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STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT
SAR Toh presenting a token of appreciation to Mr Kelly Olafson, Regional Operations Director of Ogilvy & Mather Asia Pacific
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Hot on the heels of a good showing at
the 2003 Singapore Quality Award assessment, the Managing for Excellence
(MFE) Committee continued to re-invent itself by directing its focus towards
Organisational Learning. To expose the members of the Supreme Court to new
ideas, a series of learning visits to organisations that have achieved
excellence in their field of expertise was lined up.
In March 2004, we visited the National
Library Board (NLB) (Woodlands branch) for a walkabout, as well as a sharing
session on how they were able to successfully change the public’s perception
of the library as staid and dull, to an activity-filled place, attracting
readers of all ages and walks of life. We were also introduced to the
technology infrastructure and business process reengineering that enabled
NLB to support the corresponding huge jump in library users.
This was quickly followed by a visit to
the Singapore Police Force in May 2004. Reflections from participants were
collected after this visit and evaluated by the MFE Committee. Following
from this, the MFE Committee decided to embark on Systems Thinking as a
tangible step towards transforming the Supreme Court into a learning
organisation.
Our legal officers, Heads of Department
and Heads of Section then made their first learning visit to a private
sector firm, Ogilvy & Mather Asia Pacific, in September 2004. The
session was designed to help participants gain insights into unleashing
creativity and to acquire tips and techniques for successful creative
brainstorming.
The staff have successfully applied the
lessons learnt during these trips to their immediate work tasks. As the
feedback received for these learning visits have been very positive, the MFE
Committee will continue to organise these learning visits into the new
year.
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Participants at the Systems Thinking Workshop
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In addition to organising learning
visits, the MFE Committee made a conscious move to introduce Systems
Thinking to the organisation. Systems Thinking is a management concept that
encourages a holistic approach to problem solving to minimise the occurrence
of unintended consequences which may impact other parts of the
organisation.
Two experienced facilitators on the
subject, Ms Sheila Damodaran from the Singapore Police Force and Mr Eric Wee
from Temasek Polytechnic, conducted a full-day workshop for senior
management, legal officers, Heads of Department and Heads of Section. The
workshop, which was held on 7 July 2004 at the City Hall Chamber, was a
resounding success. Participants were introduced to the various Systems
Archetypes and were able to visually represent causal relationships using
Systems Diagrams. To encourage practical application of these concepts, two
teams were tasked to identify a problem they faced in the course of their
work and use Systems Thinking to derive a practical solution. These teams
from the Finance Department and the Legal Directorate consulted with Ms
Damodaran and Mr Wee and presented their projects at a second workshop held
in November 2004.
In a departure from previous years, this
year’s PS 21 ExCEL Convention, held on 13 October 2004 at the Edutorium of
the Ministry of Education, was focused on sharing and learning the best
practices that had made a difference in other organisations. As such, there
was no Civil Service-wide centralised judging to rate the WITS projects
Participants at the Systems Thinking Workshop for Gold, Silver or Bronze a
wards. Ministries were encouraged to continue with in-house WITS
competitions to recognise the good work done by their WITS teams. For the
ExCEL Convention, the Supreme Court submitted a project on a proposed digital
recording system that was designed to eliminate inefficiencies in the
transcription process.
A total of 10 projects were completed by
our WITS teams during the year. If fully implemented, the projects are
estimated to result in more than $1 million in cost savings for the Supreme
Court. The details of these projects are listed below:
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