Promising SIGNS, Poor Execution

Let me begin by again continuing to encourage the LRA executive (or whoever rightly deserves the kudos) for the promising signs of improvement in the management of our initiative. And perhaps most important, to share a thought and vote of thanks for our proactive guards who are out in the middle of the night in this freezing cold.

The general overall neat look of the estate, the masses of yellow posters to attract feedback from the community, the new LARGE signboards, email newsletters in print slipped under our doors, and new bibs on our proactive guards all confirm that leadership is taking notice of the need to improve communication and visibility and are attempting to do something about it.

I like people who at least TRY to make things happen!

What a marked change from last year. 'Nuff said. It may well be that we are close to getting back to where we were some three years ago with massive potential ahead of us as a community.

However, as positive as I am feeling about the revival efforts of new leadership, I still see highly annoying evidence of poor execution undermining the promising signs being displayed.

The worst being the hard-to-read, woefully-poorly laid-out, BOLD copy on the noticeboards (please learn some basic copy and lay-out skills or use a professional to do this), the rubbish literally lying under the noses of proactive guards, and illegal posters on poles (two highly visible white ones on one pole in Franschoek have been there for over 10 days) confirm for me that our support staff and managers don't manage by walking around with their eyes open and still don't really care for our community as we do.

Let's put it like this, I am a huge fan of the IDOLS concept (particularly American IDOLS) as a world-leading business phenomeon, which is quite simply a strategic decision to take something common - a talent show - and convert it into something totally uncommon and unique - the greatest source of undiscovered musical talent in the world, having vitually re-established multi-million album sales in a fast-ailing industry.

So what's different in taking a common apathetic residents association concept and turning it into the most uncommon and unique community initiative in the world? It's all about strategy and vision. And, about the quality of people around in staff/service provider functions... can you imagine Simon Cowell accepting the display on our noticeboards right now? No way!

We were well positioned to take the uncommon and unique road three years ago... and BLEW it!

It takes a long time to recover, especially to recover the trust that is abused by such lack of caring and forethought. Don't blow it again.

Received this in from a Lonehill resident who concurs with my last post and whose comment I include because I think he touches on something that I have seen slipping into the current leadership ethos that will undermine its effectiveness in the future.

Anthony Wilson writes: 'Hear. Hear. I note with interest your accurate description of the two-fold manner in which unprincipled leadership manifests itself. ''I would venture that another feature of this kind of dubious leadership is the delegation of responsibility to the community it purports to serve, so that culpability appears to move to those to whom it has been delegated. This leaves “leadership” with no work and no responsibility – a typical political “soft-shoe shuffle!” Regards Anthony.

Yes, Anthony, I have a huge problem with a supposed service-support function that doesn't bend over backwards to make it easy to be a resident in Lonehill. Example: being made to feel like a heel for reporting to the LRA about sewerage spill into the dam that may just choke it up with unwanted organisms and being harangued with ongoing messages to first report such instances to the authorities. Or leaving individual residents to stand up alone against unacceptable noise emanating from developments seemingly in contravention of local regulations. Load of bull..!

For goodness sake, in the 'Community IDOLS' challenge that I envisage, I would reward every such concerned caller to the LRA with a medal for being so community-conscious. 'How can I help you' from our LRA offices should really mean 'How can I HELP you'!

Anthony's perceptive comment identifies what I believe is a very dangerous precendent currently being set that will undermine any reason to call the LRA offices. Why call if they don't care?

And, as if to underline the point, in the last week someone was obviously told to put up new LRA/Fidelity signs in our street. Mine was plonked on patently skew in a slap-dash manner as if to say - 'we truly don't care for you or your home'. If I didn't know how important the LRA initiative was to our collective community security I would change my service provider immediately for this overtly disgraceful show of poor commitment to the basics of service excellence. I'm leaving it up for everyone to see... or for our local manager to arrive and show that he cares... ;-)

George Joubert shares this insight: 'Hi Trevor, I had an interesting comment made by a senior executive (a non-Lonehiller) to a friend of mine - “Hell! I would not buy a property in Lonehill when the Residents’ Association ‘advertises’ all the problems in the area. Rising crime! Polluted dam, etc., etc!” - It just goes to show how careful one has to be! Perception is Truth they say!' Regards, George

What I believe that George is pointing to is that marketing is the essence of getting out the right message at the right time. Perhaps it's time to convey: 'How The LRA Works To Protect Your Family & Grow Your Property Investment in Lonehill'.

Simple to say but always challenging to get across on a noticeboard, so here are some ideas:

Lonehill Residents Meeting
LRA Rules..OK!
Protect Your Family
Your Property
(date)
(venue)

Lonehill Residents Meeting
How LRA Protects
Your Family
Your Property
(date)
(venue)

Lonehill Residents Meeting
YOU Are The LRA
Protect Your Family
Your Property
(date)
(venue)

I can only re-iterate that the moment any leadership stands up with integrity behind a great vision and strategy and stimulates an ethos of service excellence in delivery to their publics, is the moment that their publics will believe the message.

Don't let the promising signs by leadership be undermined by poor execution on the ground.

Regards
Trevor Nel - 011 705-2790
Lonehill Resident