Francis Wade | Jaded staff: Why prior corporate change efforts might be the problem

As a leader, you have big aspirations for your people. However, the more you express them, the more opposition builds. How do you get past jaded sentiments and resigned responses to your hopeful view of the future?

Case in point: Jamaica’s biggest challenges.

In a recent chat I attended among leading thinkers, participants quickly converged on three obstacles: crime, literacy and energy prices. But they also admitted that Jamaicans are jaded. Like many employees in the average organisation, they have become cynical, tired of failed hopes and dashed dreams.

Most leaders’ default response? – Stay positive! Try harder!

Consider a crazy idea: these nostrums make things worse when there is a history of failure. To explain this insight, let’s look at Vision 2030 Jamaica, our first national development plan, and why, today, surprisingly, it blocks every major aspiration.

A few weeks ago, Prime Minister Andrew Holness announced that “we’re not going to hit developed country status by 2030”. The headlines that followed concluded that Vision 2030 Jamaica had failed. But there’s a more nuanced story behind it all.

The fact is, the build-up to the plan’s launch in 2009 was picture-perfect, by the accepted standards of the time.

Consequently, other countries and the United Nations came to us for advice on how to achieve participation and consensus at scale. Why? Miraculously, the effort created bi-partisan hope in the middle of a worldwide financial crisis.

This is extremely rare in our recent history. Furthermore, maybe it’s only happened two other times. Recall the advent of the Electoral Commission of Jamaica and the Economic Progress Oversight Committee, better known as EPOC.

Yet, it just wasn’t enough.

Now that we stand in 2024, looking back, we can see gaping holes in our collective management of Vision 2030 Jamaica. No surprise there; we are savvier than we were 15 years ago. But there’s more.

Today, our once exemplary National Development Plan blocks all that we must accomplish as a people in the future. How could this be so?

All projects need powerful closure.

As a leader in your organisation, you probably wonder why staff continue to be jaded, in spite of repeated, well-meaning efforts. Here’s a possible explanation why, maybe, it’s no accident.

A boyfriend who is found to cheat once on his girlfriend might never do so again. But if he never apologises, makes amends, nor promises visible behaviour changes, she will remain upset. Even if she doesn’t say it, the relationship worsens.

Therefore, any Jamaican government who promises a great future for its people effectively does so on top of the failure of Vision 2030. The same applies to all who were engaged in its creation, such as members of NGOs, private sector companies, political parties and community groups, among others.

As such, there is no avoiding a head-on confrontation with our 15-year-old National Development Plan. Any hopeful future must go through it. Not around.

This might sound hard. But here’s a common blueprint we can borrow from the discipline of change management.

Resetting or Retiring an Organisation’s Vision

In much the same way that a cheating relationship demands a reset or a decisive end, a corporate vision needs the same. Here are some practical steps, using Vision 2030 as an example:

• Agree on successes and failures – this allows consensus and learning;

• Reset or retire – all onboard agree to intervene or quit;

• Establish a new horizon/vision – use the new energy released as a propellant.

In this context, ‘The truth will set you free’ is more than a proverb. So is the notion that a scar becomes tougher than the original skin which was wounded. Perhaps there is good reason to excavate accomplishments in order to build on them.

For example, our ministries, department and agencies have done a monumental job aligning their annual reporting around Vision 2030. How? They have introduced a new transformative discipline across a public sector cohort of 150-plus organisations, and 100,000-plus people. Few private companies compare.

In fact, your C-suite should be hungry for this capacity.

But more importantly, every national change effort needs both this discipline and capability. Why? Nothing transformational can happen in Jamaica without it.

In other words, the Vision 2030 project has delivered a powerful engine of development.

However, this incredible potential cannot be tapped simplistically. Nor should it be ignored. To repeat, the way to a great future is through Vision 2030. Furthermore, a fresh ‘Vision 2060’ would be dead on arrival if we ignore the above formula.

Your C-suite or board might be impatient for results, but their haste isn’t enough. Don’t give up on your jaded people. Instead, confront your failures and transform them. You may not have a choice.

Francis Wade is a management consultant and author of Perfect Time-Based Productivity. To search past columns on productivity, strategy and business processes, or give feedback, email: columns@fwconsulting.com