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Following is the keynote speech entitled "The Three Essential Qualities for Tomorrow" by the Secretary for the Civil Service, Mr Paul Tang, at the Final Presentation Seminar of the Award for Excellence in Training and Development 2013 held at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre today (June 5):
Dr Lee, Mr Allison, members of the adjudicating panel, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen,
I have great honour to be here today to meet with leaders from renowned corporations and HR professionals from diverse industries and backgrounds.
The Award, initiated in 1990, is one of the most prestigious events in Hong Kong. It pays tribute to achievements in training and development by individuals and companies from across the sectors in the society. In a short while, finalists of the respective categories will share their insights into the learning initiatives they have launched which contributed to the enhancement in business results or performance of their organisations. The success stories you are going to witness are no doubt testimony to the key role of training and development in an organisation's growth.
Peter Drucker, the management guru, once remarked that "the fastest growing industry would be training and development as a result of replacement of industrial workers with knowledge workers". As HR practitioners in Hong Kong, we couldn't agree more that the well-being of our knowledge-based economy hinges on our human capital. As our Chief Executive mentioned in his Policy Address, he said, "Hong Kong people are hardworking, tenacious and earnest. We have an enterprising, dedicated and law-abiding spirit." Our people is one of the distinct strengths of Hong Kong. Like running in a marathon, we have to keep our momentum or we shall be overtaken by others in no time because today's world is progressing at lightning speed.
So how do we remain competitive? As HR professionals, what are the qualities we need to cultivate in our people when we enter into the next era? In today's sharing, I would like to propose three essential qualities for your consideration.
The first quality is continuous learning. In today's world, being highly competent is good, but not enough. The world is changing rapidly and very soon the knowledge we treasure today can be outdated tomorrow. We need to engage in continuous learning in order to stay at the helm. As Steve Jobs once commented, "Learn continually - there's always 'one more thing' to learn!" But how do we nurture the quality of continuous learning in our organisation?
To breed continuous learning, I believe it is more than sending people regularly to attend the traditional training programmes. By traditional training programmes, I mean classroom training, seminars on the web or some self-study courses, paper-based or e-based. These programmes are effective as they enable participants to get away from the office and learn in an undistracted environment. However, this is not the whole picture.
Traditional training programmes only represent one way we learn. "Informal learning" takes place when people move into different roles or work on new projects; when people look daily for knowledge and information that help them do their jobs or when people learn from others such as reading other people's blogs.
Since so much learning is happening in the "informal learning" zone, I understand that more and more learning and development professionals are exploring in these areas. Lately, I heard of the role of a learning and development professional being a "curator". In this era of information overload, how about the learning and development professional connecting the employees with the essential resources they need to access, instead of having the people using a lot of time surfing in the big ocean of the world-wide web?
We have developed an e-learning portal for our colleagues in the civil service to connect them to a database of compact and up-to-date learning resources for their self-study. Individual grades and departments are committed to drawing up dedicated training plans for officers to follow through their careers. You must have many innovative ideas on continuous learning in your organisations. I shall leave you with these thoughts and move on to the second quality.
The second element that is essential for tomorrow's challenges is innovation. In the Policy Address, the Chief Executive has said that we will "boost the innovation and drive of civil servants so that they can better support the Government in serving the public". In the business sector, innovation is always high on the agenda.
In today's world, the product life cycle is substantially shortened. Companies need to be innovative and roll out new products quicker than their competitors. Think of the rate you change your mobile phone and how it evolves to the smartphones in our hands over just a few years. Demands of our customers are escalating. In this globalised world, we are faced with ever more complex problems. What worked before is not a solution anymore. We need innovative people with innovative ways to tackle unprecedented problems.
No doubt we all agree with the importance of being innovative. The question is how do we boost innovation in an organisation? I venture to propose that human beings are creative or innovative in nature. Nature endows us with a wonderful brain and a beautiful mind. We play a lot of interesting mind teasers or puzzles in creativity training programmes. We have also introduced thinking models or strategies such as the lateral thinking techniques. But I believe the truly effective training is to tap into the creativity we already possess within.
Innovation does not happen overnight after we send individuals to attend some creativity or innovation training. We have to inculcate an innovative culture in the organisation. We have to help the organisation groom leaders who are able to embrace new ideas and empower subordinates to go into uncharted land to seek continuous improvements. Innovation should be encouraged and even failures should be recognised because failure forces us to face the problem and think of new ways to handle the issues again.
The third quality I want to introduce is perhaps not as commonly mentioned, but is a term with growing interest. The third essential quality is agility. We need our people and our organisation to be agile. A person who is agile means he can adapt to a new environment and respond quickly.
The pressure we face today is ever increasing. Many of us have heavy workload and have to work long hours. Working parents are striving to achieve a balance between office work and taking care of children at home. In the Internet age, we are expected to respond much quicker than before. Customers' expectations on our products and service levels are rising. Competition is keener than ever ... and the list goes on. To remain resilient when faced with such immense pressure, we need to be agile.
The same can be said about our colleagues in the civil service who are facing new challenges from the fast changing work environment and escalating public demands. To help them meet these challenges, we partner with departments to design new training programmes for their staff to get prepared and take on new challenges with a positive frame of mind.
Agile leaders help organisations go through tough times. They are able to lead their teams and solve problems in their organisations because they are energetic and not afraid of change. They are positive and hopeful. When faced with difficulties, they waste no time mourning over what they have lost or recounting the good old days. Instead, they are positive, forward-looking and believe that every cloud has its silver lining. They see the opportunities behind challenges quicker than others. They respond quickly and get themselves out of the vicious cycle of self-pity faster than others.
You may remember last year, Encyclopaedia Britannica announced that it would cease producing bound volumes of its iconic encyclopaedia. With the dawn of digital age and the growth of the Internet, the sales of the print version had steadily declined over the years. Eventually in 2012, the company decided to put a halt on the production of the print version of the encyclopaedia. But there is no need to lament. In fact the company was celebrating on the day when the print version ceased production. The company has taken proactive actions to adapt to the changing environment. Leveraging on their brand and quality content, as well as the growth of the Internet, its president led his company's venture into the online education market years ago. Today, Encyclopaedia Britannica is as profitable and viable as ever. This is an illustration of agility we need to pursue today.
In the tennis sport, hitting the half volley is difficult because you have to respond real quick and hit immediately as the ball bounces from the ground with no time for you to see clearly. To a beginner, this seems mission impossible. But if you try it again and again, you will be able to make it and very soon enjoy the speed and fun of the game. Responding in an agile way is a habit that comes after practice.
In an organisation, a person in the same position and holding the same work responsibilities too long will soon lose his sensitivity and develop a fear of change. He must be exposed to changes and stretching assignments from time to time. In this way, he will become agile and resilient in the face of adversity. Agility is an important asset we want to look for when we select leaders.
As HR professionals, we are entrusted with the task of creating effective HR systems for our organisations. Tomorrow, when we are back to office, when we design the recruitment process, the performance management system or the reward system, let us not forget how we could make use of these HR systems to cultivate the quality of continuous learning, innovation and agility in our people and organisation. Together, let us work to improve the quality of our people and the betterment of Hong Kong. I believe the best is yet to come. Thank you.
Ends/Wednesday, June 5, 2013
Issued at HKT 12:06
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