Implementing the NDP: Implications for Leadership Development

Job Mokgoro

Conference on NDP Work: From Design to Delivery, School of Public

Leadership, Bellville21-23 November 2013

Introduction

• The NDP is a significant development in the history of SA’s democracy

• It represents the most coherent & integrated approach to addressing the socio-economic challenges of SA

• Whilst it provides a clearer vision for the future, it raises a number of major questions such as: ‘how to get there?’

Doing Things Differently

• NDP sets out six (6) interlinked priorities:– Uniting all South Africans around a common programme to

achieve prosperity & equity– Promoting active citizenry to strengthen development,

democracy & accountability– Bringing about faster economic growth, higher investment

& greater labour absorption– Focusing on key capabilities of people & the state– Building a capable & developmental state– Encouraging strong leadership throughout society to work

together to solve problems

Focus of this Presentation

– Focusing on key capabilities of people & the state

– Building a capable & developmental state– Encouraging strong leadership throughout

society to work together to solve problems

Service Delivery Complexity

• South Africa is faced with complex problems, domestically and globally

• These problems include poverty, inequality, unemployment, service delivery protests

• These problems have many causes and many manifestations, and many multiple different players have different kinds of influence over them

• Cause & effect are distant in time & space & not easily discernible

Service Delivery Complexity

• The causes themselves have many causes of their own & are often interlinked & reinforce each other

• Poverty causes AIDS, AIDS causes poverty, & both poverty & AIDS are causes of the rise in the number of vulnerable children

• Because of this complexity, solutions directed at one part of the system, without a view of the whole, can compound problems in another part

Service Delivery Complexity

• The prospects of climate change increases the use of bio-fuels, which leads to food shortages, which leads to increased deforestation, which in turn compounds carbon emissions & increases climate change

• These problems require us to work out creative & systemic solutions by not only communicating but also learning & collaborating across sectors, levels, & cultures

Crumbling infrastructure

Too few South Africans are employed

Spatial patterns marginalise the

poor

Divided communities

Resource intensive economy

Poor educational outcomes

Public service performance is

uneven

Corruption

High disease burden

Eliminating poverty

Reducing inequality

Service Delivery Complexity• In tackling our complex service delivery challenges:

– What are the qualities of the type of solutions we need?– What mindsets & capacities do we need in order to be effective?– How do we overcome the blockages we face?– What processes & resources can support this work?

• We need to innovate at the scale of the whole system rather than pockets

• We should develop collective leadership capacity if we are to succeed

“We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking used when we created them” (Einstein)

Complexity

• The complexity of the issues & the web of interconnections between government, business, civil society & society mean that the world has:– ‘Become too complex & interdependent for any one

institution or sector to effectively respond to today’s challenges & opportunities’

– No one sector on its own has simultaneously the mandate & resources to tackle some of the most difficult societal issues

Actors & Stakeholder in Service Delivery

Government

Private Sector

Civil Society

Citizens(And non-citizens)

Missing Collective Leadership• Using 20th century management tools to resolve 21st century challenges

• We do not have the collective leadership capacity to:– Draw together key stakeholders to uncover common intention – Collectively creating profound innovation at whole system scale

• This gap constitutes the blind spot in our institutional design & our intellectual frames about leadership

• Unless we address this blind spot we will continue to produce results rejected by society in our attempts to tackle poverty, unemployment, corruption, etc

The Blind Spot of Leadership

Process:How

Results: What

Source: Who

Blind Spot: Inner place from which we operate

Blind Spot of Leadership• Leaders know about what leaders do & how they do it

• But do not know about the source level – the inner place or state of awareness from which leaders & social systems operate

• Success depends not on what leaders do or how they do it

• Success depends on the “interior condition” – the source or inner place from which leaders operate

• Usually we are not aware of the source dimension from which effective leadership & social action come into being – it is this source Theory U attempts to explore

Connectedness:

The ability to understand actors in the wider socio-economic-political landscape and to engage and build effective relationships with new kinds of internal and external partners

Complexity:

Having the skills to survive and thrive in situations of low certainty and low agreement

Change:

Understanding & working effectively with the dynamics of change

Context:

Understanding key issues and being able to think strategically about how to respond

Key Leadership Competencies

Change• Understanding that the only constant is change• Ability to work effectively with the dynamics of

individual & organizational change• Leading through & within change• Leaders are required to constantly learn, look for fresh

insights & inspire flexible, creative responses or initiatives

• Understanding change complexity, including stakeholder perceptions & org capability

Context• Leaders must understand the socio-economic-political context

in which they operate (eg, understanding current labour-business tensions

• They should have the ability to tackle wicked problems – social & political messes that are seemingly intractable problems, composed of inter-related dilemmas, issues & other problems at multiple levels of society, economy & governance

• They should be able to think strategically & systemically about how to respond

Complexity

• Magnitude, overall size, extent & influence of the change

• Scope, or extent to which change will impact current functions & operations of the PS

• Fluidity, or degree to which the environment is changing during change or transformation (eg unemployment, inequality & poverty)

• Adaptability of the change initiative to that changing environment

Connectedness• Ability to understand factors & actors in the wider political landscape

• Embeddedness: engage with society without becoming captive to political interests

• Help communities to develop capacity to engage & manage own developmental challenges

• Ability to engage & build affective relationships

• Engaging in effective dialogue to build partnership with a broader range of internal & external stakeholders

A model of Leadership Development

Developmental Experiences

ASSESSMENT CHALLENGE SUPPORT

DEVELOPMENTAL

EXPERIENCES

The Development Process

Variety of developmental Experiences

Leadership Development

Ability to learn

Organizational (Departmental, Inter- Departmental & Inter-

Governmental Context)

Development Experiences

CHALLENGE SUPPORT FEEDBACK

DEVELOPMENTAL EXPERIENCES

The Development ProcessS

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Increasing stress from new challenges

Assumptions of CCL Model

1. Leadership Development is development of capacities within the individual

2. What makes a person effective in a variety of leadership roles and processes (as opposed to classification as “Leaders” or “Non Leaders”)

3. Individuals can expand their leadership capabilities

Assessment

Provides benchmark for future developmentStimulates self evaluation

• What am I doing well?• Where do I need to improve?• What are others’ views of me?• How do my behaviours impact on others?• How am I doing relative to my goals?

Assessment provides info that helps answer thesequestionsDesire to close the gap between current self and

idealself

Challenge

Experiences that make developmental difference are these that stretch or challenge people

People forced out of comfort zonesDisequilibrium makes people question adequacy of

their skills, frameworks and approachesExamples of challenges:

• Novelty• Difficult goals• Conflict• Loss, failure, disappointment

Support

• Message: Efforts to learn and grow valued• Help people handle pain of developing• Source of support::

• Bosses• Coworkers• Family• Friends• Professional colleagues• Coaches & mentors

Collective Leadership, Action Learning, Talking Across Sectors

Talking Across Sectors

• To act more on the level of the whole problems & whole systems, we must get together with people who are based in a different part of the whole

• We need to get better at talking to each other across sectors & at working in partnerships where necessary

• We do so by:– Becoming self-aware as sectors– Understanding complementaries– Iterating within microcosms, &– Seeing the system in the room

U-Process: 1 Process, 5 Movements

1. Co-initiating: uncover common intent

Stop and listen to others and to what life calls you to do

2. Co-sensing: observe, observe, observe

Connect with divers people and places to sense the system from the whole

3. Co-inspiring: connect to the source of inspiration and willGo to the place of silence and allow the inner

knowing to emerge

4. Co-creating: prototype the newIn living examples to explore the future

by doing

5. Co-evolve: institutionalise the new in practices

by linking micro, meso, macro change

Government Leadership Development Summit (Dec 10-12)

• Informed understanding & commitment of the political leadership & accounting officers in collectively tackling developmental challenges

• Enable accounting officers to lead the process of establishing “a capable, developmental, professional & responsive state” which has a learning & developmental strategy

• A shared understanding of the causal factors that enable good practice but also causal factors underlying ongoing capacity problems & weaknesses in public service

Conclusion• One of the biggest reasons cross-sector collaboration is difficult is because

sectors have different logics, values, priorities & comfort zones, ie different cultures

• We seldom invest in understanding these different identities, even though it is an integral part of cross-sector partnership efforts

• One of the challenges in developing true cross-sector collaboration is that the sectors have perceptions & judgements of each other

• We need to develop the ability to become aware of the differences in logic across our sectors & to create a cross-sector, shared methodology as teams

• Government & business don’t want civil society, & civil society doesn’t want business & government

• Societal complex, systemic, messy & intractable challenges make collective leadership an imperative

• National School of Government will provide programs to improve synergy through collective leadership development

Conclusion