Chronicles from a Caribbean Cubicle
New Thinking from Framework Consulting
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Beware: there are some fundamental misunderstandings being passed around about long-term strategic planning which make it seem impractical.
The impact on the C-Suite? Disagreements. Misalignment. And executives who forego long-term planning because “it takes too much time.”
Recently overheard: “I can’t argue with the importance of long-term planning. But…
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You are someone who is already a long-term thinker, working in a for-profit company. Unlike many, you don’t need to be convinced about the importance of long-term thinking. Somewhere early in the past – childhood, early career – you embedded the idea in your thinking. Now balancing short and long-term thinking is a part of your character.
But this may be why you are confused. Others around you don’t share this trait. In fact, you feel like a fish out of water – always harping on the need for long-term thinking, sometimes asking inconvenient questions.
You can’t understand why others don’t share your concern. And it’s not that you are particularly ESG, sustainable or anything like. Nor do you come from an old-school. You sense that the company would make better decisions if it had more than the usual 3-5-year plan.
But how do you convince others in the C-Suite, and the board, to think with an additional lens?
Tune into this episode as I tackle this wicked problem.
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As a dedicated board member, you actively contribute to meetings and aim to make a meaningful impact. However, there are moments when you find yourself quietly frustrated, wondering if the discussion has veered into the minutiae, and then even further into micro-details. Why does this happen?
While the topics at hand may be interesting, you understand that such operational details are better left to middle managers who specialize in these functions. The board’s role should be holding these managers accountable, not getting lost in the weeds.
After an hour or two of discussion, you may find that little progress has been made. This can leave you shaking your head in disbelief, thinking that there are more productive uses of your time.
So, how can you address this issue before your frustration reaches a breaking point?
Board members have limited time, often juggling other important responsibilities. Therefore, it’s crucial to engage in high-leverage discussions. Your participation should be reserved for tackling the most challenging and intractable problems. If discussions jump around with random advice, it’s a sign that something needs to change.
It’s important to note that your fellow board members are well-intentioned, smart, and experienced. They can provide valuable insights on various topics. However, the aim should be to make significant decisions during board meetings, not to offer scattered tips.
Some board members believe that major decisions only come into play during unexpected emergencies. While these situations demand immediate attention, boards can also proactively influence decision-making.
One effective approach is to require your executives to develop long-term plans. Short-term plans tend to be incremental, as discussed in my May 2022 column, “Five-Year Plans Aren’t Strategic. They’re Dangerous.”
For inspiration, consider Kennedy’s lunar challenge in 1961. This ambitious goal led to the creation of the Apollo program and spurred innovations in various fields. To foster big decisions, challenge your CEO or MD to articulate a bold, long-term vision for the organization.
Few top executives have been trained in this kind of thinking. Some offer vague visions with no concrete plans, while others attempt to rebrand five-year plans as “long-term.” As a discerning board member, you should seek game-changing commitments that transform industries and elevate your company’s performance.
While board members may be eager to make significant decisions, many C-Suite executives might not be ready for such audacious goals. They are often promoted based on their ability to deliver short-term results.
You can encourage a shift in mindset by introducing the concept of “big, hairy, audacious goals” (BHAGs) with long-term horizons. While this may seem unconventional and risky to some, it’s the right approach. As a board member, your role is to challenge assumptions, ensure the credibility of plans, and evaluate end-game scenarios.
Your collective expertise can add rigor to the management team’s plans and elevate the quality of discussions. Over time, this focused process can lead to game-changing outcomes, making board meetings inspiring and far less frustrating.
How do you craft a strategic plan for a group of companies? Why do so many efforts end up with nothing more than “last-year’s-plan-plus-5%?” Discard this path of least resistance if you hope to capitalize on COVID opportunities.
Conglomerates are, in the best of times, difficult to plan for. Units compete for resources in different markets, creating a headache for whoever must make an optimal allocation. It’s a challenge of comparing apples to oranges by executives who don’t specialize in either fruit.
The hope is that by the end of the day, each business unit has a unique set of marching orders: a custom “breakthrough strategy”. It should be powerful enough to meet customer’s unmet needs, conform to disruptive technology trends and prevent competitors from gaining a foothold.
Furthermore, at the group level, the overall strategy shouldn’t be just a grab bag of ideas. Each individual plan should be part of a puzzle that makes up a single coherent picture.
However, I have sat in group meetings in which business unit MD’s flounder when asked for their organization’s strategy. After a bunch of PowerPoint slides, it becomes clear: they have no real strategy. At most, they have a list of tactics.
Furthermore, in these pandemic times, most are facing game-changing disruptions. This requires them to engineer the “next normal.” More often than not, they simply aren’t equipped to get the job done.
Before your business units drift into becoming another Nokia or Blackberry (i.e. a has-been), how can your group of companies prevent its component businesses from failing?
Step 1 – Engage business units in long-term planning
The simplest request is for business units to lengthen their planning horizons. Ask them to look 15-30 years out. Give them the examples, support and templates they need to produce a feasible, detailed plan. While it needs to account for current trends, the team shouldn’t be limited by them.
After all, this is not an exercise in predicting the future, but crafting one which includes preferred outcomes.
For the average MD of a business unit, this is likely to be a tough activity. But even clumsy attempts will push executives into the right zone of discomfort.
Step 2 – Develop leaders’ everyday planning skills
To improve C-suite skills, don’t turn strategy into a onetime or annual event. Instead, train them to think strategically at all times.
Some group CEO’s mistakenly assume this is easy. In their role, they spend 80% of their time on strategy, and 20% on daily operations. However, the reverse is true for their business unit MD’s. The fact is, in their progress up the ranks, the drumbeat for immediate results kept them awake at night. Their ability to adapt quickly helped them get promoted.
As such, your organization may not be organized to think strategically, and MD’s will find this to be a challenge. Don’t let them languish.
Instead, give them the training and coaching to implement their strategy from month to month. Their environment is changing so fast that if they don’t keep the big picture in mind, they could miss out on opportunities created by disruptions like COVID.
What if they fail to grow the required skills? Expect big mistakes that destroy value and produce a “diversification discount” in which the sum of the parts of your company is greater than the whole.
Step 3 – Make Clear Proposals
Once a business unit has completed its planning, MD’s must advance proposals to the central group organization. This is pure lobbying: an appeal to support the business unit’s strategic plan with tangible resources.
Your leaders may also need to be trained to become balanced, fact-based advocates of the specific value they can bring in the mid to long term.
Their clarity is essential. Why?
As group executives hear a range of proposals, they need to make collective decisions about the direction of the entire organization. Consequently, business units will receive good news or bad news depending on decisions made to allocate funds, attention and power.
As such, MD’s must be clear as the future of the organization relies on the quality of their analysis. If they do a poor job, bad decisions will be made: a harsh reality.
But the worst decision of all is not to make any. Some companies drift along, sitting back to watch what happens next.
By then, the savviest staff members have found jobs elsewhere, looking for real leaders to follow. Customers uncover better products and services, and value is destroyed.
While it’s hard to marshal a conglomerate strategy, it’s a problem which must be tackled to assure the future of the entire organization.
The task of negotiating with other people is part and parcel of business-life. However, many hate having to do so, and a large percentage do so ineffectively. One cause is that most focus on the quality of their speaking, fixating on what they need to say. By contrast, masterful negotiators take a different approach: deep listening.
Years ago, I had the fortune of picking up “Getting to Yes” by Roger Fisher and William Ury. This classic book on negotiations outlines several principles; one of which is to listen keenly to uncover the true intent behind someone’s position.
The idea is simple enough: when people are in a negotiation, the job of making requests of their counterparts is unavoidable. On the surface, it seems to be a battle of wills: each side asks for what it wants repeatedly, until the other concedes or refuses. The best tactic is to figure out how to get what you want, while giving away as little as possible.
However, Fisher and Ury advocate a different frame: a “Win-Win” in which both parties benefit. As you may imagine, there are a number of positives to be derived from this approach, even though it requires more skill. Among them is the ability to listen powerfully to what the other party is not saying aloud.
The fact is, each of us asks for stuff we want all day. However, especially when the stakes are high and emotions are raw, we unwittingly hide our true needs and emotional wants behind words. It simply feels too risky to be honest.
But we aren’t being sneaky; it’s just that emotional intent doesn’t translate neatly into actions or objects. For example, a husband who asks his wife to make a cheesecake for his birthday isn’t necessarily asking her to procure a baked good, and may be upset when she purchases one from a store.
For him, the intent is to experience her love and care which means seeing her sacrifice time and attention in the kitchen making the cake from scratch. He may unwittingly want to relive a memory provided by his mother.
But his actual words: “Would you bake a cheesecake for my birthday?” don’t convey his entire intent. Therefore, the mismatch between the two could result in a marital spat, or in the business world, a failed negotiation. How can you get past this sticking point if you find yourself in a similar spot?
1. Notice the mismatch
Skilled negotiators know how to use their intuition to discern such subtle gaps. Something deep inside them indicates that all is not well. However, you may find that your MBA-like training leads you to pay attention to the logic of what is happening: the discernible facts.
But that’s not enough. Furthermore, detecting uneasy feelings is necessary, but not sufficient. Once the inner shift is realized, you must translate the sensation into accurate words.
“It seems that we are making progress, but something inside tells me that we are missing a big part.”
This is a bold step: it’s a request to stop the negotiation in order to investigate a mere hunch based on intangible emotions. Unfortunately, most people self-censor, telling themselves: “Don’t be silly – just move on!” When they do so, everyone loses.
If you’d like to move past sticking points in your difficult conversations, it pays to tune in to your inner feelings, and speak up.
2. Probing for Underlying Commitments
If you do call a time-out, and things seem stuck, it could be that you are giving the other party exactly what they are asking for…but it’s not enough. This is a moment when your intuition can help you probe for deeper reasons.
“I know you asked for cheesecake, but why do you want that for your birthday?”
This is a masterful move in any negotiation because you are probing behind the stated position to see why it was raised in the first place. But this is more than curiosity.
Going deeper opens up the range of possible solutions. For example, the smell of home-cooked cake on a special day could be satisfied by other kinds of baked goods which are easier or less expensive to make.
When you expand the number of options, a Win-Win becomes far more likely. Plus, when you probe their hidden commitments it shows that you care. It’s as if you are setting aside the overt demand for cheesecake in order to give the other person what they really want.
In this context, this kind of listening is powerful as it invents brand new outcomes which neither side could predict beforehand. Without explicitly saying so, the two opposing sides are now working as a team.
For a breakthrough in negotiations, start by deeply listening beyond the words to yourself, and the other person’s true needs.
Why are top executives getting frustrated at their teams during COVID-19? One reason: it’s obvious to them that the company needs to become a digital operation. They may also be very demanding but don’t blame them: they alone can see a joined-up world beyond the pandemic that most subordinates can’t.
In the past few years, my consulting firm has implored our clients to include a digital strategist on their boards, executive ranks and strategic planning retreats. Only a tiny few have risen to the occasion, adding someone (usually much younger) to strategy discussions, which seemed to be about a faraway future.
COVID-19 has changed the timeline.
As we scan the outputs of prior client retreats we see that the long-term plans they made were painfully slow. They imagined a gradual drift into a digital world where people’s behaviors would change eventually, imperceptibly.
Today, they must make changes to go online from offline in a matter of months. However, CEO’s are having a difficult time getting their executive teams to envision a future that even their youngest employees can see. Why?
In a nutshell, each company function is lost in its own silo. Marketing, HR, Operations, IT…each is unable to lead the way. The new vision is beyond their grasp because it requires joined-up thinking.
What should CEOs’ do to accelerate the process of forging a digital transformation?
1. Forgive Weak Repetition
Many top executives get mad when their functionaries simply try to copy the offline world to the one that’s online.
For example, advertising on the internet involves more than putting up digital billboards. It requires an understanding of engagement psychology, content and technology which few possess. The average marketing department won’t know how to gamify an audience, or perhaps even how to create one.
But this is to be expected. And forgiven.
While initial attempts are weak, they represent a certain level of willingness, and the start of a steep climb. However, CEO’s must insist on an unprecedented level of cooperation right away. They need to role-model an eagerness to cross internal boundaries to discover ideas and talent wherever it may be found. For example, if the new receptionist has 10,000 followers on Instagram, pull her in!
2. Focus on Underlying Business Results
To overcome the initial disappointment, executives should encourage experiments which aren’t meant to replicate old processes, but still achieve the same objectives.
For instance, a company which is used to engaging its walk-in customers in ways that make the experience special, cannot offer the usual free coffee, air-conditioning and relaxed banter. Instead, they must ask themselves why those features worked and what emotions they were intended to evoke.
In like manner, pastors that relied on the right blend of hymns, testimonies and sermons to keep congregants coming back for more can’t rely on these elements. In these times, they need to go beyond the superficial form of these activities and find the underlying benefit that is being delivered.
In other words, they must begin all over again. Unfortunately, Facebook, Instagram and Netflix are just a single click away, along with every other online church service in the world. The only hope they have of competing is to experiment and make mistakes to learn what will deliver the a similar experience via the internet.
3. Learn New Functionality
Recently, I hosted a virtual conference that attracted several hundred global registrants. Behind the scenes of the Time Blocking Summit I was forced to pick up new tools, and with it, unique capabilities I barely understood.
In retrospect, I can laugh at my mishaps running ads on Facebook, Instagram, Quora and Google, but I had to make an effort. It was the only way to apprehend the power of these tools, which have no equivalent in the offline world.
These capabilities are highly nuanced, able to break down old barriers. For example, think of your employees using WhatsApp and Zoom to organize themselves into cross-functional teams. They do so on their own time, without the involvement of management, training themselves to using these apps to create new connections across boundaries. In the offline world, it would have been impossible.
Case in point: companies now need a private, community forum to keep dispersed staff members together. Too many executives, stuck in “Mi nuh use them ting deh” social-media prejudices, can’t lead the charge.
The COVID-19 crisis favors CEOs’ who are willing to push themselves to learn uncomfortable lessons that used to be optional, theoretical or futuristic. Today, they need to be visible role models of learning in order to lead in these extraordinary times.
http://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/business/20200503/francis-wade-crisis-favours-digitally-bold-ceo
The latest issue of FirstCuts, my bi-monthly newsletter is available at the following link:
http://fwconsulting.com/news.php?sub=13&newsid=153
It starts with the following introduction:
——————————————————
Editorial
I don’t know how Obama would do if he were an executive in our
region, and I don’t know if he has ever worked in our part of the
world.
However, after writing this month’s issue I now have an idea
of what he’d have to do to address the plantation slavery
work-ethic that has prevailed for over 500 years.
It’s not that we ourselves don’t have a clue, but I have found
that the clearer I understand the world in which I operate, the
better I am at succeeding within it. Some of the most exciting
moments I have ever had, have occurred when I learned something
new about something I had been doing for some time.
Perhaps that’s not a bad way to describe what I have been trying
to do for my readers in each issue of FirstCuts, and especially
in this issue.
Francis
To subscribe, send email to firstcuts@aweber.com
Recently, on my blog and ezine, I wrote about the scary economic news,
and how it’s deepened the need for productivity solutions. During this recession, we are forced to find ways to do the same or more withmuch less. That goes for companies, and it also goes for careers.
Less people, smaller budgets, little time, a lot of really bad news…
Well, I actually have some good news for those interested in doing the course in Kingston.
I have undertaken a revamp of NewHabits-NewGoals, my (formerly) 2 day programme that has been offered here in Jamaica and in Trinidad.
>>> To jump to the details, see http://fwconsulting.com/newhabits
With this new design, I decided to incorporate what I learned from the feedback over the past year, and am offering a “hybrid” for the first time.
The new programme consists of a single day of classroom training, which tackles the Essential Fundamentals, plus 12 weeks of online e-learning including live conference calls to review the Essentials and get into the Advanced Fundamentals.
This matches my experience in Kingston and Port of Spain, in which the materials that participants got the most value from came on the first day.
In making this change, I have tried to match the pace of learning — a lot of new stuff in the beginning, with the more advanced stuff coming later, in more digestible chunks. This makes it much easier to accomplish the goals of the programme — to give those who attend
the tools to create a customized time management that fits their life, and their lifestyle.
>>> For details visit http://fwconsulting.com/newhabits
The best news of all is that I am able to offer the programme on February 13th at a significant reduction in price, which I know that you’ll appreciate given the times we are in.
What I _cannot_ promise is that the price will remain at J$14,000 (GCT inc.) after the next programme.
In addition, I also can’t promise that the Early Bird or Corporate discounts for registering before January 31st (J$12,000) will be there for everyone who asks for them, as they are limited in number, and available on a first-come, first-served basis.
So, act early, and claim your seat today. Click on the link below and request an invoice today.
>>> Find programme information at http://fwconsulting.com/newhabits
Hope to see you in the class in Kingston, Jamaica,
Francis
francis@fwconsulting.com
P.S. Of course, you might also decide to take the 12 week online
programme by itself. If so, the price is being kept at US$99 /
J$8.2k for now, so you can see why NewHabits’ price is good value
for money.
P.P.S If you have questions, you can ask them at my blog at:
An article I wrote on the reasons entrepreneurs need to develop their own time management systems was recently carried on one of my favorite sites: Entrepreneur’s Journey.
The work I have been doing in this area was inspired by my move to Jamaica, in which I discovered that the time management system I was using in the U.S. would not work here in Jamaica. I had to make some changes fast, in order to keep my head above water!
Here in the Caribbean, we simply cannot use the time management systems that were not developed with us in mind in full. They assume that the reader or user is just like them — living in a developed country with a culture and way of thinking that is the same.
Those of you who read Chronicles may recognize that I first started writing about the topic here in this blog, an eventually started a new blog when it started to take things over. It’s not only turned into a new blog, but an entirely new business.
In the article mentioned here, I focus on time management systems for entrepreneurs. Yaro Starak, the owner of the blog, offers a course I took some time ago called “Blog Mastermind” in which I learned how to take my love of writing, and turn it into financially sustainable.
To tell you the truth, many other Jamaican bloggers have fallen off the radar and closed their blogs after they ran out of interest. This new dimension has given me a reason to keep going, even if it’s only because it’s so intriguing.
Blog Mastermind was a real eye-opener, and if you’re interested in learning more about the program, there is a tremendous free e-book called BlogProfits Blueprint that is available at Yaro’s website.
The Not-So-Diverse Caribbean Workplace by Francis Wade
This issue addresses the challenge we have in creating workplaces
that are truly diverse, and I go after a hot-button — how we
treat gays in the Caribbean workplace.
FirstCuts
September 2008 Issue 27 colour: http://urlcut.com/FirstCuts27
Audio Podcast: http://fwconsulting.podomatic.com
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Contents
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Editorial
Feature Article
Subscriber Q&A and Feedback
Tips, Ads and Links
General & Unsubscribe Info
Approximate time to read: Just over 10 minutes
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Editorial
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This has perhaps been the most difficult issue of FirstCuts to
write.
The issue of gays in our workplaces is one that we would just
rather not talk about in public. This is THE topic that we
hope would just go away and leave us alone. Most of
us in the Caribbean experience deep feelings ranging from
hostility to sympathy on the topic.
It’s something I should probably not be writing about.
For a moment, however, I set aside my fears to deal with the issue
from a business point of view, and I trust that you’ll be able to
set aside some of your own strong feelings to do the same. If
not, I understand (or at least, I think I do.)
I can say with some confidence that this issue is not going away,
and that part of being a good manager or executive is to foresee
a future that is likely to happen. For those companies that
do business outside the region, that may be a current reality,
and I’d love to hear your feedback if that’s indeed the case.
Francis
P.S. To discuss this issue, I am creating a link on my blog for
anyone to add in their comments.
P.P.S. This could be an interesting issue to pass along to a
colleague…
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The Not-So-Diverse Caribbean Workplace
==============================================
Global opinion is growing: the Caribbean is increasingly seen as
one of the least inclusive, intolerant and unsupportive regions of
the world as it relates to the matter of “differences.” The term
“difference” is a fairly new one to the Caribbean workplace and it
generally applies to obvious aspects such as race, gender, age,
religion, physical ability, etc. However, our international
reputation is largely being tainted by our strident relationship
to gays and homosexuality.
By extension, Caribbean companies and executives are not exactly
seen as world leaders in the context of business tolerance.
The fact is that many of our territories’ populations have
relatively little day-to-day exposure to people of other races,
nationalities and beliefs. The tendency is to speak single
languages as relatively few of our companies conduct business in
other countries, even within the region. A few weeks ago, I had
the opportunity to spend a few nights in a hotel in the vicinity
of Times Square and I was reminded of what it was like to be
surrounded by people of backgrounds different from mine and
languages from all corners of the globe. We simply don’t have
the kind of diversity that is influencing the way the world’s
most admired companies relate to people who are “different.”
It might be no mistake that the CEO of Jamaica’s largest company,
the Government, recently announced to the international public
that he is unwilling to accept gays at the highest levels of his
organization.
When asked in a recent BBC interview if he would allow gays to
take up senior government positions, the Prime Minister of
Jamaica, the Hon. Bruce Golding, replied emphatically, “Not in my
cabinet!” I might be wrong in thinking that he is not the only
CEO/Prime Minister/Chairman to have these views in the region.
While he may be the only CEO with these views, the effect of his
words are far-reaching, as presumably they must have some impact
on the entire Government of Jamaica, which coincidentally is the
largest employer in Jamaica. (The link to the interview is given
in the next section.)
Clearly, his idea of an inclusive, diverse workplace has its
limits.
If he is seen as a typical representative of a “regional CEO,”
what are the pros and cons to companies when executives adopt this
approach either publicly or privately? What does it mean for
business and what is its impact on stock-holders, employees,
customers and other stakeholders? Even though the societal
impacts are many, here in FirstCuts I will only focus on the
impact his words and our attitudes, may have on the financial
success of our corporations.
==============================================
Enlightenment Under Pressure
==============================================
Recently, Diageo plc., the owners of the Red Stripe brand in
Jamaica, withdrew their sponsorship from local dance hall events
stating that they would no longer sponsor events that allowed or
encouraged violent lyrics directed against women and homosexuals.
In Jamaica, this withdrawal was met with derision and many felt
that little or nothing would be lost at the end of the day. The
general feeling was that there would be other sponsors.
Diageo, in its role as a progressive, global company, had no
choice but to disassociate itself from any lack of tolerance. In
their 2008 Corporate Citizenship Report, they reported that:
[start of quote]
Over the past four years, the proportion of women
in senior management – a key diversity indicator –
has risen from 20% in 2003 to 25% in 2008.
In the USA, Diageo scored 95% in the 2008 Corporate
Equality Index. The Human Rights Campaign
Foundation, part of the USA’s largest advocacy group
for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT)
Americans, produces the index annually and ranks
corporations based on their policies regarding their
gay and lesbian employees and the GLBT community.
[end of quote]
Diageo prides itself on being a company that lives by its values,
one of which clearly states, “WE VALUE EACH OTHER – we seek and
benefit from diverse people and perspectives.”
This might all be corporate propaganda but the fact remains that
they are taking actions to ensure that diversity is tolerated as
endorsed by their publicly stated commitments.
I imagine that their example has served as quiet encouragement for
other multinational companies conducting business in the region.
Can a local CEO of one of these companies “pull a Bruce Golding”
and decide to establish a local diversity policy that violates the
company’s international policies?
It is just not likely to happen.
I could, however, imagine that local executives may decide that
they know better than those folks in the overseas parent company
and will seek to follow the letter of the policy while neglecting
the spirit. They might determine that it is better for business
to do as little as possible to encourage diversity of that
particular kind.
I predict, however, that Caribbean branches of progressive
multinationals will not be allowed to be different for very long.
A CEO who insists that he is, “different from CEO’s in other
countries” might very well find himself on the receiving end of a
rigorous bout of diversity training along with a stiff warning.
In essence, he will be told to conform or else. Diageo and other
global companies that are successful and widely admired are well-
known for their best practices in this area. As a result, they are
unlikely to retreat from the strides they have already made in
order to accommodate a handful of executives in the Caribbean who
think differently.
Apart from the global companies in the region, there are many more
regional companies that conduct business with global companies.
While Caribbean companies might argue that their internal
practices are no-one’s business but their own, recent history
shows that large companies are imposing greater requirements on
firms that do business with them than ever before.
It is not too hard to imagine that a firm would be reluctant to
conduct business with a Caribbean company that has revealed itself
to be lead by bigots.
For example, I imagine that the Prime Minister’s emphatic words
instantly closed all sorts of doors to business opportunities
around the world. Owners of gay businesses probably took note of
his stance.
Two years ago, I had my first inkling that this may occur when
friends of mine living abroad started to decline invitations to
visit my wife and myself in Jamaica.
They were not declining because the timing was bad or because they
were short of money. Instead, they were declining because of our
prejudice.
As one friend put it, “I don’t like Jamaica… my brother and his
partner (who are gay) can’t even come… they are my family… they
can be killed down there… why should I come?” Another said “I
only came to your wedding because of you… I would never come there
again.” Yet another said “I’ll never come… you have to come visit
me… I know about the homophobia there.”
In other words, they were declining to do business with Jamaicans
because of our perceived prejudice. I sensed that for them, their
boycott was similar to avoiding a pleasure trip to South Africa
while apartheid was still in force. In their case, the thousands
of dollars they might have spent in Jamaica would instead go to
Hawaii, Mexico or Fiji.
From a business perspective, there might be an incentive for
executives to govern their companies in a way that encourages
compatibility with the global business-space. At the
moment, a company or country that declares itself to be openly
bigoted runs the risk of isolating itself from the much larger,
influential group of companies that espouse global best-practices.
Many in the Caribbean would say with a touch of defiance, “If ah
so, ah so” (transl. “If that is the way it needs to be, so let
it be.”) They would argue that the chips should fall where they
may and that they are able to live with the consequent loss in
business.
How their shareholders might feel about all this could be another
matter.
==============================================
Tolerance and Diversity as a Profit-growing Policy
==============================================
Although the external pressure is likely to increase, there are
also practical consequences to be incurred by local companies that
limit diversity by demonstrating prejudice against gays. These
include:
1. Limits on Creativity
Recent studies by Richard Florida (author of The Rise of the
Creative Class) have made a clear connection between a city’s
“tolerance level” and its economic growth. Apparently,
creativity in business requires an ability to allow differences of
opinion to flourish and turn into business opportunities.
Tolerance of homosexuals is one way of measuring the degree to
which differences are encouraged.
Florida’s heavily data-driven books are being used by cities and
even countries to guide their thinking about economic growth.
2. Clarity of Company Policy vs. Personal Feelings
The ramifications of the Prime Minister’s words are quite unclear
and the resulting confusion should give any CEO pause for thought
before making such “policy” statements in public.
One interpretation is that Mr. Golding was merely playing politics
and lining up voter support. If that is the case, then it hints to
a propensity for governments to attack small, weak and virtually
invisible groups for their own political gain.
Another interpretation would be that Permanent Secretaries and
other Government officials should take his stance as official
policy and not allow homosexuals to work too closely to the Prime
Minister or become a public figure that works in the Government.
Mr. Golding and his executives (the Cabinet) should be shielded
from gays that might be working in the government or conducting
business with the government.
Yet another interpretation would be that the Government is not a
welcome place for homosexuals and that they are being discouraged
from trying to begin a career in the public service. By this
logic, managers in the Government should seek to actively root out
homosexuals once they have been identified. Or, to put it more
mildly, homosexuals “should be encouraged to pursue other
careers.”
A fourth interpretation would be that anyone who declares him or
herself to be homosexual and happens to be a Cabinet member or
occupying a critical Government position, should immediately
resign to avoid being fired.
It is all very confusing, and the nature of his statement leads me
to think that his announcement was not pre-meditated (but of
course, I could be wrong.) If these statements were unplanned,
then it would mean that the Prime Minister announced a substantial
policy based on his personal feelings and opinions.
He would hardly be the first CEO to do so.
Yet, this is always a risky strategy and one that usually leads to
more harm than good. On this particular topic, his utterances on
tape and his subsequent letter to the press clarifying his
position are likely to have created a great deal of trouble for
gay, Jamaicans who work for the Government. All of a
sudden, they now find themselves with the wrong kind of diversity.
They are probably wondering to themselves, “Now what?”
Managers who suspect that an employee is gay might have the same
confusion – should they discourage the employee from continued
employment or not? Does the talent, performance or the commitment
of the employee have a role to play in all this? Is it just a
matter of time before all homosexuals are eliminated from the
civil service?
3. Fighting the Inevitable
Throughout the history of the Caribbean workplace, the exclusion
of a group has always been a tactic that management has used to
maintain power and to drive fear into the hearts of the workers.
Modern management best practices dictate that empowerment of
workers requires creating an environment that encourages
alternative thinking.
100 years ago, Blacks, women, Indians, Chinese, Rastafarians,
Amerindians and others were systematically discriminated against
in our societies. Over time, a greater tolerance of differences
has subsumed much of this prejudice and the society is
demonstrably better as a result.
In some ways, we have learned that to disagree or dislike someone
does not necessarily equate to an inability to work together in
order to create profits.
It is predictable that the same will occur with homosexuals,
despite what many of us might feel, and in spite of the laws are
currently on the books.
To argue that it will not happen here is to join company with
countries that simply do not share our democratic ideals
or enjoy the fruits of open markets. We are societies that are
built on the idea of giving all of our citizens an opportunity and
it is not likely that Mr. Golding’s sentiments will set off a new
discriminatory trend within the corporate Caribbean.
If anything, the Caribbean culture is prone to celebrate the small
farmer, small business-person, small trader, etc. We like to
support those we perceive to be defenseless against victimization.
Perhaps it is not too much to imagine that we will come to realize
that gay Caribbean people are at the moment a small, mostly
invisible, scared, victimized group that is frequently attacked
verbally (and sometimes physically) by our singers, preachers and
others. Maybe we might one day rally to the defense of their
rights following the trend of virtually all the democracies that
we admire around the world.
In my opinion, although the Jamaican society may never condone the
lifestyle, full acceptance of gays as members of the society is
inevitable. As good business-people, we need to plan for this
eventuality and prepare our companies for the global mainstream.
To avoid doing so is to exercise poor judgment and irresponsible
governance.
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Tips, Ads and Links
===============================================
If you’d like to discuss this issue of FirstCuts, you can add a
comment at my blog: Chronicles of a Caribbean Cubicle.
Simply look for the FirstCuts post dated Sep 30th, 2008.
Share this issue of FirstCuts with your colleagues and friends, on
a topic that is critical for Caribbean business-people to contend
with.
Here is a link to the portion of Bruce Golding’s interview in
which he answers the questions I referenced regarding Jamaica’s
treatment of gays: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9cQx-zmHgg8
This month, I released the MyTimeDesign programme to the public.
This 12 week programme uses the multimedia lessons to help
create your own time management programme. See
http://MyTimeDesign.com for details. There is an early-bird
discount of 40% to be enjoyed by those who enroll before Oct 10th.
For Human Resource practitioners, the CaribHRForum 2008 survey is
now underway and already has responses from over 15 countries.
The 35 question survey focuses on the improvement of our regional
HR conferences. If you are an HR practitioner who has not
completed the online survey, or suspect that some are missing out,
simply send me email and I’ll send you the link via email.
The New Networking e-book is still available for free download
at http://fwconsulting.com/newnetworking – get to work on
doubling the size of your regional network today.
Back Issues of FirstCuts can be found at http://tinyurl.com/pw7fa
To manage this ezine, we use an excellent programme called
AWeber that you can explore here:- http://www.aweber.com/?213577
===============================================
Subscriber Q&A and Feedback
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None this month… (but I suspect that that will change after this
issue!)
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