In-School Productivity Campaign | Staying on Track

If you are a Cadet at the Caribbean Maritime University (CMU), chances are you are studying one of two things: marine navigation or marine engineering. The roaring voice of the company leader echoed as we entered the room where some 150 bright-faced men and women quickly stood at attention to acknowledge our presence. 'Stand by ... Stand up' were the commanding words that were uttered by Chief Officer Cadet Chambers Winston.

With much poise, attention and confidence the group of students interacted with members of the Information and Communication Unit (ICU) of the Jamaica Productivity Centre (JPC) during a recent productivity sensitisation session held at the Palisadoes campus in Kingston.

The journey to the well-kept, nicely tucked away from the main road, compound was not short of signage, eliminating any possible confusion about which turns to take. This, we thought, was extremely important in ensuring that the team did not miss the path and waste time trying to navigate ourselves. Another good thing is that we do not believe that the signs were placed there especially for us, neither for some special event. This is worthy of highlighting as many Jamaican businesses fail to offer detailed, clear directions about their business places, let alone install proper signage leading to as well as at their locations.

A simple check on Google maps provides clear navigation routes to the university with an approximate number of kilometres you can expect to travel as well as the expected amount of time it will take to get to the destination. This information is clearly based on the average speed of traffic in the area as well as the speed limit for the various thoroughfares, among other factors.

With the availability of this information, the team from the JPC, which was visiting the maritime university for the first time, was able to carefully allocate travel time accordingly. Usually, without proper navigation and signage, one can spend hours trying to find a location. This sort of misdirected activity tends to support the wasting of precious resources such as time and petrol and contributes to the level of 'bad driving' on our roads.

We must admit, however, that technology has its challenges and will land you in an incorrect location especially when the roads have not been registered on the platform as evidenced by the "unknown road" response generally given by Google maps when the name of a road is not in its archives.

... Stand up for signage

During a recent visit to a school in rural Jamaica, the Jamaica Productivity Centre (JPC) team used technology to identify on the map, the exact location of the school. However, the names of the minor roads were not listed and so we made a few wrong turns but thankfully we saw signage, signalling which communities we were entering and leaving. As we headed deeper into the Cockpit Country, we noticed that the number of signs were lessening and so we got concerned, thinking we were lost.

The team pulled up at a roadside shop to query whether we were still on the right track and indeed we were, driving off with instructions from one resident who said, "Go straight, straight, straight!". Needless to say that she was correct except that when we got to the community in which the school is situated, we asked a stander-by who instructed us to take a left turn in order to get to our destination.

It's time that we stop 'standing by' and 'stand up' by helping our fellow citizens access proper navigation information and provide appropriate signage where necessary.

Therefore, we encourage business entities and other establishments to include their location information on navigation platforms such as Google maps and map box. And, we encourage everyone else; students, teachers, professionals, executives, farmers, vendors, shoppers, to utilise these location services to better enable us to move around efficiently and effectively, thereby increasing our productivity.

The moral of this story is that simple things, such as signs, that we often take for granted, can make a big difference in saving time and improving personal and organisational productivity.

Sandrea Dennis Plummer is a Communication Specialist at the Jamaica Productivity Centre.