There is growing evidence that the evolutionary approach to change in both the public sector and the business community is no longer sustainable. For us to grow the economy, provide meaningful employment and expand the range of choices for our people we need a fresh approach to both the structure of government and business organizations. This includes the country’s learning centers from primary school to university.
The productivity of people is directly related to the structure of the organization in which they work and the flow of information. Thus the limiting factor on an individual’s performance is more likely to be determined by the organizational structure of the unit in which he works rather than his personal abilities or work ethic.
Over the past few decades we have been consumed with employee performance standards and evaluations, training of personnel and the development of incentive programmes. The results have been less than stellar. As a result, there is a reform fatigue setting in and a certain cynicism developing that makes us accept things as they are and not what they should be.
It is time for us to use the tools of new technology and communication systems to change the way we work and share information as well as how we learn. For this we need to continue to develop a robust and secure communications infrastructure that will ultimately deliver fibre optic connectivity to both residential and business locations as well as third and fourth generation wireless connectivity. The pace of this development is painfully slow and is largely a result of a lack of appreciation by both government and business leaders in the value of state of the art communication infrastructure in shaping the business of the future.
Another area that is sadly lacking is the inability of the banking system to support online real time transactions despite the investment made by the Central Bank to facilitate this activity. This is an intolerable state of affairs and hamstrings the major customers of the banks in their efforts to improve their efficiencies and customer service.
One example of structural change would be to allow more employees to work from home offices unless their presence at a specific physical location was absolutely needed. Today online access and video conferencing are very affordable and facilitates a wide range of remote employee activities including remote conference calls and online training. The resultant saving in commuting expense and the reduction of office space would be significant. Many families have two cars to support the transportation needs of a husband and wife who work in two different locations. If one or both of them participated in online work the need for two cars could be eliminated reducing their capital cost of transportation and the expenditure of foreign exchange. Finally, the stress of commuting through the parking lot at Waterford Bottom or the Garfield Sobers Roundabout would be eliminated as would be the need to spend tens of millions to address the Warrens traffic nightmare.
But that’s just it. We are more comfortable spending hundreds of millions of dollars just keeping up and essentially marking time rather than thinking outside the box, creating revolutionary change at a much lower cost and ensuring that we have a future.
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