FROM THE PUBLIC EDITOR'S DESK: What culture transformation means to you
You may not know what happened last Friday at Mwananchi Communications Limited (MCL) headquarters at Tabata Relini in Dar es Salaam. I wish you were there.
The editorial office was full to the main hindmost exit. Workers – women and men – from all departments of the company, occupied all the chairs usually more than enough for the beelike reporters and editors, brushing shoulders as they get in and out, like bees would do – collecting “nect-info” from which to get the news you desire.
It is about time to start business. Here is the Chief Speaker. It looks like chairs are not enough, he says, as if he doesn’t know that; adding that the gathering was going to take long and those standing run the risk of irremediable atrophy.
Atrophy! Imagine standing for long hours at one spot, and gradually your upper body begins to sink towards your legs; and finally the legs get absorbed into the invading weighty body from above!
The chief speaker doesn’t like that to happen. He orders invasion of all rooms close to the newsroom; collect all chairs in there and put then to use. It is done. There are still workers without chairs. They could possibly be sitting in turns with their neighbours. They did and the session was ordered into motion.
It is all about “Culture Transformation Flag-off – 2020.” But there is no flag. Flag-off? Could it be inaugurate, install, launch, start up, unveil, put in place? What?
And this culture! Could it be civilisation, customs, traditions or way of life? What? How about transformation? To transform? To change, alter, convert, renovate, make over, upgrade, innovate, renovate, rebuild? What?
All these could be right and still confusing. Go to the original text as from the Human Resources Manager that there will be “Culture Transformation Flag-off – 2020” and that the flag-off will be done by the guest of honour already holding the mike.
Here is the guest of honour. Witness the unfolding: The company. The details. What it is today. What it has done. What it intends to do. Where it feels the weight. The good. The bad. The go-between. Everybody’s eye sticking to the performer.
Who has done what. Who has not done what. Big approving nods. Remote disapproving silence. Cheer here and there. Murmurs from the audience. Uniform burst into a cheer as guest of honour winds up and thanks all.
Where is the flag? Before I get the answer, the guest of honour bounces back. Talks big about the role of an individual worker in a group; individual responsibility and targets; self-discipline, the company and the consumer.
Read this. Guest of honour: Whom are we all out to satisfy? The audience: Consumer! Imagine the consumer – you.
The consumer! The guest of honour reiterated with and for emphasis and proceeded to get to know who, among his audience, know or remember the Values of Mwananchi Communications Limited. Fortunately they were enumerated successfully, one after the other.
The guest of honour picked a number of workers at key places in service and on production line and asked, one after the other, what they would do in their individual and collective capacity, to ensure smooth operation that would not, in any way, stagnate business and frustrate the consumer. Answers were briskly delivered.
It is here I began to see the possibility that we may not see the flag. Flag-off is “an idiomatic expression indicating the commencement of some endeavour…” It may be a word or two.
Looking at the whole situation, early gestures by the guest of honour were meant to demonstrate care for everybody. Following was the state of the company. Then there was an effort to know if principles of the company still had place in the mind of the worker; followed by an attempt to highlight the place of the consumer; and finally, see if there was commitment to work.
Doesn’t this sum up the launch of collective commitment to work for the year 2020? It does. The flag could stay on its mast. Let consumers know how it works to reach and serve them. It demands commitment.
