Douglas Orane | Baking a bigger pie rather than fighting over how to slice it – Pt Five

This is my fifth and final article on how to dramatically increase productivity, thus creating a virtuous upward cycle for improving the well-being of our people.

I have previously shared six case studies demonstrating how diverse groups of us Jamaicans have used our own initiative to produce more, with less effort, in less time, and with more fulfilment in our lives. The purpose was to shine the light on what I see as the solution to our productivity paradox – demonstrating transformational leadership, and spreading those transformational skills outwards across the wider society.

Here are six steps that I’m now proposing that, once implemented, will lead to rapid productivity improvements in our country.

1 Embrace courageous leadership on a personal level. Courage is not the absence of fear. Instead, it is recognising and accepting fear, and then doing what is right. We will have to do this by shrugging off concerns about being considered unpopular, rejecting the views of others that feel “ah so it set”, and strengthening our resolve in the face of risks to our personal safety.

2 Build trust, be humble, respectful, engage in a truthful way those who surround us at the workplace, avoid conspicuous displays of wealth. We have designed a country with increasing inequality. Why create more resentment by flaunting material possessions? It cannot be in one’s own self-interest.

3 Make systems work. Diligently implement policies, procedures, governance, and methodologies independent of personalities. Explicitly state that “Rule following is not optional”. We Jamaicans respond to good order when impartially implemented. That’s why we do so well when we go overseas. We do well here also, if we’re provided with a similar context of a sound rules-based environment, impartially enforced. The Heptones give us a clue what we need to do:

While common people like you and me,

We’ll be builders for eternity,

Each is given a bag of tools,

A shapeless mass and the book of rules.

4 Create clusters of excellence, wherever you are. Many are probably doing so already, developing and running entities where excellence is the accepted norm, and where, therefore, productivity improvement is the outcome. This initiative embraces everything from a listed company on the stock exchange to a small family business, to a sole proprietor, to a department within the public sector, to a trade union, to a school, to our own families. Despite our country’s dismal record of productivity declines, there are many, many examples of entities which have displayed the virtuous upward cycle of productivity improvement. It is, therefore, very doable for us to create even more such world-class entities.

5 Proactively network to connect existing clusters of excellence. Cover Jamaica with an interconnected web of outstanding institutions and individuals, mutually supporting each other so that, in general, we strengthen societal gains, and in particular, we make our organisations more robust. Let’s not get distracted by whatever negatives may be out there in the surrounding environment. Every society in the world has its own negatives with which to grapple, so let’s not be despondent.

6 What gets measured gets done. At every level, aim for a simple measurement of productivity that every single person in our organisations can easily understand. It’s better to have an imperfect but simple measure than an exceedingly complex one that is near to perfection, but which hardly anyone can comprehend. Then hold each person accountable for that measurement.

I believe that once we have executed on these six steps, plus others that you yourselves may think of, we will show dramatic increases in productivity from the near future up to the year 2030. We will then truly have a country in which to live, work, play, invest, do business and raise our children.

Black Uhuru shows us what we need:

Everybody wanna work for a living,

They wanna keep their children warm,

Everybody just wants to be forgiven,

They want a shelter from the storm.

Solidarity, solidarity,

Solidarity, solidarity,

Solidarity, solidarity,

In closing, I am heartened by the many responses I have received to this series, and to how individuals have used the contents to implement solutions in their own lives. Interestingly, the greatest number of responses were triggered by my most recent article on inculcating punctuality, and on deciding on the appropriate subcultures within which to choose to live.

Please share these articles as widely as you can, so that you become one of the catalysts for the positive change that we all seek. You can read them all, and share them online at https://viewpointsja.com/baking-a-bigger-pie-rather-than-fighting-over-h... .

- Douglas Orane is the retired chairman and chief executive officer of GraceKennedy Limited. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and douglasorane16@gmail.com.