Craft of State, Art of Society, Science of Economy Redux

Yesterday I re-read a paper I wrote 4 years ago (on 12 August 2006 to be exact) entitled Accelerating Singapore's Progress into a Global City of Distinction. This paper was specially written for a few policy leaders and I believe it had an extremely small readership.

As a challenge to myself for this Thought-of-The-Week entry, provocatively titled Craft of State, Art of Society, Science of Economy Redux, I've given myself the challenge of sharing a dozen paragraphs from this article, "repeated verbatim" (with absolutely no changes), to ascertain if my "seeing beyond corners, twice" crystal ball gazing perspectives, written in 2006 still hold today --- 48 months & 17 days down the road.

Here are the 12 paras. Happy reading.

Paragraph 1:

As a son of Singapore, I personally feel that moving forward, our nation will need to work smart & hard at Singapore's emotional well being. We will need to employ a mix of strategies, measures, and actions at both the systemic (national, societal, organizational, etc) and local (nuclear family, extended family and friends, etc) levels.

Paragraph 2:

To make Singapore a Global City of Distinction, it is important that we design & implement pragmatic strategies & actions to rapidly ramp up Singaporeans' emotional sense of well being.

Paragraph 3:

As more and more workers (these workers could be leaders, managers, or associates) identify their self and societal worth with their jobs and careers, as they spend more and more time at the workplace, and as the chasm between work & life becomes more meshed up and blurred, it is even more critical that workers be "emotionally engaged" at work.

Paragraph 4:

Engagement of Singapore's workers (leaders, managers, associates) at work becomes a pre-requisite for Singapore to nurture & build a nation of engaged citizens.

Paragraph 5:

An engaged & high-performing Singapore Workforce will no doubt create greater engaged citizenry and greater Soul of the City for Singapore.

Paragraph 6:

For emotional well being to grow in Singapore, for more workers (leaders, managers, associates) to become emotionally engaged, for Soul of the City to improve in Singapore, it is my belief that we need to move beyond Results Management (which Singaporeans are great at), and to make People Leadership & Management a core focus and priority moving forward.

Paragraph 7:

As we move towards an era where Generation Z and Millenials enter the workforce in droves, it becomes even more important that existing leaders & managers in organizations focus not just on Results Management and Value-Add Management, but also on People Leadership & Management.

Paragraph 8:

Generation Z and Millenials will require more face time and more human-to-human interactions (professional & social) from their bosses than the previous generations. They will be well educated, well read, well traveled, and opinionated. They will care more about things of the Soul and about well being. They will, more than ever, need to be "emotionally engaged" to their work, jobs, and careers, and to country and nation.

Paragraph 9:

For Generation Z and Millenials, it will be most important to engage their heart, minds, hands, and soul such that they are emotionally engaged at work, and that they give their all to over-achieve and over-deliver.

Paragraph 10:

Singapore SMEs find it very tough to hire very good people. The very best people talents are with the public sector, the foreign and local MNCs, the GLCs and TLCs, and the professions (consultancy, auditing, law, etc). Because SMEs do not get great leader & manager talents, they find it very difficult (and close to impossible) to grow, scale, and win. For Singapore's 100 best SMEs, it will be good if we can have cross-fertilization / help schemes where the very best leader & manager talent from the above strong companies can be channeled to them for a period of 2-4 years per secondment to help these 100 best SMEs grow, scale, and win.

Paragraph 11:

Singapore SMEs (and to a large extent, our local MNCs) need to focus on and learn flag-planting skills. These skills include: (i) communicating with, leading, motivating, and optimizing diverse workforces, (ii) thinking global, (iii) confronting the unknown, (iv) taking risks, and (v) planting flags.

Paragraph 12:

Only then can our 100 best SMEs become regional players and world-beaters. Only then can Singapore Inc. be extended internationally through our private enterprises over and beyond our familiar name TLCs and GLCs.