Legacy Over Our Silos

OPENING REMARKS BY
YBHG TAN SRI SIDEK HASSAN
CHIEF SECRETARY TO THE GOVERNMENT OF MALAYSIA

AT THE
MANFRED KETS DE VRIES’ MASTER CLASS
“THE LEADERSHIP CHALLENGE: A CULTURAL ODYSSEY”

LEGACY OVER OUR SILOS

Bismillahir rahmannir rahim

Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh,

A very good morning and Salam 1Malaysia

Y. Bhg. Dato’ Sri Abu Bakar Haji Abdullah, Director General of Public Service, Malaysia

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Hamidin Abdul Hamid, CEO, Razak School of Government

Prof. Manfred F.R. Kets de Vries
Professor of Leadership Development INSEAD France, our distinguished speaker

Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen,

I would like to extend a warm welcome to all of you and especially to our distinguished speaker, Prof. Manfred F.R Kets de Vries. I understand you have had the opportunity of a few days of sightseeing in Malaysia before meeting us today. Thank you again for making time for us here in Malaysia, amidst your busy schedule.

Ladies and gentlemen,

2. When the Honourable Prime Minister, YAB Dato’ Sri Najib Tun Abdul Razak, launched the Razak School of Government in October of 2010, he said and I quote, “The idea of the New Public Leadership is what we have to keep in mind. Change is no longer feasible only through management, but change, true change can only happen through leadership.” (end quote)

3. Leadership is an expression we continue to struggle with across public and private sectors, developed and developing worlds. The one model that we think works has not necessarily done so when superimposed in a different environment couched in varying cultural expectations, decorum and aspirations. Professor Kets de Vries, you have often been quoted as saying leadership is a team sport. And that in its element holds much significance for us in the Public Sector as this is a sector often accused of working in silos in its alleged quest of preserving bureaucracy.

4. The Public Service of Malaysia has experienced several watershed moments of change over the last 50 years alone. It has had to respond to Malaysia’s transformation from a plantation-based economy, through to industrialisation and now to a service-based economy. Fundamental through these changes isn’t so much if our systems and processes have reached their optimal abilities, but rather whether the people who are “manning” and implementing the systems and processes have.

5. Call on any public sector globally, we are often commemorated for safeguarding in a form or fashion inefficiency, silo working cells, inability to accept new ideas, thriving on closed-minds and I am certain many more of similar kinds of adjectives. Some of these claims are well justified, one might argue.

6. In my own 37 years of being in the Service, I am persuaded that modernisation isn’t a function of simply gadgetries and showstopper inventions, as much as it is the mindset of the people leading in the “new normals” that we call reality. This reality, I might add, is a moving target often governed by the changing world events and maturing demography aspirations. So even as we argue that this is the Chinese way or the Malaysian or the European way of doing business, the global mechanics might simply refuse our parameters of working altogether. Even as we may gloat to have brought to market the first of its kind solution, that solution may not resemble the needs of the users.

7. Where the coin will fall on the best management techniques remains to be seen. But of commanding need, in my view, is the need for leaders with the skills and the stamina to rise to the moving expectations of the world. We need leaders who are not trapped in a certain world view, and presume to assume that everyone else share their potentially flawed view of the times. And we need leaders who are able to persuade the system (that being you, me and everyone) that we are in this together and if as constituents of this market we do not effect meaningful change, the world will impose that change on us.

8. I am pleased that the Razak School of Government has organised this workshop with a leading Ivy League Institution like INSEAD. It is my hope that today’s Programme will lead to continuous inculcation of best leadership practices in the Public Service and that it will not be a one off session. The key role of the School is to ensure leaders in the public sector are trained to be comparable in skills and aptitude to any leader globally.

9. It is said that people don’t resist change. They resist being changed. Leadership should not be a positional quest, but instead the ripples and resonating effects from the work trusted upon us draw meaning in the lives we each touch. The brand of any organisation, not least the Public Service of Malaysia, lies in its People. The legacies we each leave behind as members of this Service, will not only define the next generation but more importantly write the history of what this Service is and has been all about.

10. The world we serve (or served in time) will not remember the cutting edge techniques that we implemented during our times. It will reminisce the single small moments when we each rose beyond our comfort zones to being great leaders in making the life of someone totally unknown to us more bearable, more memorable and more meaningful. Those are the moments, in my view, that will tell apart an organisation with a heart and soul, and one without. That in my view is the very makings of a service industry.

11. No matter the position or ranks we each hold today, our collective job description is one and the same – – and that is to serve the people of Malaysia the best service they deserve. And so we can all intellectualise management and leadership, but the one who will matter is the one who delivers meaningful outcomes that touch the lives of those served.

12. When we each look back on our days of life, we hope to smile and say we made that small difference, albeit insignificant, relative to someone else. But we did it all the same. That in my mind is our legacies beyond our silo agendas.

Colleagues,

13. Alfred Nobel was the inventor of dynamites. He read his own obituary which was erroneously printed in a French publication, meant for the passing of his brother, which read, “The merchant of death is dead” and went on to say, “Dr. Alfred Nobel, who became rich by finding ways to kill more people faster than ever before, died yesterday.” This obituary was apparently his motivation behind the creation of the Nobel Peace Prize. He did not want to be remembered for death and destruction, but for peace instead.

14. We can each choose how our own obituaries will be written, how our legacies will be remembered, and indeed how the destinies of our next generation will be said. We each have the one life, and often the one poignant opportunity in making THAT difference.

Use it wisely. MAKE A DIFFERENCE.

On that note, I wish you all a successful seminar.

Thank you.