South Africa needs you...+ Diversity Intelligence. PSASA Presidential Posting Sept 2009

This presidential posting comes for a change not from some other exotic or not so exotic overseas destination, but from Pretoria, the capital of the beloved South Africa, the country where most of the members of PSA Southern Africa live and work. ‘Cry my beloved country’ wrote Alan Paton. Laugh say the comedians and laughter specialists. The Vultures say the place is rotten, echoing Shakespeare, the Humming birds say it is sweet. Just focus on the good things says the Good News Foundation.

But everything is not well. We all know that we cannot sing the ‘The Lion King‘ refrain: Hakuna Matata (no problem) without hesitation. There is a big unresolved Matata Matata (BIG problem) affecting business and daily living. Follow the link to my remarks on this on Morning Live with Vuyo Mbuli http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=scTwkwgJlY4.

The one unique big problem in South Africa is: How to get people from different cultures to work and live together as one. The politicians made a mistake – they thought with apartheid gone, everything would be fine. They forgot that even before apartheid the real problem already existed – how to reconcile different cultures and orientations in one country. All apartheid did was to say (in a degrading discriminatory manner): You cannot reconcile people – you must keep them apart. But in post apartheid South Africa we still lack the ability to deal with differences and incompatibilities.

I observe that we still lack diversity- and inter-cultural intelligence in joint ventures, BEE companies, corporate teams, sports administration, etc. Relations are not where they should be and accusations of racism are flying around. Not a good thing when we are on the verge of inviting the worldwide soccer fraternity into our (divided) house. It can be embarrassing if we do not do something about it.

This is where the members of PSASA come into play. We thrive on challenges, we feed on problems. We turn threats into opportunities and empower people with new abilities – and get paid for it!

The politicians thought they could legislate integration. They brought us together but nobody taught us how to live together. Because they didn’t allocate money (the SETA billions) and set up programmes to empower people with the know-how on how to work together, the legislation is leading to irritation. It’s now up to the entrepreneurial speakers to do it.

Politicians and motivational speakers have one thing in common – we believe that we are in control of our destiny and can change the world. But we are not politicians. They use power tactics and power play. We use the power tools of ideas whose time has come. Politicians try to change the world through domination (very often High D’s in the DiSC profile) and motivational speakers do so through inspiration (many of us are high I’s in the DiSC profile).

Politicians can legislate and write laws in the Hansard. But we are skilled to engrave better attitudes in the hearts and minds of people, and empower them with new intelligences and winning habits, all through the power of the spoken word.

We’ve done it all along but we must do even better. We must up our game because the stakes are high. Let’s be honest. Very often we suffer from the consultant curse that we map but forget to bridge. What’s the use of the consultant telling you that you’re an extrovert and I’m an introvert but we still don’t know how to relate to each other?

We did diversity training, but very often only trained people to be diverse. We only created awareness but did not focus enough on ability training: How to step out of your world, to step into the world of another and how to create a 3rd space where we can relate successfully – to go from war, beyond explore to scoring together.

South Africa gave hope to the world when, as a country topping the hotspot list in the world, we created the possibility for a new future for all, inspired by the example of Nelson Mandela. This dream can become a nightmare if we do not work hard to turn it into a reality.

My message to PSASA members at this stage of SA’s history:
1. You were born in this country or brought here for a purpose.
2. You can make a difference – you have it in you to make the South African dream come true.
3. Now is the time to see and seize the business opportunities arising from our unique problems. Rise to the occasion.
4. Up your game, serve even better – the future depends on it.
5. Get it right here and the world will open up to you with opportunities (because the rest of the world also doesn’t know how to deal with differences).
6. Go do your magic in your field of expertise: Make history by helping to create a great future. The best way to guarantee the future is to create it.

So let’s go back to our laptops, our blackberries, our drawing boards and PowerPoints ... design relevant stuff for our time. Then they will hire us to come and build their teams, motivate their people, synergise the energies of their people, resolve the conflicts, help people to handle emotions, equip leaders to lead companies to a better place.

South Africa needs
• motivational comedians to use humour to ‘relatavise’ ourselves – to save us from taking ourselves too seriously;
• team experts to get the teams to work to make the dream work;
• inter-cultural intelligence specialists to help BEE companies succeed;
• coaches to empower the powerful,
• speakers to keep the hope and inspiration alive.

And the customer service specialists – please go and help the Airports company to welcome people in a better way! Please teach the porters who put your suitcase on a trolley, not to reply to a R10 tip: “Is this all?”

Are we ready for 2010 as one of our members Gary Bailey urges us to be? Not yet. But we can be with the input of all PSASA members.

You were born for a time like this, destined to be here. So, go do your magic – here in South Africa. Because charity begins at home. But don’t be surprised if the world opens up to you if you make it here. New York, New York? No, Pretoria ‘O Pretoria; Tshwane ‘O Tshwane, if you make it here, you will make it anywhere ....

Dr Gustav Gous
President: PSASA 2009/2010