Our Solutions to Our Problems.

The Senga people of Eastern Province have an old proverb that goes, “Uyo walwala panthumbo ndiyo wa julako”. A tool like Google translator would make a joke out of this proverb as the direct Senga to English translation goes something like, “the one with an upset stomach will [go to and] open the [toilet] door”. However, there is depth and wisdom hidden within this proverb. It implies that the one who sees something wrong or is deeply bothered and concerned about something close to the heart will be moved to action. In essence, this old saying teaches the importance of taking the initiative and being proactive.

Over the past week or so, some of my old David Kaunda high school colleagues and I have been engaged in deep and passionate discussions on several issues close to the heart. These discussions started when I forwarded a piece of controversial research I stumbled across online which stated that over the past 10 years, Zambia’s national IQ has dropped from number one in Sub-Saharan Africa to number 7. The topic touched the right nerve and what followed was a hurricane of intellectual exchange. We analysed the why’s and the how’s, pondered, agreed and on very few occasions disagreed on everything from what the definition of IQ is anyway to whether literacy levels, the education system and even the national diet had anything to do with it. Yes the national diet but I won’t digress as this topic deserves a dedicated article of its own. Back to the issue at hand, I found the exchange of ideas and knowledge fascinating and we agreed to build on it. We had started something and needed to see how far it would go, thus the start of this blog and related sites. Going back to the Senga proverb, we were moved to “open the door”. In hindsight, the origin of this shared blog was subconsciously driven by our need to take things further.

Our society has a myriad of problems; some obvious, others not, some historical, others yet to occur. Some of our problems are structural, fundamental and complex whilst others are basic and simple. Going through a whole list of problems is one thing and it’s another to solve them. Is problem solving the sole prerogative of politicians or social non profit organisations? Personally, I don’t think so. We can all play a small part and I don’t mean joining politics, working for an NGO, just voting or donating change to charity. For some, our paths in life means that we cannot do that but if we are moved to action by the many problems we have, surely there should be another way of helping out. This is where the benefits of a shared blog comes in. Hopefully, this blog will be the first of its kind where the many problems we have will be critically analysed by many contributors churning out many new and innovative problem solving ideas. Many minds will ensure many ways of seeing things – theoretically, experimentally or practically. The end result for all this is one thing and one thing only – a solution. Our hope is that one day, this and related collaborative sites will become a database of knowledge and ideas and a central “gathering place” for brilliance. Most importantly, our hope and long term goal is that some of what will start and be analysed here will one day translate into reality.

I will end my introductory blog with a quote from Robert Kennedy who at a 1966 University of Cape Town speech said, “Few will have the greatness to bend history, but each of us can work to change a small portion of the events, and then the total - all of these acts - will be written in the history of this generation.”

Thank you.

My Zambia, My beloved Motherland~WORK CULTURE

As we kick off this blog, shall we forever remember than its not about anyone of us but about everybody who shall sacrifice their time and experience so that we will live to see a better Zambia.
Most of the things we will be dissecting are not as new to all of us but something that is already laid down or thought about before. Before i lose my self in my thoughts may i bring your attention to our National Anthem and i must say it very much summaries what we want to achieve and that is a Zambia we can be proud of.....

Stand and sing of Zambia, proud and free,

Land of work and joy in unity,

Victors in the struggle for the right,

We have won freedom's fight.

All one, strong and free.

.

Africa is our own motherland,

Fashion'd with and blessed by God's good hand,

Let us all her people join as one,

Brothers under the sun.

All one, strong and free.

Praise be to God,

Praise be, praise be, praise be,

Bless our great nation,

Zambia, Zambia, Zambia.

Free men we stand

Under the flag of our land.

Zambia, praise to thee!

All one, strong and free.

So its about Zambia and as we succeed it shall always be "We" for we have no place for "I" as strength is in numbers

this brings me to the topic of interest ....WORK CULTURE . Ladies and Gentlemen this topic is of interest to me because we have what it takes in some cases but we are failling because of our work culture. what is the root cause of poor work culture, what can we do to improve it? Let us remember that we are "A LAND OF WORK AND JOY IN UNIT"


In order to get to the core of this issue i felt that its best to get to understand what this is really about so i decided to do a research on WORK CULTURE and here is what i found....

Work culture is a combination of qualities in an organization and its employees that arise from what is generally regarded as appropriate ways to think and act

Why is it important?
Culture is the vehicle through which individuals coordinate their activities to achieve common goals and expectations
Culture helps individuals understand how their roles fit within the larger picture
Culture defines the norms of acceptable conduct
Culture develops consistent interpretations of behaviors throughout the organization
The well-managed culture can improve performance significantly while the unmanaged culture will impede even the best-intentioned change effort



The "work culture" of an organization is a product of its history, traditions, values, and vision.
"a pattern of basic group assumptions that has worked well enough to be considered valid, and, therefore, is taught to new members as the correct way to perceive, think and feel."
Desirable work culture includes shared institutional values, priorities, rewards and other practices which foster inclusion, high performance, and commitment, while still allowing diversity in thought and action....

Now having read through the above i can say that the first cause of poor work culture in our setting is that there is usually poor orientation and core values and goals are presumed to be know to the new employee. i dont know about others but i can testify that when i arrived at my first appointment as Junior Resident Medical Officer i was not given any conditions of service but just the letter of appointment. What is surprising is that in GRZ there are all these written down components of work culture but somehow some one feels there are not very necessary. if i were given all these documents about the conditions of service, scope of work or practise i would probably be asking my employers for a better pay, maybe this is the reason why these documents are not availed to the new employees.

This is a challenge for all those that are in management and especially Human Resource managers and Officer to see to it that employees are issued with these very important documents. My resolutions is that when i finish with outreach programmes i will ask My Human resource office to bring files of all the employees at my station for scrutiny and will be fighting to make sure that everyone under me gets to knows whats expected of them and what they should expect from me and from the overall employer~GRZ/MoH/PSMD. I challenge you my friends to do the same.... Have a lovely week.

19.05.2011....

In closing, I would like to look at the soultions for improving our work culture. In as much as most of the points shoulder on management's willingness to materialise,I place emphasis on the fact that we can also as individuals take up the challenge to make changes in our lives especially as far as work culture is concern.

The work culture can be improved in a number of ways by, for example:
1.Improving communications between management and staff in both directions.
2.Consulting employees and their representatives about their jobs and any changes to them.
3.Ensuring that jobs which pose a risk and which cannot be completely eliminated are rotated so that no individual spends long on that task.
4.Ensuring that all employees have sufficient variety of tasks to enable them to use different muscles and postures and to make their job more satisfying.
5.Providing adequate rest breaks to prevent the build up of fatigue and by ensuring that the breaks are taken.
6.Identifying and removing stress factors from the workplace.
7.Giving workers control over their pace of work and how they plan their day.
8.Removing piece rate and payment by results systems that make earnings dependent on excessive work rates.
9.The management staff can be the best example in leading the road to improved work culture.

Ok friends ,I submit and i hope that this has been of some help to you. If you are on the job and you happpen not to be in position of your job description i suggest your first stop tomorrow morning should be at the HR Managers office.