vision and a direction for government’s programme.

Ministers will provide details on the programme in the budget votes of the various departments.

We agree with the Honourable De Lille, who observed that a State of the Nation Address shows us a picture and sketches a framework. But it

29

is up to us, she says, – in our public, private and civil society sectors – to make it work.

Guided by the election manifesto of the governing party, this SONA was about setting out the seven priorities of the administration, namely: • Economic transformation and job creation • Education, skills and health • Consolidating the social wage through reliable and quality basic services • Spatial integration, human settlements and local government • Social cohesion and safe communities • A capable, ethical and developmental state • A better Africa and World As we said then, and as we’ll repeat today, building the South Africa we want starts now – and it involves all of us. It starts with concrete actions that address both the challenges of the present and lay the foundation for the next 5 years, the next decade and beyond.

We are not starting anew. Over the last 18 months, we have been on a path of recovery, working to address our shortcomings and put in place what is needed for inclusive growth and job creation. We must continue on that path, but our actions require greater urgency and greater focus.

Right now, as several Honourable Members have observed, our most pressing task is to restart the economy and create jobs. We are addressing this through our focus on ‘economic transformation and job creation’.

There are no short cuts and there are no quick fixes. We need to do the right things, we need to do them well and we need to do them without delay. The simple reality is that we need to stimulate growth in our economy to create jobs, to create opportunities for new businesses to emerge and to improve the state of our public finances.

We need growth to ensure that we can reduce our national debt, improve the reach and quality of social services provided to our people, and direct greater resources to infrastructure development.

This year, we are intensifying our investment drive because we have seen that it is producing results. We are going to hold our second South Africa Investment Conference in November because we have seen commitments made at last year’s conference being implemented.

These are the investments that will, in the months and years to come, be creating new jobs, developing new supply chains and reviving local economies.

This is not a dream. This is reality.

We are seeking through our investment drive not only to generate foreign direct investment, but also to encourage local businesses to invest.

We also intend to crowd-in local investors into various subsectors of economy.

We are working to become an entrepreneurial state that is able to crowd-in local private sector investment in certain sectors of our economy, collaborating on the development of master plans for each one. We are committed to restore investor confidence through greater policy certainty and consistency.

We recognise that there are several areas where we need to move with greater urgency, unleashing the potential of sectors like telecommunications, tourism, agriculture and mining.

Alongside our investment drive, much detailed work is being directed towards reducing the cost and improving the ease of doing business.

This is a difficult task because it requires significant coordination and integration among a wide range of government departments, spheres and entities.

But we are making steady progress and businesses are starting to feel the impact. A few days ago, my attention was drawn to a tweet that said: “Registered a new company yesterday at 13:30. They sent me the forms & I sent them back around 17:32. This morning at 7:04 I got confirmation that the company has been registered & also registered for income tax. So quick and painless. Only cost R175 on the CIPC website.”

OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF THE IPM

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State Leadership

Several other Twitter users spoke of similar experiences.

We are determined to achieve our goal of being among the top 50 global performers in the World Bank’s annual Doing Business Report within the next 3 years. A critical part of the work we must do to restart the economy and create jobs is a reinvigorated industrial strategy that effectively harnesses the capabilities of government, state owned companies, business and labour.

As Minister Patel indicated, this industrial strategy concentrates on economic sectors that have the greatest potential for growth.

It builds on the successes achieved in areas like automotive manufacturing, while seeking far closer partnership between government, industry and labour in developing and implementing master plans in each sector.

Our revitalised industrial strategy has a focus on expanding our trade and investment links with the rest of the SADC region and the continent at large. In two weeks from now I will travel to Niger for an AU Summit on the African Continental Free Trade Area. Here the nations of Africa will discuss the implementation of the boldest plan ever to promote the economic integration of Africa.

As the incoming chair of the African Union in 2020 we will champion the aspirations of the AU’s Agenda 2063. Key to this is the movement of goods, services, capital and means of production across the Continent.

Expanding trade and investment ties with the rest of Africa underpins our industrial strategy and it is being pursued with vigour. As the most industrialised country on the continent, South Africa is uniquely placed to benefit from a massive increase in trade across the continent.

We must work towards a time when South African-made goods can be found on the shelves of every store on our Continent. We must also look forward to a time when the goods that we import do not come across the ocean, but from across the Limpopo.

We see the greatest growth in jobs coming from small- and mediumsized businesses, which must be incorporated more deliberately into manufacturing value chains and benefit more from public procurement.

As Minister Ntshavheni noted, we have begun a programme to open up incubation centres in all 44 districts and 8 metros of our country so that we can support village and township enterprises in achieving sustainability and growth.

By using recent changes to our competition law, we will open up more opportunities for small businesses to enter new markets, contributing to a more vibrant and competitive economy. Among the support provided to small business, government will soon be introducing blended finance for SMMEs, consisting of a combination of loans and grants. This complements efforts by the private sector to explore innovative ways to finance both start-ups and small companies that want to go to scale.

Since the Jobs Summit was convened in October 2018, social partners have worked hard to establish systems and processes to implement the 77 measures contained in the Framework Agreement.

Over 70% of all projects are on track, with a number having already yielded outcomes. The business process programme, for example, through a strong partnership between business and government, has created 6,000 new jobs in line with the timeframes and expectations of the plan.

Young people are being trained through the Installation, Repair and Maintenance Initiative in sectors like plumbing, electrical, automotive and infrastructure maintenance.

As we indicated in the State of the Nation Address, as several Honourable Members correctly observed and as millions of South Africans can attest, the secure supply of electricity is fundamental to our economic recovery.

The measures that we announced in February to end load shedding and place Eskom on a sustainable financial and operational path have, as Minister Gordhan outlined, seen improvements. We are closely engaged with the situation at Eskom, assisting the entity with the implementation of its 9-point-plan, putting in place a world-class executive team, PEOPLE DYNAMICS | May - June 2019

strengthening the board and setting out in detail a comprehensive roadmap for Eskom into the future.

We have done much to address governance challenges at several other state owned enterprises and have been decisive in tackling corruption and state capture.

We are supporting companies like SAA and Denel as they seek to manage their dire financial positions and work to implement sustainable turnaround strategies. As we address challenges at specific SOEs, we are also working towards a new SOE landscape in which state owned companies have the expertise, leadership and appropriate financial models to fulfil their respective mandates.

State owned companies have a critical role to play – in tandem with the private sector – in driving economic growth and transformation.

In our recent engagement with the chief executives of some of the country’s largest state owned companies, we identified the key challenges they faced and the impediments towards the effective implementation of their respective mandates. We have agreed that we will work together through the Presidential SOE Council to address all the issues they raised.

We disagree with the view that the most effective and efficient way to provide services to our people is through the private sector. Every single day, public entities are providing water, electricity, waste removal services, road maintenance and a myriad other essentials to South Africans.

To cite just one example: last year, the Post Office took over the payment of social grants. Before taking on this responsibility, in April 2018, only 31,000 social grant beneficiaries were paid through the Post Office. Last month, 7.8 million beneficiaries were paid through the Post Office, representing just over 70% of all beneficiaries. The successful takeover of the distribution of SASSA grants by the Post Office is a clear demonstration that government institutions do have the capacity and capability to effectively implement projects of this magnitude.

It is perhaps worth mentioning that two of the finalists for ‘CEO of the Year’ in the 2019 HR Awards are from public entities – Cameron Sello Morajane from the CCMA and Keitumetse Lebaka from the Culture, Art, Tourism, Hospitality, and Sport SETA. Together with many other CEOs in the public sector, they are doing excellent work and setting high standards.

A significant part of our efforts to unleash growth while advancing transformation is our accelerated programme of land reform. By bringing together the portfolios of agriculture, rural development and land reform, we are establishing the institutional basis for a comprehensive approach to the economic development of our rural areas. Through this, we will unlock the potential of the sector by removing constraints in accessing land, finance, markets and water and improving safety in our rural areas.

We are determined that land should be distributed to those who work and those who need it. We will soon release the report of the Presidential Advisory Panel on Land Reform and Agriculture. This report will inform the finalisation of a comprehensive, far-reaching and transformative land reform programme.

Among the important tasks of this new Parliament is to finalise constitutional amendments to clearly indicate how expropriate land without compensation will be put into effect. Parliament will also need to debate and finalise the Expropriation Bill, which deals with the modalities and the circumstances in which expropriation will take place.

Expropriation is an important land acquisition strategy. It is important because it enables us to conduct land reform in a pro-active and planned manner. This frees us from a wait-and-see approach dependent on market sales.

Expropriation without compensation, in defined circumstances, allows us to do so at a cost that is reasonable for the South Africa people. But we must not lose sight that it is but one instrument in a much broader toolbox to achieve agrarian reform and spatial justice. Our land reform agenda

State Leadership

also includes recognising individual, family and community rights to land in accordance with lived experience.

We want to make all rights visible and enforceable, and to strengthen institutions of collective ownership. New technologies enable us to organise the rich diversity of institutional frameworks that exist in our country. At the same time, we continue with the process of identifying suitable public land for human settlements and farming. I am pleased that the Honourable Malema agrees with me that we will never resolve the social ills of our country without addressing the land question.

In the State of the Nation Address, we spoke about the establishment of the Infrastructure Fund and a new approach to building infrastructure.

This is where the partnership between the public and the private sector will find practical meaning as we work together through joint funding arrangements as well as in the deployment of skills, management capability and experience.

In line with our new approach, unions and communities will be at the centre of our infrastructure build. We are working to increase the proportion of public spending that goes to infrastructure development – relative to consumption expenditure – so that our economy can enjoy lasting benefits.

In the transport sector, for example, the Gibela factory in Nigel, which is producing new commuter trains, is creating technical and engineering jobs among young people – a significant portion of which are women. We will soon be selling trains to many other countries on the continent.

The upgrade and maintenance of the national road network is an important element of the economic stimulus package, contributing to job creation, access to local services and stimulating local economies. The 26 road building projects that form part of the Economic Stimulus and Recovery Plan will unlock total investment of R13 billion, delivering roads in rural areas and townships over the next 3 to 5 years and producing a total of 22,000 jobs.

These projects form part of a broader R70 billion investment in national road infrastructure construction and maintenance over the MTEF period yielding an average of 15,000 jobs a year.

All these measures to grow the economy depend on our ability to develop skills that are appropriate to the needs of an economy that is changing. These skills we are developing for the youth of our country will be best used as we move ahead with inclusive growth.

Hence, our focus on the second priority of education, skills and health.

This is precisely why we are investing in the expansion of our TVET colleges and ensuring that their programmes are aligned with the needs of industry and tomorrow’s world of work. It is why we are focusing greater attention on artisan development while expanding workplace-based learning through learnerships, work integrated learning and internships.

It is why, in the reconfiguration of ministries, we have placed Higher Education alongside Science and Technology, so that we can harness our substantial scientific research capacity to develop graduates that have the advanced skills required to take our country into a new technological age.

It is why we are emphasising the teaching of science, technology, engineering and maths in schools, why we are introducing subjects like coding and data analytics.

We are investing in the National Health Insurance so that we can not only contribute to economic growth by keeping the population healthy, but ensure universal access to quality health care.

I will be attending the G20 Summit in Osaka in the next few days.

One of the issues on the agenda is global health and, more specifically, universal health coverage. There will be a discussion on how countries can move towards universal health coverage, and South Africa cannot be left behind.

Honourable Members, it is the most fundamental right of our citizens to live in safety in their homes, in the streets, and in their communities. This why one of our priority areas is social cohesion and safe communities.

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Crime is devastating our communities and tearing our social fabric apart.

Young lives are being lost to the scourge of crime, gangsterism and substance abuse. Just the other day I listened to a community activist from Port Elizabeth, Mr Roland Bell, talking about the impact of gangsterism in his community, saying our next generation is dying out before it has even started. We heard the cries of residents of Mannenberg at the gates of Parliament earlier this morning, who want the police to act against gangsters who terrorise their communities.

Part of our response is to increase police visibility, increase the number of trainee policemen and women, promote the sexual offences courts to address gender-based violence and femicide, and capacitate community policing forums.

We must also make better use of the legal instruments available to us.

In 2000, for example, we passed the Firearms Control Act, which was meant to reduce the easy availability of firearms. Yet, while there was a decrease of almost 50% in firearm deaths over the next 10 years, fraud, corruption and resistance to aspects of the Act seriously undermined the ability of SAPS to effectively enforce the law.

Now that the Constitutional Court has confirmed that the Act is constitutionally valid, we look to the SAPS to renew their effective work to reduce the incidence of deaths and injuries due to firearms.

At the same time, we must recognise that violent crime is often perpetrated by people who are known to the victim, in the home, in schools or in the community. This makes policing difficult, but it must be done.

It requires that we address unequal power relations in society, that we instil in young people a sense of responsibility and a respect for others. It places a great responsibility on all of us – as parents, teachers, religious leaders, celebrities and MPs – to lead the way in resolving conflict without resorting to violence or confrontation.

If we are to improve the lives of South Africans, particularly the poor, and if we are to foster economic development, we need to make local service delivery work. As several Honourable Members have said, we need to fix our municipalities.

That is why one of our priorities is spatial integration, human settlements and local government. I announced earlier this year that we have begun the process of stabilising and supporting 57 municipalities and implementing over 10,000 municipal infrastructure projects. This is because local government is the engine of service delivery.

We also agree with Cllr Nkadimeng that a district-based approach to service delivery should contribute to improved coordination and a more efficient allocation of resources. In local government, as in all parts of the state, where systems fail, there must be accountability.

Through interventions like the National Clean Audit Task Team under the Hawks we are serious about cleaning up our municipalities so they can fulfill their primary mandate – not to adjudicate tenders, but to deliver services to our people.

The report released by the Auditor-General about the deteriorating levels of accountability in our local government space is concerning. It is in this regard that we support the call made by the President of SALGA that we should professionalise local government and enhance the training of officials.

The country’s largest urban economies must play a far greater role in job-intensive growth and poverty reduction. To ease the cost of doing business, larger urban municipalities will radically enhance the reliability, quality and availability of basic infrastructure services, improve their land use management processes and ensure the coordinated management of urban transport and housing.

In line with our objective to restore not just investor confidence but regain the trust of our citizens, we have intensified the fight against corruption across government. This is an important part of our priority to build a capable, ethical and developmental state.

We have restored stability in important institutions like the South OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF THE IPM

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State Leadership

African Revenue Service and the National Prosecuting Authority and improved their capacity.

The Zondo Commission of Inquiry is doing crucial work in establishing the extent of state capture. Integrity is being restored to our national intelligence machinery as we act on the recommendations of the High Level Review Panel on the State Security Agency.

With the state being the primary driver of service delivery, we have, following extensive consultation, produced a new macro-configuration of government: merging some departments and doing away with others. This is in the interests of cost-containment, cooperative governance and in ensuring state resources are more efficiently deployed.

We are also intensifying training and skills development through the National School of Government, because our success depends on a capable, professional and above all ethical corps of public servants.

Honourable Members, these are just some of the measures we are undertaking – together with our social partners – to restore our economy and improve the lives of our people.

These measures are tangible, practical and achievable. They provide a clear indication that we have both a vision for the future and a plan for the present. They demonstrate that we are a government at work.

The seven priorities that will guide the programme of action of this administration over the next five years begins with implementation in the coming days, weeks and months.

As I mentioned last week, we are determined to do things differently.

The litany of a thousand outcomes will be replaced by a tight set of smart indicators for government to pursue. These will be contained in the Medium Term Strategic Framework, which will set out the action plan of government for the next five years. Each government department will produce a forward-looking and practical Annual Performance Plan that reflects our renewed focus on impact. Each minister will sign a Performance Agreement by which they will be evaluated and for which they will be held accountable.

In the four months leading up to the Medium Term Budget Policy Statement in October, we will also work hard to meet some immediate policy milestones.

These include: • an action plan on an effective visa regime for tourism and high skill immigration; • a policy directive on the release of spectrum; • an integrated and comprehensive youth employment strategy coordinated by a project management office in the Presidency; • engagement with organised business on the Ease of Doing Business Roadmap; • a national action plan to tackle extortion and violence at economic sites, especially in the construction sector; • ensure the Economic Advisory Council, the Investment Advisory Council and the Presidential SOE Council to commence their work; • launching the Township Entrepreneurship Fund; • finalising the Integrated Resource Plan; • publish a Special Paper on Eskom detailing a roadmap for the entity’s future; • presenting progress on the Public-Private Growth Initiative and the country’s investment pipeline; • the development of Industrial Strategy Masterplans in validated priority sectors; • release our approach to land reform informed by the Advisory Panel’s report.

At Nedlac, we are going to monitor the commitments made at the Jobs Summit as we work towards our job creation targets.

We are going to begin the preparatory work to review our macroeconomic strategy to ensure that our policy mix supports inclusive growth.

Honourable Members, in preparing for the State of the Nation PEOPLE DYNAMICS | May - June 2019

Address, I mentioned my wish to talk about a completely new city, with skyscrapers, schools, universities, hospitals and factories.

I was advised to put it into the section on ‘dreams’. But it actually belongs in the section on a future and desired ‘reality’. At the current rate of urbanisation and at the current rate of population growth, it is estimated that our cities will need to accommodate an extra 10 million people by 2030.

The question we need to confront is where these people will live.

Where will they work?

We are already facing significant backlogs in housing, schools, clinics and social services in almost all major urban centres. Every successive wave of people coming to our cities live further and further away from the centre, far away from jobs, far away from services and far away from transport infrastructure. This situation is not sustainable and, unless we find effective solutions, it’s only going to get worse.

It is time to confront reality.

Honourable Members, before I conclude, allow me to pay tribute to three special groups of South Africans who have recently stepped out onto the global stage to represent our country. Today, I want to pay tribute to the national teams representing South Africa in the Women’s Football World Cup, the Cricket World Cup and the African Cup of Nations… also reminded of the remarkable achievements of our golden girl, Caster Semenya, who went on to prove herself a true professional by winning her 800m, transcending adversity. Finally I wish to applaud Sho Madjozi for winning the BET Award for Best New International Act in Los Angeles.

In Madjozi’s words: “My story is testament that you can come from any village, in any forgotten part of the world, and still be a superstar. For girls that come from where I am from, which is Limpopo, I just want to say that you don’t need to change who you are, you can still be big.”

Despite setbacks and disappointment, these young women and men demonstrate a resilience and a determination that we should all emulate. Even when confronted by great odds, they continue to strive for excellence, to stretch the limits of what people think they are capable of. It is this spirit that should define our national character, a desire to succeed, to learn from mistakes, to never give up.

We should not force on ourselves a false choice between responding to our immediate situation and preparing to meet our future needs.

The future must be built now.

We will not succeed in either addressing the economic crisis of the present or building an inclusive future unless all South Africans play their part. This ranges from actions of individual responsibility – paying taxes, paying for electricity, participating in community forums – to broader social compacts, in which business, labour and government forge agreements on key economic actions.

Allow me to conclude with the words of Kwame Nkrumah that Minister Patel quoted in the debate yesterday. They capture with great precision and potency what our current circumstances demand.

Nkrumah said: “…the task ahead is great indeed, and heavy is the responsibility; and yet it is a noble and glorious challenge which calls for the courage to dream, the courage to believe, the courage to dare, the courage to do, the courage to envision, the courage to fight, the courage to work, the courage to achieve…”

We have a clear plan for the road ahead. We have a clear mandate. Now is the time for all of us to work together to implement it.

Let us always remember what Proverbs 29:18 instructs: “Where there is no vision, the people perish.”

I thank you.

Opinion

33

An unsolicited advice to

President Ramaphosa One of the perks of living in a democracy is that citizens are allowed to air their views and opinions – even when it is to challenge the thinking or approach of those occupying the highest office of the state. The writer airs what, to you, may or may not sound like sound advice.

But the test of the thoughts is whether they are seen to carry by those who really matter – those who can make significant difference to the future of the country.

BY: LETEPE MAISELA

‘T

here is something rotten in the State of Denmark’, so said Marcellus in the Shakespearian tragedy, Hamlet. Substitute Denmark for South Africa.

In the aftermath of the past State of the Nation Address (SONA), to borrow from yet another Shakespearian tragedy Julius Caesar, the knives seem all out for our incumbent President. It’s not only the opposition parties this time baying for his blood but have been joined by reputable political commentators, the media in the past week and even the Office of the Public Protector.

The SONA speech for which our President is being hauled over the hot coals for by all in sundry was in hindsight not a good one.

It was full of sentiment but lacking in content and strategic intend.

While cynics simply dismissed it as a pipe dream, it did remind one of Martin Luther’s ‘I have a Dream Speech’, given during the march on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on 28 August, 1963.

But unlike Martin Luther King who was just an activist with limited civil rights in the United States of America and had to resort to toyitoying in the streets, this cannot be said about our newly anointed OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF THE IPM

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Opinion

President, who is Head of State, armed with far reaching Executive Powers.

First that speech. Sitting in the audience at Parliament, I just wondered how that speech successfully made it into the National Assembly on 20 June, 2019. It somewhat endorsed my long held suspicion that there might be no articulate and crisp speech writers or even adept advisors in the Presidential Chambers. Either that or the man does not engage them and simply ignore their advice. In the speech, The President’s demeanour was that of a mutineer from a pirate ship, who was given an option to walk the plank or be cut loose in a rubber dingy to face the tumultuous and dark seas and he chose the latter. It’s on the basis of this uncanny observation that am humbly offering my unsolicited advice to The President.

Firstly, our President need to grasp and acknowledge the powers that he can wield that has been awarded to the position by our revered Constitution.

I really don’t really need to remind him of that as he was one of those officials involved in the drawing of same Constitution, promulgated by former and late President Mandela on 18 December, 1996. To the uninitiated however let me familiarize you with the section in our South African Constitution that deals with Presidential powers. I will directly quote some excerpts from it: ‘The President is the Head of State, head of Government and Commander in Chief of the South African National Defence Force ……’ eat your heart out CIC Sello Malema.

It further adds, ‘The Executive powers of The Republic are vested in the President. He appoints various officials to positions listed in the Constitution, however the most significant are Ministers of Justice in the Supreme Court of Appeal and the Constitutional Court.’ In this Section 84 that deals with the powers entrusted to our President, which are mind boggling to say the least, include the appointment of Deputy President, Cabinet Ministers and Deputy Ministers. Constitutionally speaking, The President also enjoys powers to remove them from office at whim. This has already happened during the Thabo Mbeki era when he removed his then deputy erstwhile President Jacob Zuma. The latter effectively used the prerogative powers given to fire numerous Ministers and conduct many Cabinet reshuffles at midnight.

Cascading downwards, our Constitution gives the President power to appoint Ambassadors, Heads of our Chapter 9 Institutions and more. Actually our Constitution is the most formidable weapon in the arsenal of the Presidency. One of its major downside is that it glaringly lacks the necessary Checks and Balances, to qualify it as a truly democratic document but I digress. My point is with all those powers under his control, why does it seem like our incumbent President is lately walking on eggs, when our country is literally on fire and precariously poised on the cliff edge.

So here is my tuppence of unsolicited advice to our besieged President: Unlike his presidential predecessors, our current President is not a career politician. He did not therefore enter the presidential race to earn a living. He was already a billionaire of note when he raised his hand for the No 1 position. Because of

that he cannot he held to ransom by his political detractors and supporters alike. In fact, unlike those before him he does not in real terms need this job. That is why I expect of him to position himself as a transformative agent of change, who can fully dedicate himself to getting rid of the past ills, fuelled by incompetence and corruption as he has already begun to. Instead of looking at serving a full term of his presidency, he must not let that ambition distract him from the reality that saving South Africa is more paramount than his political aspirations. Without abusing his Constitutional powers, he can instead use them to weed out evil and promote the good. Whether the vultures circling above his head are at Parliament or Luthuli House, he must not submit as he has on his side the most powerful

Whether the vultures circling above his head are at Parliament or Luthuli House, he must not submit as he has on his side the most powerful weaponry which is our Constitution.

PEOPLE DYNAMICS | May - June 2019

weaponry which is our Constitution.

Finally, just to borrow some snippets from his SONA address and offer own counsel. I, like most, believe that dreaming about the Bullet Train and new ‘Smart City’ is a bit premature and unrealistic.

I however, agree that we do require high speed trains to travel between major South African cities and towns. Those will come as a welcome relief to our overcrowded national roads which results in the annual carnage. The Bullet Train is however not the cheaper answer. Rather we look at the American Amtrak or the French TGV version. The latter built by Alstom, can even utilize our current rail infrastructure making it a far cheaper and more efficient option while travelling at speeds over 200 kmh.

Regarding the digital smart city, I just think the President, like a drowning man was grasping at straws. South Africa in the new millennium need not even start to think about building of further cities, smart or not, to accommodate the exodus from rural to urban. What needs to be done instead is to think about strategies to reverse that exodus rather than encourage it. One of them could simply be done through the decentralization of our economy. We need to encourage industrialization in those remote parts through government subsidization and provision of arable land and financial support to budding black subsistence and commercial farmers. This will enable rural communities to work nearer homes.

Listening to The President’s SONA response on past Wednesday afternoon, I could not but think that this should actually have been his actual SONA speech. But like they say about reactive thinking, normally alluded to as hindsight: ‘It is always the best sight.’

Letepe Maisela is a published author and Management Consultant and writes in his personal capacity. Opinion expressed is not necessarily shared nor endorsed by the publisher.

Development Strategies

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“I Get By With a Little Help from My Friends” Whether seeking professional, social or political progress, ignore the value of building networks and alliances at your peril. Ask members of ‘The Old Boys Club’!

BY: PEOPLE DYNAMICS CORRESPONDENT

L

ooking at the Bexit saga, one can’t help wondering if the process would have gone more smoothly had Theresa May been able to build better alliances with key players ahead of time. Or, if the same key players were a little less self-interested and more willing to pull together to deliver a solution for the greater good. Georgina Barrick emphasises this point in this article as she considers how as leaders, we can and should build better, stronger alliances in our working worlds and encourage others in our circle of influence to do the same – to our mutual benefit. She relates and counsels: In the corporate world, I’ve seen, first-hand, the benefit of having allies, particularly those outside of my normal chain of influence.

A good ally will work with you to achieve your goals, support your views or causes and become a sounding board (offering a different perspective on issues), when you need it. In hand with performance, a strong ally can be a real career differentiator.

The secret is in being able to identify the right partners (both upand downstream in your chain) and, being able to build simpatico with these people over time so that, when you need help, you’re not out in the cold.

No matter how good your performance, or how important your mission, you’re unlikely to achieve what you set out to without help from others. Like any good relationship, building an alliance requires an investment of time and effort. But, if you’ve chosen your ally wisely, it’s likely that the more you put into building your connection, the more reward you will reap, with time.

It’s also important to have more than one ally, perhaps across different disciplines. That way, if your ally leaves or falls from grace, you’re not sent back to square one.

So, what key areas should you focus on to cement your relationship?

Effective communication is the foundation of any positive work

alliances. Talk openly, listen deeply and share important information with your allies. When opinions differ - as they should, respect your allies’ points of view and work to resolve any potential conflict quickly. Keep the lines of communication open always.

Run a clean ship. Be willing to go above and beyond to produce

work that others are proud to support. Foster a culture of helping others by being generous with your time and attention - a ‘we’re in this together’ attitude. Become a resource to others. Helping your allies with their needs long before you need help yourself is a great way to stimulate collaboration, build trust and strengthen connection.

Invest time. Strong relationships are built on shared experiences. Be

available when your ally needs you. Meet often – and, if you can’t, try to stay in touch with emails and messages.

Keep your promises. Do what you say you’ll do – always. Never

over-promise and under-deliver. Rather, be honest and turn down assignments that you know you can’t deliver on. Each time you make and keep a promise, you build on your reputation for reliability and dependability – which builds trust. The opposite is also true.

Pick your battles. Sometimes, you have to lose the battle to win

the war. If you give in on smaller decisions or those that mean more to your ally, you’re more likely to win support for decisions that are important to you. Also, never blindside or betray an ally. Rather, discuss any issues with him or her directly because, if you go outside of your circle of trust, it’s possible that you will damage your alliance irreparably.

Express support and appreciation. Humans respond positively

to being made to feel valued and appreciated. Publicly express your support for your ally. Demonstrate professional courage by speaking out early, before you know which way the wind is blowing on his idea or cause.

Recognise good work. Give praise. Say thank you. Give credit, where due. Doing so builds reciprocal goodwill.

As Napolean Hill said ‘It is literally true that you can succeed best and quickest by helping others to succeed’. As leaders, fostering a culture of collaboration and trust starts with encouraging alliances across teams. May we all find strength in our allies.

OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF THE IPM

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