Component of a Modern Society

Component of a Modern Society

Security is the primary reason why we live in communities. I do not wish to discuss security, but to present the idea that for security to be assured, communication needs to happen within the group so that everyone who has a role can be prepared to do it.

In the public sector, this translates to effective communication between agencies and also between the state and its publics. During emergencies and national events this communication is more visible, but it happens every day. At a strategic level, this communication would be led by specialised government bodies guiding policies and actions for the subject areas for which they command.

 

For clarity, this is what I am saying: for legal matters, the opinion of the Office of the Attorney General is sought; for environmental matters, the National Planning and Environment Agency has to put in a word; for citizenship issues, the Passport, Immigration and Citizenship Agency along with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade lay out the facts and provide a way forward.

 

The public sector cannot be an equivalent to the private sector as each ministry is an essential operation that strengthens the whole under direction of Cabinet and also under the oversight of Parliamentary Commissions.

 

Notwithstanding the excellent quality of products that are currently delivered by the public sector communications agency, the agency does not provide executive level services for its subject area of public sector communication. If such support were to be tabulated, it would begin with the actual implantation of the existing 2015 GoJ Communication Policy and development of a strategic plan that will usher components of the policy, where relevant, as is done in other subject areas.

 

Specialist MDAs are supposed to provide whole of government executive support for major projects from the concept development stage, use networks to build alliances, provide expertise for the evaluation of bids, provide monitoring and quality assurance during project development and implementation and also participate in the evaluation and billing. Perfection is often not achieved, but that is the role of specialist institutions in major

projects. In addition to specialist bodies, government also relies on cross functional teams drawn from its MDAs to provide some oversight of executive level activities.

 

Communication practitioners in MDAS have a full slate of scheduled and seasonal work that is dedicated to the corporate plan of their entity, so undertaking major projects will require outside contractors whose work should be under adequate oversight by professionals with the required experience and skills. Many times, for large projects, these skills do not reside – in fullness – within these diverse bodies. To say it another way, in the field of communications, individual public sector MDAS does not generally have the specialist skills required to carry out large and complex projects, this is really not required for the regular functioning of the bod.

Aside from this, the public sector itself does not have a cadre of executive C Suite level practitioners to assist MDAs to develop, select and monitor major communication projects that are beyond the scope of the established scheduled activities.

 

Conceivably, the government executive agency for communication can shear away the more mundane activities and instead focus on high level substances that require analysis, deeper research, multi-sector collaboration and corporate governance, talent recruitment, development and protection.

The cost of communication tools has dramatically been reduced to the point where even low income persons can deliver a polished product from software that they got free or at a low cost. Training to undertake communication projects are available in Jamaica and or through certification on the Internet or through practice.

 

The NWA shed itself of construction and moved into quality assurance and implementation, In Agriculture, government plantations, factories and farms are no more; in Transportation, the national airline is extinct.

 

There are cost savings that can be made to enable the public sector communications agency to deliver higher level services to the government:

• Accelerate the automaton for booking, distribution and billing processes for stock items;
• Eliminate content platforms that do not locomote towards the national development goals;
• Eliminate production of physical materials
• Reassign records and archives to the Institute of Jamaica or Jamaica Archives and Records as appropriate
• Outsource content production to agile creative houses and state-of-the-art suppliers.

These savings can create a high performance unit of professionals whose experience and knowledge would make them the equivalent of Queens Councils, Major Generals, Professors, Licensed Public Accountants, Commissioners and Surgeons that are found at the apex of other disciplines.  

 

If Jamaica is to be a knowledge society then the public sector has to exploit the value to be gained from the deployment, utilization and retention of knowledge professionals.

https://jis.gov.jm/media/FINAL-Nov.-11-2015-GoJ-Comm.-Policy-Final-doc.pdf

 

High Stock Value of Fatherhood pushing up the High Rate of Jackets

June 18, 2023

Perhaps a crude headline, but I appreciated Dr Orville Taylor's 2023 Fathers Day article. It highlighted that anecdotes and also research should be understood in context, which is sometimes narrow. In the 1950s, when there was very high migration of young working people from Jamaica, Taylor notes that in her book, My Mother Who Fathered Me, researcher Edith Clarke reported that 30% of households had no father in the home. The book seems to have focused on the negative effect of this rather than the economic and social situations that created it. Discussions around this book caused the society to conclude that the Jamaican father being uncaring and unsupportive of their children.

Then Taylor moved away from this to highlight Dr Samms Vaughn's 10 year study that started in 2011, found that 80 per cent of newborns have a father's name on their birth certificates. Looking at it in a different way, research done by STATIN and reported in the PIOJ Jamaica Survey of Living Conditions points out that 18 per cent of families have no father in the home, this is a significant, but much lower than the 30% of the 1950s and very close to the presumed 20% of children born after 2011 who do not have a father's name on their birth certificates.

Having established that father's are named, Dr Taylor says that between 20% and 50% of tests to prove fatherhood are failed. In this context he concludes that mothers place a higher value on giving a child a good father, rather than their real biological father.

The figures seem to exonerate the Jamaican man from lacking as a parent and again turning to the social and economic causes that would lead to another undesirable result. In my experience, I see more evidence of men trying and succeeding as a parent than their counterpart.

Successful Digital Transformation Needs People

 Successful Digital Transformation Needs People

I recently had the pleasure of reading "Successful Digital Transformation: Your World, Your Business, Your Life… Reimagined" by Christopher Reckord and Trevor Forrest, published this year. This concise yet thought-provoking book offered a chance for contemplation amidst life's distractions.

The authors, known for their expertise in digital transformation, and for sharing it in the press and at various fora, have compiled their insights into a book that serves as a valuable resource for enterprises that are embarking or plan to enter a digital transformation. The authors stress the importance of engaging people in the digital transformation process, making them active participants rather than mere bystanders.

Leadership accountability plays a pivotal role in the success of any digital transformation endeavour. The book emphasizes the importance of approachable management and provides an illustrative example of how this can drive positive change. They also quote the adage, “if you can’t change the people, change the people,” to show how the right mindset is needed for digital transformation.

The authors assert that digital transformation should be integrated into an organization's strategic plan, and that it should have a clear focus that will guide the processes and the investments that are required. Conducting a comprehensive assessment of the processes that exist in a business is crucial.

As with any other area in the business, even though the digital transformation document will be prepared by experts, the writers emphasize that it has to be preceded by a holistic assessment of the enterprise. Such a document that will affect the business is not to be prepared by high functioning “solution silos” but must include stakeholders. They have a key tip, “follow the people with the most paper.”

Inclusivity across the board, including customers and external stakeholders, is vital. Taking the time to notify neighbouring property owners before excavating a cable trench across the road, demonstrate respect and consideration for a key stakeholder.

Digital transformation should ultimately enhance customer and client experiences, even if it introduces some initial discomfort. The process of getting service at the Constant Sprint Revenue Centre now involves an additional step, but in my experience, the overall the wait time has been dramatically reduced to a few minutes. The ongoing cry for communities to have offices of financial services as near to them as possible at a time when financial services want to do business online is an ongoing concern. Digital transformation, in these cases, is not an end into itself, but must enhance the service that is being offered.

The writers insist that digital technology must be encouraged and embraced, so us petrol customers may soon have to do like the electric car owners and dial up our own energy and lose out on discussing the weather with a pump attendant.

The authors underline the need for digital technology adoption and emphasize the necessity of establishing governance structures in place before transformation in order to ensure compliance with data handling laws.

This book serves as a motivational guide rather than a technical manual, applicable to various industries, including utilities, banking, and financial services. While some sectors have made substantial progress in digital transformation, others, like healthcare and education, have room for improvement.

The book is a compact, motivating guide that can easily accompany you in your daily life. Whether in a knapsack, tote, or glove compartment, this book is a valuable resource for anyone considering a digital transformation.

Wishing everyone success in their digital transformation endeavours, aiming to enhance a sustainable quality of life, securely.

-30-

 

Can public bodies provide evidence on the value of a print ad in the Sunday Gleaner and the Jamaica Observer?

 

An article on the topical matter of the absence of Jamaica from the UNGA vote towards peace in Gaza on October 27 vote on struck a chord with me as I have been thinking that state agencies should share primary and other data that they use to make decisions. Sometimes, I think that despite targets that are set by agencies, decisions are not based on data and information that will help to achieve the goals but based on other factors.

As I went through the printed Sunday Gleaner and Jamaica Observer newspapers on November 5, I saw other articles in the Observer that are calling for more timely information and data that is created or used by the public sector.

Page 24 Bunting Scolds Gov't Entities for Late Annual Reports

Page 30 advertisement: FSC Has Nothing To Hide

Page 30 Senator Wehby Moots Auditors' Database, "there is no sharing of information or cross learning between these audit committees."

Pages 34 and 35 Garfield Higgins, "Facts Matter"                            

Timeliness and transparency of public information was also mentioned at a public lecture last week. Dr Peter Henry delivered the November 2 PIOJ Dialogue for Development Lecture, and I choose to summarize his charge with this quote from his speech, "By cultivating a culture of transparency regarding the social rate of return on public spending by the Government of Jamaica, the Ministry of Finance could boost its credibility even further and increase engagement with prospective foreign and domestic investors, thereby generating scale and momentum."

My core interest is the data that s available for persons who have the responsibility to carry out the execution of communication programmes. As I was looking at the printed newspapers on November 5, I noted which ads would have a measurable impact.

In the Gleaner, the Companies Office posted the list of companies that have not delivered beneficial ownership returns that can be accepted by the companies office. This ad is probably a requirement for the Companies Office so the fact that it was published is satisfying the communication function. In a similar way, the careers pages are customarily the first point of contact for job seekers so the many ads and notices with regards to professions is almost considered a requirement. The Institution of Engineers ad warning persons to use registered public engineers is such an example. The week before,  it was the Jamaica Dental Association warning persons awar from unlicensed practitioners. In these cases, the number of calls and other activities should be documented within two weeks of the placement of the ad in order to determine its impact.

Page 32 of the Sunday Gleaner was a full page full colour advertisement Petrojam's Product Pricing Explained. There was no invitation for action, but any calls to the office can be counted and its purpose considered whether it had the desired impact. Perhaps this ad satisfies a specific group of stakeholders.

The Bank of Jamaica has four full colour ads in the Business Observer (pages 3, 5, 7, and 9) explaining how to know if a $100 bill is authentic. Each ad covers 40% of the page. In the Gleaner, these ads are about 20% of the pages and do not flow as the pages turn but appear at different places on the broadsheet. There is no bold call to action and I do not see it having a measurable impact on the platforms of the institution.

Election Day Recruitment has a half page full colour ad in the careers section of the newspaper. This ad encourages applications so it is reasonable to say that email applications and calls that come in over the next week can be directly attributed to the print ads.

The Ministry of Health and Wellness full page, full colour Dengue Alert in the Gleaner, the fogging schedule for November 5 to eleven, have no call to action. I do not see a way to measure the impact of these ads.

National Health Fund placed a quarter page full colour ad in the Gleaner and the Observer announcing that five more chronic illnesses are being covered by its services. Calls and other forms of contact about the specific content of the ad over the next week will be able to demonstrate impact.

The same will be true for the Development Bank of Jamaica invitation for entrepreneurs to take advantage of its Credit Enhancement Facility which was advertised using a half page full colour ad in the Gleaner. also of the National Housing Trust half page full colour ads on locations to apply for its  loans.

On November 8 the PIOJ will have a Best Practice Symposium and invites the public to watch using a YouTube link. On November 10, the symposium will feature a public fair on the South Lawn of Devon House called the Local Economic Initiative. It has placed a half page full colour ad to promote this. Only calls and emails to the company over the next week can precisely identify the impact of the ad. There is no way to trace the viewers on YouTube and the persons coming through the fair will not be asked how they found out about it.  

I think that it is time for all advertising to be scrutinized clearly before a decision is made on how it is designed. Each should have a measurable call to action such as a QR code, a contact email address or phone number or social media platform. Also, if possible, when contact is made with the agency, users should go through a screening doorway to find out where they learned about the service, event or opportunity.

On a different matter, enterprises tamper with their logos during the seasons of the year such as for breast cancer awareness, Christmas, and the independence of Jamaica. This trend should be interrogated as I believe it is a fashion trend and not for any real meaningful purpose. Is there an increase in the number of women being screened for breast cancer during October, the awareness month?

Why should any public entity tamper with a logo over Christmas or the independence or heritage holidays? What benefit does this bring to the public?

I will wager my last dollar that there is no data that validates that the changing the colour of a corporate logo during popular health awareness months has an impact on behaviour change and health outcomes. At this time, that data should exist and should be collected and considered.