Leaders need space to make mistakes and learn from them

Jul 22, 2015 Letters

Dear Editor,
Albert Einstein said that ‘for human beings to survive and move forward, a new way of thinking is needed’.
The coalition government presents a new way of thinking, doing government, governing and hopefully a new way of engaging the various groups and networks, institutions, organizations and individuals in Guyana and beyond.
This I think is great for Guyana. After almost 60 years of rift, this is the closest we have gotten in putting an arrangement in place to govern in a cohesive and inclusive way.
Nevertheless, recently there have been concerns about the coalition government. I have read the writings in the press and have been engaged in numerous conversations over the past month and a half about whether this ‘coalition idea’ will work?
My response is that it will work if we, the Guyanese people and the leadership, make it work. The success of the coalition will take work, hard work!
Don’t let us fool ourselves into believing that this is going to be a walk in the park, oh no, it will not be. Let’s look at a few reasons why the success of the coalition will be challenge.
Firstly, the coalition is made up of human beings, who are limited by time, space and knowledge, and a great part of their learning will be derived from making mistakes and learning from those mistakes and hopefully becoming wiser as they progress.
Hence, we need to give our leaders (these human beings) the space to make mistakes and learn from them, space to fall down and get back up again.
Secondly, the APNU+AFC coalition government is a partnership consisting of various parties that were individual organisations prior to 11 May. While they would have engaged each other before and collaborated on various activities, whether it was on parliamentary matters or other, they have never really worked together as one organization before.
Having won the last Elections, the partnership was institutionalised. They now have one institutional arrangement – the coalition government, through which they will operationalize the partnership. There is no magic wand that could make this arrangement succeed without challenges.
The answer is in how highly skilled the leaders in the coalition government will become. Thus, I like the idea of the ‘Coalition Building Forum’ that is scheduled for July and I hope that there will be several of such and leadership forums.
Most organizations go through a natural process of growth, they are birthed, they mature and can die; the fourth stage, however, is the re-birthing stage.
The coalition government has just been birthed. Let’s give our leaders space to grow, while at the same time, keeping them on their toes.
I am paying very keen attention to President David Granger and Prime Minister Moses Nagamoottoo. Keen attention meaning – to what they say, how they say it, when they say it, both their verbal and non-verbal communication and my conclusion so far, is that these are two of the most mature leaders we have had.
They are conscious of the issues but are very mature, and I respect that. This maturity also gives one a sense of confidence and assurance that they will make the coalition work. Some people would say that they are ‘high definition’ leaders, well, I sincerely hope so.
Finally, it is imperative that for the coalition government to succeed, the leaders have to be open to and participate in training, more training and yet more training!
Audreyanna Thomas

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Leaders need space to make mistakes and learn from them

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