A smattering of insights

Here is to caring for Sri Lanka, its past, its present, its people, its potential, its possibilities

We have the wherewithal. We need to locate the will. And the extremely high ratio of pontification to execution must be reversed. If this can be cracked, Sri Lanka will slowly but surely, surge forward

We produce a “thought of the day” and have for many months. They represent a broad spectrum of insights, and I thought we would publish some of those that have generated the greatest interest.

But first, a word about Sri Lanka.

The IMF governance review, the 16-point plan exposes a disheartening panorama of corruption vulnerabilities stemming from hasty tax policies, half-hearted approaches to Anti-Money Laundering and Combating Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT), a fickle legal framework, and dubious processes within state-owned enterprises (SOEs). 

They highlighted the paucity of public procurement legislation and erratic tax policy modifications – a joint breeding ground for corruption. 

The IMF flagged the apparent conflict of interest surrounding the Central Bank’s management of the Employee Provident Fund (EPF) and its regulation of Non-Bank Financial Institutions (NBIFs) has further eroded trust.

The pursuit of stolen funds seems lacklustre, and civil society is still kept at bay. There are uncertain sanctions for misconduct. There are few inclusive platforms for governance, and the counter-terrorism regulations, here as elsewhere, are rather over-broad.

The report also points out the absence of an efficient, rule-based dispute resolution mechanism, referring to the unending delays in cases, and the deadlocks the current Court system seems to impose on legitimate plaintiffs.

Linked to this, the report also exposes governance frailties in contract enforcement and property rights, crippling private sector growth. Excessive delays in resolving contract disputes push parties toward illicit means of hastening adjudication. Ambiguities around property rights and the absence of digital property records spawn protracted legal disputes, further stimulating corruption.

This gloomy landscape has eroded the judiciary’s integrity and led private entities to resort to corrupt practices for dispute resolution.

As a leading opinion writer pointed out, “While the Anti-Corruption Act (ACA) has been enacted, it’s exposed as toothless without the necessary support. Key accountability institutions, such as the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery and Corruption (CIABOC), remain ineffectual.” A modern Asset Recovery law is needed, and it must have the operational basis to be zealously implemented. 

The Strategic Projects Development Act should be suspended the review concludes, until there is a transparent evaluation process, a means by which strategic relevance can be demonstrated, and where there is clear fiscal oversight that is credible and scrupulous. A real cost-benefit assessment is needed, including a review of tax incentives.

The report casts a glaring spotlight on high corruption risks in public procurement due to the absence of procurement laws. Political interference, poor contract management, limited transparency, and other issues plague this critical area. Enacting a Public Procurement Law reflecting international best practices by December next year is a non-negotiable demand by the donor agency.

The time for action is now, the nation’s future is intertwined with these transformations, alongside stimulating a more value-added export economy, vastly reducing the cost of government, driving tourism value by looking at more than “numbers” but rather benchmarked quality of visitor experience and spend per tourist compared with our regional competitors. The development of our human capital is a cornerstone of so much of this. 

We have the wherewithal. We need to locate the will. And the extremely high ratio of pontification to execution must be reversed. If this can be cracked, Sri Lanka will slowly but surely, surge forward. 

Life Insight 1

Create a “zone of civility” around you wherever you go. The people you smile at in the elevator, the few genuine pleasantries you exchange with someone serving you at a desk, a compliment on someone’s outfit who clearly took some time over it, a moment to ask, “How are you?” and then actually “listen” to the reply. 

Everywhere we are, we embolden humanity or stifle it, we leave someone’s disposition a little cheerier or gloomier, and we either pause to celebrate life’s graces and glories or stay studiously engrossed in our own problems and vanity. We’re human, we all need bucking up. We all have problems, no one gets a free ride. Being aware of that should bring us together, not drive us apart.

Life Insight 2

Humility is a magnificent virtue if properly understood. It is not the false piety of having no views, opinions, or preferences. Then you are a monotonous drone. An indiscriminately “open mind” is a sewer. 

We need some sieves, some filters, and some ability to judge and discern, it’s called “taste.” But the difference between “taste” and “prejudice” is that “taste” is cultivated and comes from experience converted into insight. And “prejudice” is literally “pre-judgment.” It is fear of having our horizons expanded and avoiding fresh stimuli manically. 

“Humility” means I can accept affirmation with gratitude rather than arrogance, and also fully appreciate the worth and value of others. 

But remember no one goes seeking a “humble” plumber or a “humble” accountant” or a “humble” turnaround CEO. They seek justified confidence and meaningful conviction AND the humility to course correct and recalibrate and parlay the wisdom and ideas of others. It is truly “both/and.”

Life Insight 3

The world is awash with important and contentious matters. But are we right to assume that our opinions make us morally superior? And can it be that simple? Is there a sort of interlocking set of opinions which are right and good, and an opposite set which are wrong and bad? People of depth and nuance don’t have either set. 

Sane people opposed the Iraq and Afghan wars from the start, and have real qualms about the real aims of seeking to inflame Russia over the Ukraine.

You may be in favour of nuclear power on the pragmatics, a lifelong trade unionist, in favour of both nationalising or privatising of industry where it makes sense. 

You may want a national system of what the Brits called grammar schools restored because it will help bright children from poor homes.

Many opposed detentions without trial and identity cards during COVID-19 and defend the jury system and the presumption of innocence. We can be very sceptical about the ‘Homeland Security’ frenzy, pursued on the dubious pretext of terrorist danger. 

The UK is gasping for air economically, China and India are trying to find an equilibrium in their region, the tragedies of the Middle East continue, and developing countries are in acute pain after the shocks of pandemic hysteria and the disruptions of intemperate conflicts. Leadership is about adding to the value of the assets under your stewardship and increasing collective capability to deliver improvement and growth. We need to identify the national “game changers” for the coming 18 months, as the current reality is not sustainable

We can still disagree about plenty of important things, and I am glad of it. Nobody is right all the time, and our system should have circuit breakers, democratic and impartial ones, accordingly. 

But it also relies on us realising that many times the other side is made up of human beings, not caricatures, to whom we can be civil and with whom we engage – and to whom we can even occasionally listen to with profit. Try it sometime.

Life Insight 4

“Guarding kids from ever feeling bored is misguided in the same way that guarding kids from ever feeling sad, or ever feeling frustrated, or ever feeling angry is misguided.” 

Thus, spake the NY Times editorial page. We need to build resilience, adaptability, flexibility, even the capacity in this “hyper” age to be still, even if not tranquil. 

Those who have not incorporated these learnings become dysfunctional adults, petty, peeved and shrill. Expose kids to life’s fullness, but demand they realise they at times have to help “fill” it... with their passion and creativity, or plain wonder, or curiosity. 

In an elevator yesterday I watched a youngster relentlessly yawning, wanting to relay his disaffected apathy to his solicitous father who tried to get him interested in one of many “amusements” he was offering. It’s not a referendum, families do things together, and you seek to enrol and make it interesting and respond to interests. And it should be reciprocal. Or else what you are cultivating in terms of personality will serve neither that youngster nor the world, well.

Life Insight 5

Anne Lamott in her legendary writing guide points out that “shitty first drafts” are not only inevitable but they are essential. Imagine that life too is a series of “drafts” and we start inept and stumbling and as leaders we too often hoard control and fail to learn how to enable and enlist and empower. 

However, the past needn’t equal the future, and we needn’t cling to these dogmas. We “stumble” or even “stagger” our way to success, as we do to competence, or even towards evolving a measured faith. 

We find places to “land” where we can learn and also be held up and become experientially more nuanced, and then step forward from there. 

As the founders of NLP with whom I worked, so insightfully observed, “We are not our past, we are the resources we take forward from our past.” We make that decision daily, and in each moment and minute.

Life Insight 6

“In the best of times our days are numbered. And so it would be a crime against nature for any generation to take the world crisis so solemnly that it put off enjoying those things for which we were assigned in the first place…the opportunity to do good work, to fall in love, to enjoy friends, to hit a ball, and to bounce a baby”. —Alistair Cooke

His was a voice that educated, enlightened, and provided balance and insight to a generation over radio and television and in print. A different category of commentator, firebrand Anton Checkov observed, “Any idiot can face a crisis, it is this day-to-day living that wears you out.” 

Well, it can if you amble, stumble, or dodder your way through. Taking each day as a gift, deciding to get all the value you can from it, offering as much contribution as you can where it matters most, and celebrating all the potential and opportunities we so often take for granted, is transformative. 

Pick a few things you will commit to advancing today, that have transformational leverage, that can ripple out, and get those done, and let the rest of the day and time unfold and enjoy riding those waves!

Insight 7

A famed CEO recently asked me, “How can I really motivate my people? Can the CEO make that happen in addition to driving results?” It took grace and considerable astuteness to even ask. I gave three thoughts on this front. 

“First, go to war on the ‘passion killers’ in your business. Find out what saps credibility, engagement, and trust. Passion is natural, it’s the things that sap it, or undermine it we have to identify and go to war on.” 

“Second, the Gallup research is clear that Managers matter even more than the company. So ensure as many of your people are reporting to great managers, those who are credible, can execute, and who also are committed to their people’s development and well-being. These managers must collaborate and create a sponsoring culture. Remove mediocrities and egomaniacs and bureaucrats with zeal.” 

“Third, there must be a larger aim, a real vision, something to drive for, and be inspired to deliver together. Ancient Scripture tells us without vision a people perish. Well, certainly without it they are a shadow of who and what they can be. So take a stand for an inclusive, business-furthering, game-changing vision and help everyone ‘behave’ their way towards it. Meaning motivates.”

Insight 8:

Effective communication starts with active listening. Leaders must not only convey their thoughts and ideas but also be attentive to what others are saying, listening with intensity, whole-heartedly, and with a radical openness to being “surprised”. And listening needs to beget empathy, though it does not demand agreement. We should be fully present, free from distractions and notifications, and simply focused on the speaker’s “content” as well as likely “intent”.

Leaders should ask questions that help clarify the speaker’s message. So you can say something like, “So what I’m understanding is this, am I right?” Or “What I’m hearing you say is this, is that correct?” Better to paraphrase than to “parrot” what the speaker has said. 

And if you have an intuition as to what they mean, check it out, bounce it off them, and build from there. Deep listening not only fosters trust, especially when we “test” any assumptions, but it also enables leaders to make more informed decisions that offer valuable insights based on a deeper understanding of their team’s perspectives, passions, and ideas. 

Our listening often helps to unlock others’ potential.

Insight 9

Encouraging adolescents to feel capable and purposeful – rather than just happy – could improve their academic results as well as their mental health, according to new research that recommends changing how wellbeing is supported in schools. Creating such environments translates to the workplace too.

The University of Cambridge study, involving over 600 teenagers from seven English schools, examined two separate aspects of their wellbeing: life satisfaction and ‘eudaimonia’. While life satisfaction roughly equates to how happy a person is, eudaimonia refers to how well that person feels they are functioning. It incorporates feelings of competence, motivation, and self-esteem. The keyword to insert there is “justified,” as the study looked at an earned sense of competence, legitimate motivation towards mastery, and self-esteem premised on progress.

Researchers found that students with high levels of eudaimonia consistently outperformed their peers in GCSE-level assessments, especially Math. On average, those achieving top Math grades had eudaimonic wellbeing levels 1.5 times higher than those with the lowest grades. 

We have to do more than seek to foster happiness therefore, that is a byproduct. The path is deeper engagement, through helping students, and indeed our employees and team members stretch constructively to realise their unique talents and to ensure their aspirations are also advanced by advancing our corporate aspirations.

Insight 10

Countries like companies need to get better at facing facts fast. The US narrowly averted a government shutdown, due to how polarised politics are. An election is nigh. And there are real issues that need confronting, not how to allocate bathrooms by gender or which pronoun to use. 

The UK is gasping for air economically, China and India are trying to find an equilibrium in their region, the tragedies of the Middle East continue, and developing countries are in acute pain after the shocks of pandemic hysteria and the disruptions of intemperate conflicts. 

Leadership is about adding to the value of the assets under your stewardship and increasing collective capability to deliver improvement and growth. We need to identify the national “game changers” for the coming 18 months, as the current reality is not sustainable. 

And many developed countries are not replenishing themselves in terms of birth rate, as citizens say they do not wish to bring children into contemporary society. Well, that’s a damning report card. And we need to do better. 

And that means we critically need to stimulate, enrol, and catalyse the next generation. And we need desperately to create a new ethos for government and governance. 

We need great imagination, energy, and conviction, and we simply cannot be distracted by relative irrelevancies and outright nonsense like can men give birth? 

First, we need societies that work for more of us. Then we can debate the rest.

Round up

Back to Sri Lanka and its way forward. The Anholt Ipsos Nation’s Brand Index was created in 2005, re-set in 2007, and has been assessed ever since, and its relevance has only grown.

1. Exports – reputation of the country’s products and services, and the quality and quantity of the “value added.”

2. Tourism – level of interest in visiting the country and its natural and artificial attractions, the quality of the experience, the execution of the brand promise, the service ethos.

3. Culture and Heritage – the value of a nation’s heritage and the care and cultivation of its heritage as well as interest in its contemporary culture, i.e., music, art, cinema, literature and sports.

4. Governance – public opinion about national government competency and fairness, as well as its commitments to global issues.

5. People – worldwide reputation with respect to openness, friendliness or tolerance, as well as developing key aptitudes for future success.

6. Investments and Immigration – a country’s ability to attract people (or companies) to live (or settle), work or study, and the quality of life and the business environment it offers.

As Simon Anholt says, “So all responsible governments, on behalf of their people, their institutions, and their companies, need to measure and monitor the world’s perception of their nation and to develop a strategy for managing it. It is a key part of their job to try to earn a reputation that is fair; true; powerful; attractive; genuinely useful to their economic, political, and social aims; and honestly reflective of the spirit, the genius, and the will of the people. This huge task has become one of the primary skills of administrations in the twenty-first century.”

Here is to such responsibility being cultivated and flexed and demonstrated consistently. Here is to vivifying this Sri Lankan national brand, to infusing identity here on this Island with the integrity of consistently executed purposeful actions. Here is to caring for Sri Lanka, its past, its present, its people, its potential, its possibilities. We cannot “spin” this though. We have to substantiate it.

(The writer is the founder and CEO of EPL Global and founder of Sensei Lanka, a global consultant with over 30 years strategic leadership experience and now, since March 2020, a globally recognised COVID researcher and commentator.)