1 October, 2022 Volume 6, Issue 3 D eputy Governor of the British Virgin Islands Mr. David Archer was elected as the new chairman of the CARICAD Board at the 37th meeting of the Board of Directors of the Caribbean Centre for Development Administration (CARICAD) which was held virtually on July 14th, 2022. Mr. Archer, who has previously served as deputy chairman of the Board, follows the belief that success comes to those who are not afraid to take risks and simply take on new challenges. His love for people and business led him to attain a Bachelor’s degree in Human Resources Management and Business Administration (double major). His passion for people saw his elevation to the role of Director of Human Resources for the Government of the Virgin Islands. He has served as the Permanent Secretary to the Deputy Governor where he provided policy advice and oversaw various departments that fall under the Governor's Group. subjects. Mr. Archer currently serves as the Deputy Governor of the Virgin Islands where he assists the Governor in the exercise of his functions relating to matters for which the Governor is responsible under section 60 of the Constitution. As Deputy Governor, Mr. Archer’s primary role, in support of the Governor, is to oversee the management and development of the Virgin Islands Public Service; to lead the Public Service to ensure the effective delivery of the Government’s programme, and to maintain the highest standards of service delivery and good governance. Mr. Archer is also a certified Organisational Development Specialist, and a trained facilitator and speaker, helping to build Deputy Governor of the British Virgin Islands, Mr. David Archer. Along with his undergraduate degrees, he also possesses a Master’s Degree in Human Resources Management and a Master’s Degree in Business Administration (MBA). He was also appointed as the Senior Liaison Officer to the Governor, providing strategic advice on the Governor’s portfolio of people, businesses, governments, and nations. He is also the author of the books Pioneering Greatness “The Empowerment Experience” and Pioneering Greatness II “Be Ballast”. He is married to Dr. Allison Flax-Archer and has a 18-year-old son named Prince-David Archer. He is an active member of several service organisations, including Rotary, and exercises his entrepreneurial spirit in businesses related to arts, entertainment, hospitality, and real estate. Some of the damage in Dominica from Hurricane Maria. (Photo by Yuri Jones)
2 C ARICAD congratulates the new Chairman of its Board of Directors, Deputy Governor of the British Virgin Islands, Mr. David Archer. Devon Rowe, Executive Director CARICAD At the 37th meeting of the Board which was held virtually in July, several matters were addressed including ongoing technical assistance delivery, the performance of the CARICAD Leadership Development Programme, and an enhanced focus on digital government. Actions were taken to address governance matters to support the achievement of the mandate, financial sustainability and institutional strengthening of CARICAD. The impact of COVID-19 was evident in the delay in conducting this meeting, but in keeping with technological and COVID-19 inspired developments in recent times, CARICAD has been able to deliver content using webinars, blogs and social media which allows for ease of access, especially for younger people. We are a repository of information/experiences that generate lessons that help others to be innovative and adaptive in a rapidly changing environment. When COVID came, we were quickly able to adapt and provide advice because of our own lessons learnt. We have actually been executing against the approved Remote Work Policy and were able to effectively and efficiently move into remote work in 2020 when COVID hit us. CARICAD was ahead of the curve as the Centre had already begun to put various arrangements in place that supported work and effectiveness before the pandemic, and we will continue to do so. It should be noted that CARICAD continues to be in alignment with the CARICOM Strategic Plan, and we support the “I am CARICOM” initiative which adorns our cover page. We have a small team at CARICAD, delivering big results. CARICAD’s focus has been on shaping and enhancing the development and sustainability of strong governance and leadership structures. We may not be the direct deliverers of the services but we influence the people who are doing it. We provide information that can affect the quality of people’s lives and that can improve quality of services – we inspire Transformation through the development of various tools such as the Public Sector Transformation Tool (PSTAT) and various schematics. Our Leadership Development Programme provides value that can be used in people’s everyday lives, and in this edition, we feature the reflections of two participants in these programmes. These quarterly newsletters are always filled with perspectives on resilience, strategic planning and many other areas that can be utilised as research tools for academics, while being articulated in a manner that is easily understood. We produce unique hurricane newsletter specials which provide useful information to the people of the region who every year, from June to November, have to prepare for the hurricane season and we freely offer guidance in the preparation, for example, of Business Continuity Plans for these occurrences. In July we shared our special edition Hurricane Preparedness newsletter and we now invite you to enjoy this most recent edition of our newsletter.
3 By Franklyn Michael – Supplementary Associate – CARICAD T he cry continues in our CARICOM Region. There is not enough implementation! The polite and euphemistic way in which it continues to be described is our “Implementation Deficit.” There is too much talking and not enough action. Policies are often not implemented and projects are often left in the formulation and inception stages. Yet, there is so much planning taking place. However many of those plans fail to produce tangible, observable or measurable Results. CARICAD continues to work towards solutions to problems in our member states. The Implementation Deficit is one such “wicked problem”. We need to focus on our deficiencies in implementation. We should work collectively to bring about a dramatic improvement much sooner rather than much later. A change of behaviour among the senior management ranks of our public services is required. A change in behaviour often starts with a change in mindset. However it is changes in behaviour, not the adherence to beliefs and concepts that create meaningful change. Our public service structures, systems, procedures, rules and regulations are still for the most part a legacy of colonialism. Our public sector was a bastion of bureaucracy and near-immutable regulation. The sector was not designed for today’s realties with our countries being independent states. The public sector still reflects an era in which preserving the status quo was prominent. The primary purpose of a public service in the colonial era was protection of the vital interests of the colonial powers. Today, our region needs our public service to focus on Resilient and Sustainable Development, in an era of rapid change and great uncertainty. Public sector managers should embrace the need to change mindsets and lead a charge to change from a culture of control to one of performance and results. Management Guru Peter Drucker said: “Culture eats Strategy for Breakfast.” CARICAD is urging that we re-set Strategic Planning in the full context of Strategic Management. We should accept the need to focus not just on Strategic Planning and plans but on organisational culture, implementation and results. In other words, focus on implementation through Strategic Delivery. Strategic Delivery is the term CARICAD uses to describe the processes, procedures, practices, activities and actions that are required for an organisation to deliver goods and services as Outputs of its Mandate, Vision and Mission. It is a phased process but the phases are iterative and should overlap to ensure smooth implementation and delivery of results. The major phases are: Strategic Thinking Strategic Planning Implementation – Strategic Delivery Consolidation Those phases constitute a framework that many of us would regards as Strategic Management. The principal idea of this article is that there is nothing wrong with embracing the concept of Strategic Management. Continues on next page
4 Continued from previous page What we need to do is accept that we need to emphasise implementation, the way we emphasised planning. This CARICAD framework connects planning to a typical organisational working environment. Planning should not be seen as a stand-alone activity. The two frameworks created by CARICAD demonstrate that in terms of implementation a Strategic Plan is in many ways the early part of a sequential yet cyclical process to produce desired results in organisations. The schemas are shared for your later reflection and guidance for developing your own organisational roadmaps for implementation. We now return to the theme of improving our level of Continues on next page
5 Continued from previous page implementation in the region. We need to place emphasis on the following areas: Senior Management Accountability Strategic Human Resources Management Transformational Leadership Continuous Communication Culture Change Senior Management Accountability We need to hold our public sector managers accountable directly and personally for results within their organisation. I am aware that at the top level of many of our public services there is resistance but as a former Permanent Secretary myself who was held accountable for Results in a protracted crisis, I say it is high time we embrace that approach. It is not the Minister’s fault if there is no up-to-date Strategic Plan (SP). It is not the Minister’s fault if the SP is out of date or not aligned with the budget allocation. It is not the Minister’s fault if staff meetings have not been held for years. It is not the Minister’s fault if Performance Reports and Annual Reports are not submitted on time. Managers must accept responsibility for their tasks, not simply enjoy authority. Continues on next page
6 Continued from previous page Strategic Human Resources Management (SHRM) Rosemund Warrington of CARICAD continues to do pioneering work on Strategic and Competency Based Human Resources Management. Many current HRM procedures, systems and practices still represent out-of-date thinking that does not support a culture of implementation. I quote Mrs. Warrington below: “The pandemic, in an unprecedented manner, has increased the focus on how work is done and on the need for better strategic implementation of human resource (HR) policies to ensure business continuity. HRM can no longer be predominantly a compliance function. Public Sector organisations (PSOs) must reset the HR compass to remain relevant and outcomes-focused. This means adopting and stretching strategies and mindsets, envisioning, thinking outside the box, adapting and implementing transformation activities as part of a sustained process of improving service delivery to citizens within the limitations of resources. This approach to and mindset of change will enable PSOs to build new capabilities and continuously adapt to evolving contexts and priorities. Extracted from the article, Reframing HRM in the Public Service: from Principles to Practice. Transformational Leadership Although your position as a top manager or supervisor, gives you the authority to accomplish certain tasks and objectives in the organisation (called Assigned Leadership), this power does not make you a leader, it simply makes you the boss (W.G. Rowe, 2007). Leadership differs in that it makes the followers want to achieve extraordinary goals (called Emergent Leadership), rather than simply bossing people around (W.G. Rowe, 2007). Thus you get Assigned Leadership by your position and you display Emergent Leadership by influencing people to do remarkable things. Transformational Leadership is what makes Emergent Leadership sustainable. It is a style of Leadership where the leader collaborates with employees to identify the needed change, creating a vision to guide the change through inspiration, and executing the change in tandem with committed members of the group. CARICAD suggests that you try this approach: Lead by example Emphasise goals Focus on Results Treat team members as individuals Steer, do not drive Pull, do not push Defend the team against unfair attacks Plan for your exit – contribute to succession planning Continuous Communication It is not possible to achieve organisational success unless there is effective communication within the organisation and externally. Workers and stakeholders need to know not only what is expected of them but how they fit into the effort to achieve goals and results. Matt Koschmann of the Department of Communication University of Colorado, Boulder, said the following in 2012: “If organisations don’t communicate the right information to the right people at the right times in the right ways, things fall apart: directions aren’t followed, customers aren’t Continues on next page
7 Continued from previous page satisfied, clients aren’t served, regulations aren’t obeyed, and general chaos ensues. And in certain high-risk organizations, like our military or your local fire department, getting the right information to the right people is absolutely critical so we certainly need effective communication within organizations.” It is clear that without effective organisational communication desired results will not be attained. A commitment to communication informally and formally that follows good practice such as the Seven Cs of Communication is vital. Remember that non-verbal communication within organisations sends powerful messages. Culture Change A focus on implementation to generate Results – Outputs, Outcomes and Impact, requires an organisational culture that embraces, nurtures and sustains that attention. The key to running a successful organisation is to have a culture based on a strongly held and widely shared set of beliefs that are appropriately supported by strategy and structure. When an organisation has a strong culture, three things happen: Employees know how top management wants them to respond to any situation, employees believe that the expected response is the proper one, and employees know that they will be rewarded for demonstrating the organisation's values. Keynote Thought It is important that we in the CARICOM region deliver Results - Outputs and Outcomes and have a lasting Impact with our work. We need to go from Vision to Action more consistently. We need to implement policy; not simply help to create it. We need to implement the plans we develop, not only develop those plans and then leave them as dusty, dead documents. This article can only stimulate reflection and share ideas — it is up to you to make it happen. Hold yourself accountable. Be more than an Influencer — become a consistent Implementer. The Seven Cs Framework was created by Dr. John Baird and Dr. Jim Stull.
8 Participant Reflection – Emerging Leaders’ Development Programme Cohort 1, Central Bank of Barbados By Mrs. Arlene Estwick, Participant, Strategy Officer, Central Bank of Barbados A s I reflected on the past three months of the Emerging Leaders’ Programme (ELP), I am indeed grateful for the several opportunities it provided: the opportunity provided to me to grow the opportunity to learn a plethora of new tools and techniques of leadership the opportunity to unlearn some old ways of thinking and being, the opportunity to share in practical ways with my colleagues and to expose my vulnerabilities knowing it was all for the greater good of becoming a better person, a better colleague and a better leader. Among my favourite tools were the Extended DISC and the Action Learning Sessions. The Extended DISC not only made me more aware of my communication style but also that of others. It highlighted how we sometimes need to adjust our approach based on what communication style we are interacting with. Action Learning, done similar to coaching, is a process of insightful questioning and active listening that involved us working in small groups to discuss real issues. These sessions were a life line and gave me the opportunity to share openly and to hear multiple perspectives on an issue I was seeking to shoulder on my own. These sessions underscored the importance of team support and how much better and more effective we can be by working together. I therefore encourage us to continue these coaching sessions within our groups and to create new coaching opportunities within our departmental teams. Better Together We learned that good leaders seek input from others…so to put this into practice I asked my colleagues to share one word that would sum up their experience in the programme over the past 12 weeks. I was very encouraged by their responses: Enlightening; Insightful; Empowering; ThoughtProvoking; Practical; Relevant; Timely; Rich; Useful; Informative; Consistent; Engaging; Educational, Intense, Life-giving; Life-changing. (All of which I wholeheartedly endorse!) Colleagues, just imagine, if each of us were to apply what we have learnt, little by little and bit by bit, I believe we would start to see positive changes occurring across the Bank. But for this to become a reality, each of us needs to play our part. Let us not just check the box on having completed this programme but let us commit to implementing what we have learnt within our departments, our teams and the wider Bank. For if we truly want to create and maintain a happy and healthy work environment then it is up to all of us here today to be a part of the solution. I challenge each and every one to let us work together to help bring about the positive changes we want to see in our Bank (it’s not going to happen by chance). Twelve weeks ago, when we commenced our Leadership development journey Dr. Parkes asked us what we were most curious about? For me, it wasn’t a question I had to deliberate on because this question was top of mind for me on entering the programme. What was I most curious about? After going through the programme how could I then translate what I had learnt in to real action that could influence positive change whether be it in terms of mindsets, culture, how we lived our values and how we valued each other. Having gone through the programme is this still a burning question for me? Perhaps not burning but it is still very much top of mind! Do I have the answer? I believe I do… I refer them as My Five Bs: Begin — start where I am..within my circle of influence Be the change I want to see — start with me… model the behaviours that align with the Bank values Be intentional — set out each day to make small improvements — it’s not what I say; it’s what I do repeatedly Be adaptable —change is occurring at a rapid pace – If I am to remain relevant I must maintain Continues on next page
9 By Petra Emmanuel, Tutor, Barbados Community College I Continued from previous page a posture of flexibility Bring others along — I can’t do it on my own (it takes a village… all of us have a role to play). There is a famous quote which says, “if you want to go fast go alone…but if you want to go far…go together!” On behalf of my colleagues and I, let me extend a huge thank you to CARICAD for partnering with the Bank to facilitate this first cohort of the Emerging Leaders’ Development programme. Special thanks to our Facilitators Dr. Lois Parks and Ms. Trudy Waterman who were the absolute best! For 12 weeks these ladies showed up and served us with high energy, endless content and loads of engagement. The synergy and exchange that was consistently displayed by Dr. Parkes and Trudy tells me that that these ladies live and practice what they teach! Special thanks to Governor Haynes and the team in HR for recognising that this level of training and exposure is critical for the growth and development of our senior supervisors whose supportive role is paramount in helping our leaders inspire and motivate our colleagues to continue to pursue the Bank’s vision of creating and maintaining a centre of excellence. n December 2021, I successfully completed the three-month CARICAD Mid-Level Leadership Development programme. Going into the programme I did not even see myself as a traditional “leader” – I had figured the course would get me closer to acquiring some leadership skills, but I did not expect such a life-changing experience. I was placed in groups from day one of each of the weekly sessions, with people I had never met before. This reminded me of the many times I placed my students in groups to complete projects, and expected them to get the job done. Like my students, I had to be able to interact with strangers, and fortunately for me, I have since forged great connections with those brilliant civil servants. I was always a good listener but I have learned that just listening is not enough, especially when addressing student, staff and even family concerns. I learned to slow down, show genuine interest, and focus on one thing at a time to make my family, work and social relationships better. In the CARICAD group sessions, this type of communication was key as we were all able to share our project ideas and we gained feedback, which highlighted the importance of consultation. It was during the breakout sessions that I was most honest with myself and for example, was able to identify my own anger issues and to identify and address my triggers – the things that made me angry – and I have learned to strive to keep myself above the line. This knowledge was applied to my students. In the remote learning environment, some students also faced significant problems coping with their workload due to stress, anger and other personal issues. When dealing with my students, I learned to approach each one with greater sensitivity and a more open mind. I was able to better recognise that all relevant information may not be forthcoming, and careful analysis may be needed, as well as further research into the specific issues that individual students face. This brings me to another component of communication. Building a remote work culture in teaching was essential as new COVID-19 variants came to our island and we had to adapt. I was sure to provide clear communication of student assignments, as well as address possible limitations due to working in the online environment. I was able to develop a virtual opendoor policy for the remote environment with precise guidelines – leaving clear communication channels such as Whatsapp and email where my students were able to ask me questions at any point, and I always responded within a reasonable time-frame. This all assisted me in becoming an even better educator, and communicator on the whole. Employers, whether public or private sector, I am making a recommendation that you allow your employees to have their chance to achieve this level of personal reflection and development. Provide them with the tools that will better allow them to handle interactions with each other more effectively. Let my experience be your encouragement to place your employees in the CARICAD Mid-Level Leadership Development programme.
10 By Kyle Waterman-Forte Student, Barbados Community College D uring the summer of 2022 I had the opportunity to participate in an internship at CARICAD. My internship commenced on July 20th, 2022 and ended on August 17th. CARICAD is the Caribbean Centre for Development Administration. I am Kyle Waterman-Forte and I am 17 years of age. I am a first-year student at the Barbados Community College and was elated to find out that I had the chance to gain experience at a regional institution. CARICAD is the embodiment of dedication to hard work and community service, enveloped in expertise. With such characteristics, the Caribbean Centre for Development Administration is a perfect place to establish and/or propel one’s professional career. It has been one of the most developmental experiences I have had so far in my life. Some of my duties included setting up devices, backing up files to an external hard-drive, researching new devices to replace out-of-date devices at the office, and analysing quotations from businesses concerning devices for the office. I left CARICAD with improved skills in presentations, research, and in providing technical support pertaining to personal and public office devices. These skills will enable me to become more proficient and efficient in due course, for my life, my education going forward, and my future career. Working at CARICAD has instilled a strong work ethic and good time management within me and for that I am grateful. My internship at CARICAD has been a blessing. I enjoyed working closely with the Executive Director, Mr. Rowe, along with Mrs. Eversley, and with CARICAD’s Supplementary Associate, Mr. Franklyn Michael. I encourage other young adults to apply for an internship at CARICAD because it offers great experience and insight. THE TEAM Previous editions can be viewed at: The CARICAD Horizon is a regular publication of the Caribbean Centre for Development Administration (CARICAD). The Horizon has superseded the “Chronicle”. The Editor-in-Chief is CARICAD’s Executive Director, Devon Rowe. The Production Team comprises: Franklyn Michael, Rosemund Warrington, Dr. Lois Parkes, Trudy Waterman, Angela Eversley and Petra Emmanuel. Special Hurricane Edition July 2022 March 2022 December 2021 October 2021 Special Hurricane Edition June 2021 March 2021 October 2020 July-August 2020 Special Hurricane Edition June 2020 Special COVID-19 Edition May 2020 March 2020 December 2019 October 2019 Board Meeting 2019 Special Edition April 2019 December 2018 August 2018 December 2017 July 2017 1st Floor Weymouth Corporate Centre, Roebuck Street, Bridgetown, Barbados Tel: 246-427-8535 Email: caricad@caricad.net Website: www.caricad.net
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