LAGOS ORGANISES ‘CHANGE MINDSET ADVOCACY’ PROGRAMME FOR PERMANENT SECRETARIES
The Lagos State Government, through the Office of Transformation, Creativity and Innovation (OTCI) has organised a sensitization programme with the theme: “Change Mindset Advocacy” for Permanent Secretaries as well as Heads of Agencies and Parastatals in the State in furtherance of its commitment to ensure that the Public Service is transformed to meet the challenges of the 21st century.
Speaking at the event, the State’s Information and Strategy Commissioner, Mr. Kehinde Bamigbetan said the government, realizes the importance of changing the mindset of public servants to align with emerging trends and therefore, decided to embark on the change campaign programme to inculcate the right culture and mindset needed by its workforce to attain the smart city status.
In his words, “We have 24 million Lagosians, many of them travel a lot and are exposed to international standards, as such the benchmark for service delivery has increased. People now compare how they are served in Public Service with the private sector”.
He added that the need for the State Public Servants to improve the way they provide services or attend to people, especially in Agencies that interface more with the Public, cannot be over-emphasized.
While commending the Permanent Secretaries, Heads of Agencies and Parastatals for turning out en-masse for the sensitization, Bamigbetan noted that they are the leaders and the champions of this programme that would cascade to other cadres.
Earlier, the Director-General, Office of Transformation, Creativity and Innovation, Mr. Toba Otusanya said the State Government decided to embark on this journey of Changed Mindset in order to have 21st century Public Servants who must be competent, knowledgeable, creative, innovative and can challenge the status quo to embrace new ways of doing things as well as deliver services in better ways.
“Realizing this vision is not something that is farfetched because when you look at strong Public Institutions across the world like Kenya and Rwanda, these things are already happening there. We in Lagos cannot continue to be on the sideline, we have to take the bull by the horn”, he said.
He stated that Governor Akinwunmi Ambode, in his quest to accelerate development in Lagos and the realization of the critical role of the public service, is in full support of this campaign to ensure that all civil servants in the State government employ embrace the “Growth Mindset” and are well equipped for the challenges of the modern world.
Otusanya stated that due to the critical nature of leadership and the need to ensure that everyone is carried along in this advocacy campaign, the organisers decided to commence the programme with the leadership of MDAs to ensure compliance and sustainability of the change campaign.
While emphasizing that the leadership quality needed to drive the change has to be innovative in such a way that subordinates are able to discuss freely with their leaders, the DG averred that the world is changing and public servants need to be able to connect with the past, relate to the present and make projections for the future.
He thanked the Permanent Secretaries, Heads of Agencies and Parastatals for their attendance and encouraged them to embrace change, broaden their horizon and lead the change.
The training consultant, who is the former Director-General, Public Service Staff Development Centre (PSSDC), Mrs. Regina Olubunmi Fabamwo described the programme as a landmark programme and first-of-its-kind in Nigeria, encouraged participants to embrace the Growth Mindset approach in the execution of their duties.