MR. CRAIG YEATMAN
By Mawutodzi K. Abissath A Ghanaian proverb reminds us: “Wisdom is like the trunk of a baobab tree – no one person’s arms can embrace it and overlap it.”
It is the considered opinion of this author that the depth of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is such that no IT expert can pretend to possess all knowledge in every department of the technology in such a fashion that when he or she speaks, all must be silent. No! Rather, the best an IT expert can do to advance the course of the industry is to share his or her views, knowledge and experiences with other gurus and neophytes alike in the sector.
Mr. Craig Yeatman is a leadership consultant and Chief Executive of WorldsView, a consulting and product development house based in South Africa. Through the magic of ICT, he granted an online interview to this Blogger right in Accra. Ghana. This article contains excerpts of the interview which, I feel are thought provoking enough to be shared with other African bloggers, leaders of the ICT sector on the continent, the youth and cherished readers of blogs and other related media – both locally and globally.
First, Mr. Yeatman was challenged to tell readers how long he had been handling leadership issues in Africa, with particular focus on the ICT sector on the continent. Hear him: “WorldsView Consulting has been working in the arena of management and leadership development in Africa since 1994.” He speaks on, “Post 2004, our emphasis focused even more tightly on partnering with organisations on transformational change, and developing deep and sustainable leadership competencies in organisations. We have no particular emphasis on any sector of the market – as the leadership issues are, by and large, generic ones,” he explained.
Throwing more light on what his firm does specifically, he expatiates: “Our model is to engage directly in consulting interventions using a small team of specialists. We then have a programmes development team that captures the intellectual Property from those interventions, blends it with the experiences of a wide variety of sources using African traditions as the ‘cooking pot’, and global experiences as the ingredients. He went on, “The outcome is the production of programmes that other people can be taught to deliver – thus democratising what is always old wisdom, but what suffers from being “owned” by specialists locked within educational and consulting institutions.”
Mr. Yeatman disclosed that their first programme was launched in 2006 after almost three years of development, was what was known as “the Nine Conversations in Leadership – a long-term leadership development programme that works with groups to drive leadership competencies at organizational, team and individual levels.” According to him, during 2007, some two hundred experienced the programme, and 82 people had so far been trained to deliver the programme. “As a result, the bookings for 2008 now exceed 1,500 people. We are due to release two further programmes within the next twelve months, as well as an update to the Nine Conversations in Leadership,” the WorldsView Chief Executive disclosed.
Second, to ascertain how far Mr. Yeatman’s brand of knowledge has reached on the continent, he was queried to cite at least five out of the 53 countries in Africa where he might have delivered lectures or talks in leadership in IT, or telecommunications in general. He went straight to the point thus:
“Our consulting interventions in the areas of leadership development and organisational change have taken place in various parts of South Africa, as well as in Senegal, Cameroon and Kenya.” He elaborates, “We have trained people to deliver the Nine Conversations in Leadership from Kenya, Tanzania, Zimbabwe and Malawi (as well as from America, the United Kingdom and the Middle East).
Furthermore, he pointed out that through one of their companies (WorldsView Technologies) they had been engaged in developing a network of businesses across Africa. He then referred this interviewer to see a website www.worldsview.co.za for a complete list of the countries in which they had partners in the WorldsView Technologies stable.
What this author finds very progressive is the revelation that the WorldsView Consulting is seeking agency partners not only in Africa but across the world. This open invitation even goes with somewhat offers to the effect that, “These partners will take our programmes and add them to whatever portfolio of interventions they already carry.” It added, “To date, we have had some interest from Kenya, Tanzania, Zimbabwe and Zambia, but have not yet reached partnership agreements. Our team regularly speak at South African conferences and deliver University classes at MBA level,” it concluded.
Bearing in mind the reality that the majority of Africans, especially in the Sub-Sahara region, are yet to enjoy the fruits of ICT, Mr. Yeatman was asked to pinpoint which areas (rural or urban) on the continent which have been the focus of his leadership messages. He responded frankly that their focus was on organisational leadership, in the sense that they partner with formal organisations, adding that, “To date, this has included non-profit, for profit and governmental clients,” he noted.
The Consultant believes that, “organisations are a powerful force social change, and as Africa re-writes its story it will be organisations that provide the platform for the script to be written.” He states. “Organisations form the belly, or engine room of an emerging nation. Within that setting, the kinds of leadership that emerge at a micro level will aggregate to transform Africa ‘from the belly to the head,” he philosophised.
The next question put to Mr. Yeatman was whether he had any leadership message for the youth of Africa as far as IT was concerned. His response was that IT is an enabler, in the same way that a car helps people travel – IT helps people get a variety of things done. He explains that IT is not an end in itself – it is a means through which lives should be improved; adding, “Technology alone does not do that.”
The expert postulates that IT can just as easily help a community plan its own destruction through conflict and war as it can help a community to heal, grow and emerge as a part of a new African story. “The moral and spiritual choices people make are more important than the technology – and the technology should be used to expose our youth to the whole world of knowledge, choices and values that await them, he advised.
Another interesting challenge thrown to the leadership guru was to share some of his practical experiences with his peers in the industry and to indicate how IT could be deployed to solve the endemic poverty ravaging the African continent. Hear him:
“The obvious areas of deployment are the ICT sectors ability to address health and education issues. These are well documented and don’t need a “leadership person” to build on. It is possible that the less obvious and more natural deployments are the ones that might warrant more attention.” Mr. Yeatman went on, “People look for artifacts to solve problems - that has been the nature of the evolution of technology since time began.” He elaborates, “The reason for the rapid expansion of the ICT sector is that a technology has arrived that helps people to overcome challenges they experience in their daily lives – and the best, most meaningful of these are driven by the communities themselves,” he stressed.
Mr. Yeatman argues that one does need to prescribe, or pre-plan how poor communities must alleviate their poverty. In his view, such communities are already trying everything they can to alleviate their own poverty. Therefore, it is important to endeavour to provide them with the technology at the lowest possible price. He says the communities must be taught how to use the technology and ensure that connections that will allow health workers to connect to each other and to their patients in new ways are put in place for them. Furthermore, educators in deprived communities must also be connected to each other and to their students to facilitate networking through information sharing and knowledge management. He advocates that natural forces that are already at work must be allowed to take advantage of the platform the technology provides.
He points out that planning and regulation should not prescribe connections – it should make connections possible. Thereafter, people should lift their own horizons and make their own journey towards improving their lives and the lives of those around them. This, he says, can be facilitated and monitored, but cannot be prescribed. His view is that every attempt to regulate content (what may be transmitted and why) destroys more than creates, he reasoned.
Finally, the Chief Executive of WorldsView Consulting was asked to share his views on the future of ICT in Africa. Strategically, he thinks that, “ICT is still responding to the rampant demand for their services that is unfolding across Africa. At some point in each local market, that pace of challenge will settle into more mature competitive pressure if natural market forces are allowed to play out, he observed. He says to the extent that the market has been well regulated, the pace of this change will be rapid – as consumers are able to access and apply the technology as fast as it can be deployed. There is no time-lag for adoption of ICT in Africa – there is only a time-lag of deployment, the expert disclosed.
He speculates that the harder question of whether the industry will be able to move through these cycles efficiently will be answered at the local levels by the policy and regulatory responses of governments across Africa. He advises and warns at the same time that, “Attempts to increase competition in a sensible way will be rewarded. Attempts to regulate content and impose license bottlenecks will be punished by delays in deployment.” Such delays, according to the consultant, impact on the poorest people on the continent - as it is only when the market is allowed to move to maximum penetration that prices achieve lowest and most accessible points, he emphasised.
Touching on leadership quality, Mr. Yeatman says - both from the ICT sector and each of the local markets will determine the outcome. He explains that the levels to which people share a vision of “a connected” Africa over-and-above any visions of profit will drive the outcomes over the next few years. He confirms the global view that there is no doubt that the ICT sector is a money-pipeline. “With money comes power contests, and the ability of African leaders to serve their communities will be tested in this helter-skelter scramble for markets and connectivity, he concluded.
For more information on this leadership subject, please log onto www.worldsviewconsulting.com
MR. CRAIG YEATMAN
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