Supreme Court Corporate Planning Seminar 2005

This year’s Corporate Planning Seminar was held on 22 February 2005 at the Changi Village Hotel and attended by the Registrar, Deputy Registrar, Senior Assistant Registrars, Assistant Registrar, Heads of Department and Heads of Section. The theme for the event this year was “The Future We Care to Create”.

To help participants break away from the daily grind and get into a relaxed and positive frame of mind, the function room was transformed into an Inspiration Pod with bright colours, motivational posters, brain teasers, conversation kick-starters and learning aids. Some of our staff initially thought they had entered the wrong venue but soon warmed up to the animated discussions and brainstorming sessions.

There were three strategic thrusts for the Supreme Court this year, as set down by the Chief Justice in his Opening of the Legal Year address in January 2005. These are the appropriate use of technology, the review of our rules and work processes and the quality of our people. The move to our new building and the preparations leading up to the move also formed a key highlight in the day’s programme.

Building on the foundations of the Systems Thinking approach, which was introduced to staff last year, functional silos were deliberately broken. Discussion groups and activities during the planning seminar brought together a cross-section of staff from different directorates and departments to facilitate a cross-pollination of ideas.

Expanding on other Learning Organisation Tools, techniques such as Appreciate Inquiry and the Million Dollar Exercise (a basic introduction to visioning) were introduced at the seminar. With facilitation provided by an in-house Learning Organisation enthusiast, participants broke free from standard powerpoint presentations and adopted storytelling techniques to distill key success factors that have delivered results, discussing how they may be applied or adapted to help build the future we care to create.

The “learning through play” approach at the Corporate Planning Seminar 2005 was heartily welcomed by the participants, who went away satisfied with the fruitful harvest of ideas, stretch targets and a clearer corporate vision for the upcoming year.

Workplan Seminar 2005

The Supreme Court Annual Workplan Seminar 2005 was held on 24 March 2005 in the City Hall Chamber. Each staff was handed a personalised boarding pass to “board” the City Hall Chamber, which was decorated like a spaceship. This was to depict the Supreme Court “taking off” and embarking on “A New Journey of Experiences”, which was the theme for this year’s Workplan Seminar. Responding to the Chief Justice’s address in the Opening of the Legal Year 2005, this year’s Workplan Seminar served as a platform to convey to staff the Supreme Court’s FY 2005 threefold strategic intent: the appropriate use of technology, the review of our rules and work processes and the quality of our people. This year’s seminar was also carefully framed with a view to a paradigm shift in mindset to embrace change in anticipation of the move to the new Supreme Court building (NSCB).

The Registrar launched the seminar with her opening speech, encapsulating our journey and achievements for the last year. She also encouraged our staff to embrace change and to rise up to future challenges as she charted the direction of our journey in the year to come. Following the Long Service Awards and WITS prize presentation, the Directors and Heads of Departments reviewed the Supreme Court’s performance for FY 2004 and announced the new performance targets and workplans set for FY 2005. The latter incorporated discussions and decisions made with the management during the Corporate Planning Seminar held earlier in the year.

Highlights of the seminar also included the prize presentation of the photography competition on the Supreme Court building entitled, “Our Heritage, Our Future”. The chairman of the NSCB Steering Committee, Senior Assistant Registrar Kwek Mean Luck, also updated the staff on the progress of the new building and outlined the migration exercise which was to come. Distilling the essence of creativity and esprit de corps, the seminar concluded with a creative exercise of treasure hunting and jigsaw piecing to encourage teamwork among our staff and to promote a better understanding of our core values and strategic intent in a fun and interactive way.

More...