Development Solutions Consultancy

Intentionally or not organizations develop their own culture. Every organization has a culture, the question is, “Was the culture intentional or unintentional?” Sadly and all too often the culture that emerges in many organizations is unintentional. The problem is that most unintentional cultures do not drive the organization forward towards better productivity and greater achievements.

Great organizational cultures are built on the premise of "creating experiences that make employees and customers feel valued and appreciated." Now let's take a look at three guidelines towards building a great culture.

1. Vision - A clear vision of what you are doing is the starting point of a great culture. This is really the blueprint of what your organization intends to do. However, too many organizational visions remain mere statements on walls with hardly any meaning to the organization. True visions must be alive and evident within employees. It's important for a vision to be effectively communicated all throughout the organization because it acts as a guide for people's decisions and actions within the organization. A vision drives strategic management.
2. Purpose - Purpose is the reason why you are doing what you are doing. It's imperative to let your people know why the vision matters. When people understand and embrace purpose, Continue reading...

Image source in2eastafrica.net

With so much discussion currently on the Tanzanian education system and its subsequent impact on employees, organizational learning and the society at large, I found it pertinent to present here two important citations. The first is from Albert Einstein as quoted by Carl Rogers and Jerome Freiberg in the third edition of the book, Freedom to Learn published in 1994; first published by Carl Rogers in 1969. The second is an extract of the Table from Shana Ratner's 1997 publication on Emerging Issues in Learning Communities in which Shana provided the old and new answers to how we learn. Hopefully the powerful message in these citations stimulates you to follow and more importantly to contribute to the on-going debate on educational reforms.

"It is in fact short of a miracle that the modern methods of instruction have not yet entirely strangled the holy curiosity of inquiry; for this delicate little plant, aside from stimulation, stands mainly in the need of freedom; without this it goes to wrack and ruin without fail." - Albert Einstein (from Freedom to Learn by Carl Rogers and H. Jerome Freiberg) Continue reading...

We recently had the privilege to facilitate a retreat for the VETA Hotel, Tourism and Training Institute (VHTTI). The retreat took place at the Ngurdoto Mountain Lodge in Arusha from the 24th to the 27th of January 2013.

The Overall objective of the Retreat was:

• To raise awareness and understanding about how to improve individual and organizational performance.

The Specific objectives were:

• To hold reflective discussions on how to further improve staff collaboration and performance;
• To create awareness and understanding about leadership, teamwork, OPRAS, work planning and budgeting;
• To identify pertinent issues that may need further action and draw up an action plan.

In order to tailor make the facilitation to needs of VHTTI, Continue reading...

• What is it? Enhancing Personal Success through Effective Performance
• Where? Corridor Springs Hotel, Arusha, Tanzania
• When? 14th & 15th March 2013
• Daily start and end times? 9:00AM to 4:30PM (with breaks in-between)

If you are just joining us on this series, be sure to take a look at part 1.

Jim Collins defines a great company as one that consistently makes a distinctive impact to its beneficiaries, has superior performance in its arena of operation and continuously achieves sustained returns in excess of other companies in its industry.

There are countless numbers of companies in the world today yet, only a few are great ones. You will quickly realize after looking at the principles below that, what makes great companies is actually not enigmatic. On the contrary the principles are surprisingly straightforward but seldom practiced by other companies. In other words, great companies are disciplined in doing what’s hard and necessary to get them to greatness.

• Great companies didn’t decide to get passionate about what they do; rather they decided to only do the things they can be passionate about. They clearly understand what they can be the best at in the world, and equally important what they cannot be the best at. Continue reading...

Recently we advertised and held a two-day training on Enhancing Personal Success Through Employment in Arusha from 29-30 November 2012. The training was aimed at enabling each participant to:

• Perform more effectively by focusing on results;
• Pro-actively manage oneself to achieve results;
• Utilize employment for personal growth and success.

So, what did participants think of it?

• 100% rated the training as very useful;
• 100% said they would recommend the training to other staff members in their organizations;
• 100% said they would be very interested in another training from Development Solutions Consultancy.

Jim Collins wrote a phenomenal book titled "Good to Great". He and his team did a very extensive research to find out what made companies move from just being good to becoming leading world class authorities in their respective fields. I think we can learn a great deal from his findings and add more value in both personal and professional lives. Below are the lessons and insights we can all utilize and benefit from:

• Good to Great leaders focused on acquiring people who had more attitudinal qualities than specialized knowledge. Their initial focus was creating a culture of discipline. They believed that by having the right disciplined people, you then don't need hierarchy, bureaucracy or mechanisms for excessive controlling. This makes a lot of sense since a lot of research on success, points out that your attitude determines how high you make your mark in life. You can explore more on this amazing topic of attitude by taking a look at an older post titled Importance of Attitude.
• The research points out that the leaders here had unwavering resolve; they had such a strong determination to do whatever it took to make the company great. Continue reading...

• What is it? Enhancing Personal Success through Employment
• Where? Equator Hotel, Arusha, Tanzania
• When? 29th & 30th November 2012
• Daily start and end times? 9:00AM to 4:30PM (with breaks in-between)

It’s quite interesting when you think about it that 97% of the world population controls about 3% of the wealth. It’s sad but most of our university educational systems set us up to compete for 3% of the wealth. The rich 3% live on a philosophy that says, “Observe the masses and do the opposite.” In other words successful people don’t follow the crowd; they tend to question what’s common and mostly do just the opposite. They tend to do what’s uncommon and therefore also live an uncommon life.

Uncommon people understand that trying harder isn’t necessarily a solution to achieving more. It may not offer any real promise for getting what you want out of life. In fact, sometimes, it’s a big part of the problem. They believe it’s more worthwhile spending more time developing your strengths rather than spending more time improving your weaknesses. We all have weaknesses but uncommon people tend to manage their weaknesses, and then continually develop and master what they are good at. They believe that you cannot be anything you want to be, but you can be a lot more of who you already are. Continue reading...

In the recent years succession planning has become a topical issue in the circles of public organizations in Tanzania. It is a result of unprecedented large numbers of employees retiring at about the same time without proper planning for their replacement. Not only was the need to employ new staff created but also a seniority gap. The gap between the level of existing staff and the seniority of job positions falling vacant was big. This has called for urgent measures to upgrade skills of employees and to ensure public organizations develop succession plans.

As is always the case, for every problem there is an opportunity. The opportunity created by the need for succession planning should be utilized not only to recruit staff but also to improve management and leadership systems. Improved management and leadership systems would ensure maintaining optimal organizational staffing and availability of conducive work environment for employees to give their best performance. Achieving this depends on the extent succession planning is properly conducted because succession planning is not about planning per se. It is about developing effective management and leadership systems. Continue reading...