Sunday February 14, 2010
On the right track for change
By LEONG SHEN-LI
newsdesk@thestar.com.my
The use of laboratories to identify problems and provide solutions has proven successful in drawing up the Government Transformation Programme roadmap.
WHEN Mohamad Nur Kamal was told that he was going to head the laboratory tasked with finding solutions to the country’s urban public transport problems, the first thing that crossed his mind was “Why me?”
Then he tried to recall the nasty things he could have done in the past to deserve such punishment.
“I really thought of it as a curse,” the special advisor to Transport Minister Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat says.
And who could blame him for thinking that way? It was, after all, something new as far as the Government was concerned.
“In Government, we are used to a particular way of doing things. It is always menurut perintah (following instructions),” he explains.
“I was to manage a group of people who theoretically did not need to work together. They could have given me a very difficult time,” he adds.
Mohamad Nur’s lab was one of six set up as part of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak’s move to overhaul the Government under the Government Transformation Programme (GTP).
Under the GTP, six critical areas – identified as National Key Result Areas – were targeted for improvement. The labs were set up for each of the areas to identify problems and brainstorm for solutions.
Improving urban public transport is one of the NKRAs, the other five being reducing crime, reducing corruption, improving the quality of education, improving rural infrastructure and improving the living standards of the poor.
Twenty-five people were chosen for the urban public transport lab and they began their daily sessions for six weeks beginning in October last year.
Instead of the ordeal that everyone expected, the whole experience turned out to be rather pleasant.
“When we were approaching the end of the exercise, we felt a bit sad that it was all going to be over,” says Mohamad Nur.
Those who attended the lab were representatives from all bodies connected with public transport, namely the operators such as Keretapi Tanah Melayu and RapidKL; relevant government agencies such as the Commercial Vehicles Licensing Board and Road Transport Department; academics and other stakeholders such as the local authorities.
Mohamad Nur says gathering the group together was the hardest part of his job.
“They were from various agencies and parties and they had to be of a certain level to be aware of the issues and to commit to solutions,” he says.
An interesting thing was the choice of the Transport Ministry as the ministry in charge of the urban public transport NKRA.
“If you really look at it, the Transport Ministry has the least among the various agencies when it comes to public transport,” he points out. Nevertheless, he says, the support given by Ong was nothing short of “fantastic”.
The members of the lab were all locked in from 8.30am to 8pm. Some sessions lasted until the early hours of the morning, a fact which Najib got to know about and openly praised when launching the GTP Roadmap at the end of last month.
Open discussion
Problems were discussed and solutions deliberated in an open and honest manner. No one felt the need to downplay problems or were compelled to opt for certain solutions.
“They just put everything on the table and discussed enthusiastically. No one cared where the idea came from,” he says.
As such, Mohamad Nur is confident in saying that the urban public transport laboratory was one of the more successful ones.
“We came up with realistic solutions. There were no airy-fairy ideas and almost 100% of our solutions were accepted,” he says.
The solutions from the lab were also among the first to be rolled out. At the end of last year, four-car light rail transit trains which can carry double the number of passengers compared to the old trains began operating along the Kelana Jaya LRT route.
Then last month, a new concept in bus travel – the Bus Express Transit which used tolled expressways and limited stops – began running, cutting travel time between the suburbs and KL city centre by half.
All these moves are aimed at encouraging more people to use public transport, and the improvement of public transport usage will be used to measure the success of this NKRA.
While common in the business world, the use of labs by the Government in the quest for solutions is certainly a first in Malaysia. Mohamad Nur believes this methodology is the right one to be adopted for the GTP.
“You know the usual way in which the Government would have tackled the task? It would have set up a task force. Meetings would have been held every two weeks.
“Before every meeting, everyone will be frantically reading the minutes of the last meeting and scrambling to do what he or she was supposed to do.
“The meetings will drag on for hours because more often than not, the same things will be discussed as nothing would have moved from the last meeting,” he says as a matter of fact.
Mohamad Nur says his background as a management and financial consultant brought a fresh perspective to the task. Prior to joining Government, he held positions like the strategy and business architecture group manager at Accenture’s Kuala Lumpur office, head of DRB-Hicom’s management support and group synergy division, and associate with US management consultancy A.T. Kearney’s Chicago and South-East Asian practices.
“Many are not familiar with business and economic elements when handling issues. When you bring in things like cost benefit analysis and returns on investment, you will very quickly be able to get your point across to the leadership,” he says.
And he believes the new approach also helped bring the best out of the participants.
“When a person is put under a menurut perintah situation, he is going to give you just enough to fulfil the perintah.
“My group did not need to listen to me nor work together. Yet, I think they gave virtually everything they had,” he says proudly.
The whole GTP exercise certainly broke a few records. The labs got together and began their work in October and by mid-December, their findings were completed.
Instead of just passing the results to the Government, the findings were presented to the public in the form of a stylish exhibition at a suburban convention centre. It was deliberately held on a public holiday so that working people could come.
An essential part of the exercise was getting the public’s feedback. The lab leaders were required to make presentations and many of them were grilled for hours by those attending the sessions.
At the end of the day, although there were those who were cynical about the ability of the Government to implement the findings, most if not all who visited the exhibition were impressed by the new approach that it is taking to improve its performance.
Looking back at the whole experience, Mohamad Nur says he would miss the adrenaline push, the constant get-the-job-done feeling, and the amazing team spirit of the lab.
Those elements made the job very addictive. He adds: “I am almost ready for more such challenges.”
But what really pushed everyone on was the feeling that they were bringing change for the better. “That made everything we did worthwhile.”
On the right track for change
By LEONG SHEN-LI
newsdesk@thestar.com.my
The use of laboratories to identify problems and provide solutions has proven successful in drawing up the Government Transformation Programme roadmap.
WHEN Mohamad Nur Kamal was told that he was going to head the laboratory tasked with finding solutions to the country’s urban public transport problems, the first thing that crossed his mind was “Why me?”
Then he tried to recall the nasty things he could have done in the past to deserve such punishment.
“I really thought of it as a curse,” the special advisor to Transport Minister Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat says.
And who could blame him for thinking that way? It was, after all, something new as far as the Government was concerned.
“In Government, we are used to a particular way of doing things. It is always menurut perintah (following instructions),” he explains.
“I was to manage a group of people who theoretically did not need to work together. They could have given me a very difficult time,” he adds.
Mohamad Nur’s lab was one of six set up as part of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak’s move to overhaul the Government under the Government Transformation Programme (GTP).
Under the GTP, six critical areas – identified as National Key Result Areas – were targeted for improvement. The labs were set up for each of the areas to identify problems and brainstorm for solutions.
Improving urban public transport is one of the NKRAs, the other five being reducing crime, reducing corruption, improving the quality of education, improving rural infrastructure and improving the living standards of the poor.
Twenty-five people were chosen for the urban public transport lab and they began their daily sessions for six weeks beginning in October last year.
Instead of the ordeal that everyone expected, the whole experience turned out to be rather pleasant.
“When we were approaching the end of the exercise, we felt a bit sad that it was all going to be over,” says Mohamad Nur.
Those who attended the lab were representatives from all bodies connected with public transport, namely the operators such as Keretapi Tanah Melayu and RapidKL; relevant government agencies such as the Commercial Vehicles Licensing Board and Road Transport Department; academics and other stakeholders such as the local authorities.
Mohamad Nur says gathering the group together was the hardest part of his job.
“They were from various agencies and parties and they had to be of a certain level to be aware of the issues and to commit to solutions,” he says.
An interesting thing was the choice of the Transport Ministry as the ministry in charge of the urban public transport NKRA.
“If you really look at it, the Transport Ministry has the least among the various agencies when it comes to public transport,” he points out. Nevertheless, he says, the support given by Ong was nothing short of “fantastic”.
The members of the lab were all locked in from 8.30am to 8pm. Some sessions lasted until the early hours of the morning, a fact which Najib got to know about and openly praised when launching the GTP Roadmap at the end of last month.
Open discussion
Problems were discussed and solutions deliberated in an open and honest manner. No one felt the need to downplay problems or were compelled to opt for certain solutions.
“They just put everything on the table and discussed enthusiastically. No one cared where the idea came from,” he says.
As such, Mohamad Nur is confident in saying that the urban public transport laboratory was one of the more successful ones.
“We came up with realistic solutions. There were no airy-fairy ideas and almost 100% of our solutions were accepted,” he says.
The solutions from the lab were also among the first to be rolled out. At the end of last year, four-car light rail transit trains which can carry double the number of passengers compared to the old trains began operating along the Kelana Jaya LRT route.
Then last month, a new concept in bus travel – the Bus Express Transit which used tolled expressways and limited stops – began running, cutting travel time between the suburbs and KL city centre by half.
All these moves are aimed at encouraging more people to use public transport, and the improvement of public transport usage will be used to measure the success of this NKRA.
While common in the business world, the use of labs by the Government in the quest for solutions is certainly a first in Malaysia. Mohamad Nur believes this methodology is the right one to be adopted for the GTP.
“You know the usual way in which the Government would have tackled the task? It would have set up a task force. Meetings would have been held every two weeks.
“Before every meeting, everyone will be frantically reading the minutes of the last meeting and scrambling to do what he or she was supposed to do.
“The meetings will drag on for hours because more often than not, the same things will be discussed as nothing would have moved from the last meeting,” he says as a matter of fact.
Mohamad Nur says his background as a management and financial consultant brought a fresh perspective to the task. Prior to joining Government, he held positions like the strategy and business architecture group manager at Accenture’s Kuala Lumpur office, head of DRB-Hicom’s management support and group synergy division, and associate with US management consultancy A.T. Kearney’s Chicago and South-East Asian practices.
“Many are not familiar with business and economic elements when handling issues. When you bring in things like cost benefit analysis and returns on investment, you will very quickly be able to get your point across to the leadership,” he says.
And he believes the new approach also helped bring the best out of the participants.
“When a person is put under a menurut perintah situation, he is going to give you just enough to fulfil the perintah.
“My group did not need to listen to me nor work together. Yet, I think they gave virtually everything they had,” he says proudly.
The whole GTP exercise certainly broke a few records. The labs got together and began their work in October and by mid-December, their findings were completed.
Instead of just passing the results to the Government, the findings were presented to the public in the form of a stylish exhibition at a suburban convention centre. It was deliberately held on a public holiday so that working people could come.
An essential part of the exercise was getting the public’s feedback. The lab leaders were required to make presentations and many of them were grilled for hours by those attending the sessions.
At the end of the day, although there were those who were cynical about the ability of the Government to implement the findings, most if not all who visited the exhibition were impressed by the new approach that it is taking to improve its performance.
Looking back at the whole experience, Mohamad Nur says he would miss the adrenaline push, the constant get-the-job-done feeling, and the amazing team spirit of the lab.
Those elements made the job very addictive. He adds: “I am almost ready for more such challenges.”
But what really pushed everyone on was the feeling that they were bringing change for the better. “That made everything we did worthwhile.”
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