Trinidad and Tobago is changing. Its public service is in the process of casting off the shackles of an outdated structure and is in the midst of a huge programme of reform. Carolyn Seepersad-Bachan, its Minister of Public Administration, takes time out to tell Devindra Ramnarine about changing times in the Caribbean.
Away from Trinidad and Tobago’s idyllic beaches and year-round sunshine, away from the sounds of its music, Carnival and multi-ethnic and multi-religious society, a quiet revolution is under way. Citizens of these twin islands located at the gateway to South America might not yet have experienced its full extent, but there is little doubt about the potential of the plans, or the scale of the ambition.
Leading the charge is Carolyn Seepersad-Bachan, Minister of Public Administration, a policymaker whose comparatively limited experience in the corridors of power (she only became an MP in May 2010) belies the impact of her work and vision for her country’s public service. She is quick to point out, though, that the plans to transform government systems into a more citizen-centric organzation, one more agile and efficient, merely reflect the fast-changing world around us. Globalization, it is clear, extends to this corner of the world too.
“We celebrated our 50 year anniversary in 2012,” she recalls. “But 50 years on from independence, we need a new structure for the 21st century.”
The current system has 33 ministries overseeing the business of government across the two islands, the structure of which — “a steep pyramid that is bottom heavy with a hierarchy of jobs that encourage silos to develop” — leaves much to be desired, says Seepersad-Bachan. It is against this backdrop that the public service renewal program has gotten under way.
From Gold to Diamond
The year 2012 saw Trinidad celebrate the golden anniversary of its public service and, because 2022 will be the diamond anniversary, Seepersad-Bachan’s Ministry has described its public service renewal and modernization program as a “Journey from Gold to Diamond,” setting 2022 as the target year for achieving excellence in service delivery. Underpinning this approach is the belief that Three Cs — Capability, Connectedness and Culture — are intrinsic to the reform program. Capability includes a focus on leadership, systems and competencies; Connectness refers to communications, citizen-centricity and technology; and Culture embraces innovation, entrepreneurship and performance transparency.
“The Diamond represents the journey into the future as we look ahead to our 60th Anniversary as a country,” says Seepersad-Bachan. “It is a metaphor for the shape of the renewed public service characterized by a narrow base of multi-skilled integrated jobs with a wider middle core of professionals who can assume leadership responsibility, with a narrowing at the top. It will encourage entrepreneurship and greater upward mobility and foster enterprise, accountability and increased autonomy. For our citizens, it will ensure that they are the absolute focus of our organization, and they only need to use their computer or mobile phone to access every service the government offers.”
The reforms — which include the development of cross-departmental service characters that define what they expect of themselves and what their customers can expect from them — are rooted in the belief that good governance and strong institutions are key to sustainable service delivery excellence. This means that the public service requires a strong policy environment, institutions with the right people in the right jobs and operating on a high-level service platform centered on the Three Cs to continuously improve the quality and effectiveness of citizen services.
Also important, adds Seepersad-Bachan, is the need to empower those working within the public service. “The old structure really represented our old post-colonial era,” she says. “The new Diamond architecture will give us new opportunities, new jobs and new program streams. The prevalence of new technology means we can re-skill and retrain our clerical staff so that they are integrated and empowered. It is these people who really are on the frontline when it comes to serving the public — the customer - as they are at the first point of contact. So, we want them to be as motivated as possible at all times and it is crucial we bring them into the 21st century. This is why we need to give them new opportunities, give them new skills and give them access to new technology which they can be excited about.”
Change-making - Caribbean style
This focus in empowerment reflectsthe realization that change is rarely straightforward. Sweeping reform programs, irrespective of their geographic location, require careful planning and stakeholder engagement in order to be successfully implemented. Seepersad-Bachan was clear that she wanted to take an inclusive approach. “Improving a public service often depends on consulting and involving citizens to make sure they are part of the process,” she says, citing an example from when, as Minister of Energy, she launched a series of public consultations.
“Sessions were held at city and regional government halls — not in hotels as was the norm. The resistance came from some of the experts who felt that, first and foremost, they should take charge of the event. I was adamant that all citizens must be given an opportunity to air their views and this is exactly what occurred. We had secondary school students present policies for pursuing and developing a renewable energy sector in Trinidad and Tobago. I still get feedback from stakeholders about how effective this approach was.”
From an internal perspective, the minister goes on to say that when she first came to the Ministry of Public Administration she found some scope for improvement. “I don’t want to portray myself as an expert in HR or even public administration, but I couldn’t understand why we had been hearing about ‘transformation’ for so many years,” she says. “It seemed like something like this could be traced back to the 1980s, yet we hadn’t been able to make progress while the rest of the world kept accelerating — at a far faster pace than ourselves. So, now the focus is to catch up and leapfrog our way forward.”
Asked why more progress had not occurred in the preceding years, she says that it wasn’t for a lack of trying. “I found that everyone was trying to push the project forward but I felt that the best way was to deploy multiple strategies,” she says. “Breaking the project up into smaller components to find individual solutions makes it more achievable and this involves a bottom-up approach because we have to involve our people. We have to get them enthused and excited about what they are doing.
“The second strategy we are using is from the top down,” she continues. “In my view, what had previously happened was that our leaders tended just to be managers and didn’t really understand their role as ‘leaders’. In order to better develop our leadership across the public service, we have put into place new training programs for permanent secretaries and heads of department. They are now more equipped with the
tools and techniques to allow them to manage in an environment that is more dynamic and diverse than the hierarchical structure that went before. It’s been a big culture shift to get them used to the idea that more tasks can be taken on by people at the middle management level.”
And a third focus area has seen Seepersad-Bachan and her team consider how best to integrate these reforms across the public service. “Because of the size and complexity of our public service, and the way it has evolved, it has been very functional, with too many silos and not enough integration across our ministries,” she explains. “This is why we are introducing new programs such as shared services. We are particularly strong on the adoption and diffusion of new technologies, especially ICT, since it provides greater opportunities for wider innovation and for access to services. This is because we want to create one stop shops for government services that allow citizens to receive their services more easily than previously. After all, they’re not really interested in what ministry does what. What they’re interested in is the type of services they are receiving.”
Lessons from lecturing
Seepersad-Bachan’s approach is steeped in her experiences in academia. A former lecturer in Engineering at the University of West Indies, she has also accumulated considerable business experience, including serving on the boards of several private sector organizations such as the National Petroleum Marketing Company, which she chaired. However, the call of politics, and of public service, rarely strayed from her thoughts.
“When I was lecturing, I felt that at our Department of Electrical Engineering was not contributing to national development in a meaningful way,” she explains.
“One of the things that troubled me was that we were producing a number of engineering graduates who were going out into the energy sector and they were not really being allowed to practice engineering. Partly this was because we were importing a lot of the solutions via foreign consultants and this meant our human capital was being insufficiently developed. I came to learn about how the leadership of a country is critical to making change take place — without it, nothing happens. It’s the same for public service transformation — without political will, it won’t be happening.”
Her prior experiences also meant that she was surprised by some other aspects of life in government. “One thing you’re told when you come into government from the private sector is ‘Hey listen, this is not the private sector.’ I was particularly struck by the lack of sufficient mentorship, which was something that was very common at university. Now, when you reach a high level in the organization, part of your responsibilities is to mentor more junior members of staff. I also found that there wasn’t enough urgency as people would get caught up in the processes and spend too long planning their projects before getting started. We take on a lot of big projects but sometimes they take so long to deliver they lose their relevance by the time they come into fruition — I’ve seen it happen myself.”
The innovation question
A driving force of the reform program is to strengthen innovation across the public service. Although Trinidad and Tobago, itself a melting pot of religions, races and cultures, is a natural environment for innovation to thrive, the hierarchical government systems inherited from the colonial structures of 1962 do not help — anything but.
“It’s been a constant challenge to get innovation in the public service because of the way it is structured,” she says. “The lack of encouragement and rewards on the one hand, and the fear of failure on the other, make innovation difficult. We cannot be afraid of failure and we cannot escape the process of trial and error. In fact, if we are to be innovative, there must be failures. But equally, where there are failures, we need to ensure that people are not repeating mistakes that we are already aware off. Going forward, we need a new type of management and leadership. It’s not easy to manage a diverse team with people from all different backgrounds. It requires a specific skill set as you have to get the team to jell together. I really think women can play that role — it’s what they do in communities and families every day.”
It is perhaps fortuitous, then, that there are plenty of women in the public service to choose from. Given that approximately 55% of public service staff are women, Seepersad-Bachan says the priority is not so much about breaking down barriers, but rather giving women greater confidence. “I think it is about encouraging women to exercise more leadership. Despite the high numbers of women — 64% of substantive Permanent Secretaries are women — at high levels throughout the organisation, I find that not enough women are taking the initiative. It’s important to pave the way to encourage women to take more active roles, instead of being passive, as they have been too often in the past.”
This drive to instil greater confidence among her fellow women leaders is just one of the many jigsaw pieces facing Seepersad-Bachan. As the clock ticks down to the 2022 deadline, there is little doubt that hers is a job full of challenges, trials and tests. But one suspects she wouldn’t have it any other way.
This feature was first published in the August edition of EY's Citizen Today magazine
Change management: Golden rules Carolyn Seepersad-Bachan, Minister of Public Administration
Build the foundation for change
• Build the business case for change and create a sense of urgency. Research and prepare the case for change, consult stakeholders, formulate and share a clear, compelling transformation vision
• Build a coalition of support. Target the entire public service and country and seek to identify key foundation building pilot projects in areas that would have a catalytic impact on the economy
Engage and align the leadership
• Engage the leaders and align on key change strategies that drive a culture of “how” and empower as change agents and role models
• Secure personal commitments to lead the change programs and ensure appropriate staffing by persons who can adapt when opportunities for positive change arise
Mobilize the organization
• Design and launch key change initiatives that drives the culture of “how” and cascade deep into the organization to engage stakeholders
• Establish continuous and engaging change communications such as town hall meetings Integrate, monitor, measure and adapt
• Integrate across initiatives, actively monitor progress and address barriers to change
• Measure progress and make course corrections to the plan Sustain change and celebrate success
• Align performance requirements and incentives with desired cultural values
• Communicate prioritized, powerful wins
