The workshop, which is dubbed “Transformation of Key Public Sector Entities Impacting the National Security of St. Kitts and Nevis”, runs from October 01-03 at the Customs and Excise Department’s Conference Room. It is organized by the Ministry of National Security and facilitated by Dr. Rickert Allen, Senior General Manager – NCB Financial Group Limited in Jamaica.
Dr. Allen used the occasion to welcome the participants and encouraged them to be interactive so that he can learn some of their experiences and challenges in order to be able to move forward together and ensure that the seminar is successful.
“The concept of transformation is very topical and the reason for that is that the environment is described as VUCA,” he said, which is a concept introduced by the United States Army War College in 1987 to describe or reflect on the volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity of general conditions and situations. “What they are saying is that the world is volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous and we can all agree to that. You are experiencing a lot of that effect and transformation which is a type of change that is all about mindset.”
Dr. Allen added that it is not just about improved performance because there can be improved performance and not transformation.
“Transformation is an institutional mindset, behavioral change across the organization. But before you do that there is criteria, you have to be ready,” he said, outlining that the whole issue is of readiness as his starting point for the seminar.
Osmond Petty, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of National Security, said that the seminar was timely and extremely important, and appealed to participants to use the workshop wisely.
“For the next three days, we are asking other key stakeholders in government agencies to look at the way they operate… with respect to the way in which your organization is functioning in a national security environment, in an economic space,” he said. “We have to change the way in which we do business and the way in which we operate so that when we review national security, when we roll out social intervention programmes vigorously, when we have a strategic plan in place, departments such as education for example must be doing things the right way.”
Mr. Petty further added that all agencies must be in a position to change the way in which they do business because any area in which they are lacking then they can be vulnerable.
A total of five topics will be discussed throughout the seminar. These include: 3-phase employee readiness model for successful corporate transformation, and transformational leadership aligned to organized development on day one; talent management and workforce analysis for optimum performance on day two; and agile transformation at scale on day three.
