Poor Leadership and Accountability in West Indies Cricket

Following a fantastic victory by the West Indies at Sabina Park last week, the ugly side of our regional parochialism reared its head at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in Antigua. Knowing very well that the stadium was not match ready, rather than doing what was best for cricket and the region, local politicians supported by inept West Indies Board leadership insisted that the match be played in the island. After less than 10 minutes, the scheduled 5-day game was abandoned due to poor playing conditions of the ground. Former player and now commentator Michael Holding and veteran broadcaster Tony Cozier weighed in on the issue.

Holding had this to say:

Michael Holding has slammed the lack of responsibility in West Indies cricket as the region comes to terms with yesterday's sensational abandonment of the second Test against England at the Sir Viv Richards Stadium in Antigua. The match lasted a mere 10 balls, owing to an outfield deluged in sand, and an unsurprised Holding was quick to point the finger at the WICB.


"We have seen things like this happen in the Caribbean before. Whenever we have things like this happening, like in 1998 when the Test match was abandoned [at Sabina Park], there were no repercussions," Holding said in an audio interview with Cricinfo. "And I suspect there will be no repercussions either. No one will lose their jobs; no one will be asked to resign. If you ask the people responsible whether they will resign, they'll just say 'but why? Why should we resign?' So it will happen again. Once you have no repercussions, you will always have repeats.


"It will hit home for the next two weeks. But after two weeks, everyone will move on. That is the way things operate around here when people have no repercussions, when people don't suffer for their mistakes or their incompetence. If you don't suffer for your incompetence, everything moves on. Whenever anything goes wrong, no one suffers."


Tony Cozier had this to say:

Yesterday's fiasco presented the latest, most dramatic explanation for the sudden decline of West Indies cricket, from its unprecedented excellence of the 1980s to the mediocrity of the past two decades. It was yet another example of the politics and the mismanagement that has undermined a game that once elevated this small, impoverished and otherwise insignificant part of the world from third to first world status.


Its timing is most inopportune, coming immediately after the West Indies' most significant victory in years. The passionate public, so disenchanted with prolonged failure, was energised again by the result in the first Test and, more especially, the manner of it.


In less than a week, the euphoria of Sabina Park has been doused. It should not have come to this. There had been repeated problems with the outfield at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium since it was one of the expensive new stadiums constructed around the Caribbean for the 2007 World Cup.


It was sited, against repeated advice from locals, in a basin near a well-known water course. As everywhere else, an elaborate draining system was installed yet, as forecast, water from overnight rain collected on parts of the outfield and disrupted two matches. It meant remedial work had to be done on the offending areas.
Without any trial, a Test against Australia was again assigned to the ground last season. Once more, parts of the outfield became a bog, and almost a full day's play was lost, all told in a drawn match, in spite of hot, sunny weather.


The warning signals were not heeded by the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB). Politics kicked in and it assigned the England Test on the say-so of the government-appointed stadium committee, the Antigua Cricket Association and, ultimately, the Leeward Islands Cricket Association (LICA), the WICB's relevant member board, that all would be right on the day.


As usual, the buck for this embarrassment will be passed around, but there is only one place for it to stop, at the WICB headquarters just a few miles down the road towards St John's, and the Antigua Recreation Ground (ARG) which will now be reactivated to ease the shame.

Accountability in Schools - Gleaner Editor's Forum

Growth Facilitator, Robert, was a guest on the Jamaica Gleaner Editor's Forum (http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20090210/news/news1.html) which discussed accountability in schools

Here's a little of what Robert had to say:

The attempt to develop a pay-for-performance system is a necessary but insufficient condition to ensure accountability which will drive performance at all levels of the system. What is really needed is that each and everyone must first infuse a culture of accountability in all they do. This can only be done by renewing of minds and must be initia-ted by leadership.

The main synonym for accountability is answerabilty. What I interpret from this is answerability, first of all for the authority provided and answerabilty to those who provide the authority.

At the level of the student, parents invest in children and give them authority to learn, use school facilities, etc and, therefore, students are answerable to the investment made in them.
At the national level, citizens invest authority through the elected representatives, to the minister of education, permanent secretary, chief education officer and other managers for the performance of the overall education system in Jamaica and, therefore, these elected and appointed officials need to be held accountable.

The quality of our questions

Growth Facilitator, Robert, was a guest on a radio programme Wednesday evening along with the Cabinet Secretary in the previous government. He reported to me, for as usual I was not listening to the radio, that the former Cabinet Secretary was speaking about what the current government needs to do in terms of holding public sector employees accountable. After awhile, somewhat exasperated, Robert blurted out "Then why didn’t you take these steps when you were in power"? The radio host "shushed" Robert and quickly changed the course of the conversation.

This is something we have been noticing - that whenever someone attempts to ask an official of the previous government why they did not do what they are now advocating, it is seen as a personal, unfair and even rude attack. As I reflected on this instance, it occurs to me that Robert’s question wa neither rude nor disrespectful, but was actually very important in opening the door to learning and improvement. If the question had been answered it would have revealed the issues that hindered the previous government from taking the necessary steps for accountability. To the extent that those situations still exist, then it would be important learning about the key to solving the problem today. Failure to ask and answer questions like these mean that we are forever doomed to ask the same questions, at the same level without the benefit of insight. And we know that if we keep on doing the same things, we will certainly get the same results - no surprise therefore that our country continues to run with very little accountability!

Questions are the tool of the facilitator. We are trained to ask insightful, meaningful, relevant and probing questions. The question is where the expert facilitator begins. At Growth Facilitators we spend many hours pondering the right Focus Question for a workshop. We know that we could design a very successful workshop in terms of answering a question, but if the question is the wrong one, then we would have wasted everyone’s time. Without the right question, one will surely get the wrong solution (if any at all). Flowing from the Focus Question is a series of other questions that take the participants into deeper and deeper thought and probing. Sometimes the questions are tough and uncomfortable - but that is when the big breakthroughs occur!

One of my favourite quotes that guides my life is by Anthony Robbins, the reknown motivational guru: "The quality of your life is determined by the quality of the questions you ask". As individuals and as a nation we need to improve the quality of the questions we ask. We need to ask questions that incite and invite, that challenge and probe, that stop us in our tracks, that blow us away, that leave us speechless. The answer to such questions is not about blame, recrimination or vindictiveness – the answer is about deepening our learning, growing our minds and developing the capability and capacity to significantly improve our lives. That’s how we build a nation – by asking, and answering, the tough questions.

Accountability for performance in government

Last Thursday, the news broke that the Prime Minister of Jamaica, Bruce Golding, had demanded the immediate resignation of the board of the Urban Development Corporation. The report in the Jamaica Gleaner further stated:

Up to late yesterday there was no official word from Jamaica House, but senior government sources told The Gleaner that the board members had been instructed to resign because the prime minister was not pleased with their performance. According to the sources, while some members of the board might be returned, the Prime Minister was disappointed with the level of infighting on the board and its failure to deliver on several promises.

"The prime minister is getting tough and demanding performance, and other boards could also be fired shortly," one source said.

This news was greeted with cynicism by the Opposition party, who immediately pointed to this as a failure of the government. I see it differently - I see it as the first step in demanding and insisting on the accountability of public institutions and officials, and a step that should have been taken long ago.

Here's where the Prime Minister now faces a challenge however. He indicated that he is not pleased with their performance, but does he know, and has he (or anyone else) been clear, on how the performance of this, and other public sector institutions is measured? And by measurement I don’t mean activities carried out, I actually mean results, or outcomes. This begs some other questions such as:
What is the role of Government?
What is the mandate and role of each public sector institution?
How are all these institutions to work together to ensure delivery of service to the Jamaican citizens, with minimum waste and maximum effectiveness?

If the Prime Minister does not have these questions answered, then he will simply appoint new people to the Board with the same results - non-performance. This is important because non-performance of public sector institutions is a drain on the public purse and further impoverishment of the Jamaican people.

And then he, or the new Board, needs to go further and hold public sector employees accountable for their performance - again, not the carrying out of activities, but performance as indicated by the achievement of desired and stated results. It is high time that people be released from their government jobs if they fail to perform. This is actually the humane thing to do - there is no joy for someone to be in a job where they know they are not performing and there is no joy for those whom they are supposed to serve (the citizenry).

If there is one single thing that needs to be done to make Jamaica a desirable, peaceful place to live it is to set clear, unambiguous standards of performance throughout the public sector and hold people accountable for the results. If not, then the Prime Minister will find himself out of his job - for non-performance!