Found this article in Hi-Tech Security Solutions
by Dr Chris Crozier, chairman, Lonehill Residents' Association - 6/1/2006
The Lonehill Residents' Association (LRA) is now probably the most active and organised volunteer residents' association in the country, a state it has reached in the last six years after 20 or so years of being like most other RAs.
In the late '90s, crime in Lonehill was out of control, and it was scant consolation that other areas were in the same predicament. Armed robberies, hijackings and worse were commonplace: two or three residents were killed every year in violent crime incidents. Finally, in mid-2000, an angered resident, Trevor Nel, who had had enough, started an aggressive, in-your-face campaign to do something about it. Nel's initiative led directly to the LRA in its current form and there is no doubt that through the efforts of the LRA over the last five years as many as 10 or 12 lives have been saved.
The key to getting control of our suburb was to leverage combined purchasing power. The fact was that we were spending hundreds of thousands of rand every month for multiple, uncoordinated security companies who saw their role as reactive, not preventative, and were patently ineffective in stemming the criminal rampage. We went out to tender to get a security company on board that was willing and able to provide more than reaction services. We wanted every home, road closure and townhouse complex to be linked into a common security network, with bobby-on-the-beat foot patrols, a coordinated and dedicated squad of reaction vehicles and our own local control room.
The process was kick-started, tragically, by a particularly horrific hijacking gone wrong that left a resident with seven AK-47 bullets in him (he miraculously survived, though at enormous physical, emotional and financial cost) and 70 more in his vehicle. Unfortunately it often takes a terrible incident to get people moving in the right direction, but we had a meeting where a couple of hundred people turned up and a volunteer core was formed. That core started the tendering process and defined a vision for where we wanted to go.
The next significant step was to raise funds so that the LRA could operate. We called for contributions to a capital fund of R1500 per household, and soon had a kitty of close to R500 000. The interest from the money (the capital was held in trust pending final approval of how best to use it), funded the operations for the initial months.
The third key step was to take control of our administration and directly contract with the residents, using our security provider as an outsource operation to whom we pay one cheque at the end of each month. To do this, we agreed on a deduction from the gross security payment to cover our admin costs (which we were taking away from the security provider) and appointed a company to manage it for us. This had two important consequences: it took administration away from volunteers who had limited time and resources and gave us full control of the money. The first addresses the problem of volunteer fatigue as enthusiasm dwindles; the second recognises that money is power - you may not like it, but it is an ineluctable truth.
Today, the LRA is a R15m per annum business, directly employing six people, and through contracts with service providers employs nearly 300 people providing security, administration, technical support and, most recently, marketing services. The core of our success is simply coordination and the power to say what we want from the security company instead of accepting what they want to offer.
Coordination makes a tremendous difference. If you have six independent vehicles in a 15 km area, you can push your panic button and 'your' response vehicle is 4 km away (or in another area entirely), while a rival company's vehicle is around the corner and unaware of what is going on. We currently have four vehicles, two motorbikes, 12 foot patrols and over 60 complex and road closure guards all on a common radio network. Plus there are undercover agents feeding information in. We know we have prevented at least two robberies in the shopping centre.
We made mistakes along the way, one of which was a phase of being a touch over-proud of ourselves, and not working very well with the SAPS, but we have been cooperating much better with them over the last year and appreciate the support we get from them.
The results are clear. There is still crime in Lonehill, but we have contained it to well below the levels experienced in surrounding areas. In the last six years we have had one murder: not good, but prior to the LRA security initiative we would have expected at least a dozen in that time. We are achieving a steady long-term decrease in crime, although the beginning of 2006 has threatened our record, but armed robbery in particular has shown a surge throughout the area and we are getting some of the spillover.
We have not deployed technology in the form of cameras and monitoring systems, yet. Cost is a factor, but it is chiefly the cost of human monitoring to make them effective rather than the equipment cost; but we believe that as sector wages rise and equipment costs fall, we will soon be re-evaluating surveillance technologies. Fewer, higher-level people working shorter shifts are becoming relatively more affordable as wage structures change, and the advent of IP video surveillance offers many possibilities such as letting volunteer residents get directly involved in monitoring, doing virtual patrols without having to leave their homes; or to transmit video feeds directly to reaction vehicles as they respond; and to track suspicious persons and vehicles without having reaction vehicles rushing around searching for them.
For more information contact Dr Chris Crozier, 011 783 1508, chris@cirrus.co.za
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Saturday, June 23, 2007
Friday, June 22, 2007
Lonehill: Give Credit Where Credit Is Due
Perceptions are important... and here's what I perceive right now while driving around Lonehill.
It seems to be pretty clean and in good condition once again, and the proactive guards and vehicles seem to be far more visible and attentive again. Just the way we like to see it as a minimum basic standard of service delivery.
Clearly, LRA Chairman Rob Gillespie and his team have stimulated a marked improvement in the management of security service levels, communication and visibility of our inititiative. Let's give credit where credit is due.
It is always important to encourage those who make a difference.
Giving credit where credit is due... the more I think about this... the more I believe that this is what makes for quality leadership.
I'd certainly like to see a lot more prominence given to those who have clearly stood up at significant moments in Lonehill's past, and to those currently and in future who do and will stand up, to make positive difference-making things happen in a MASSIVE meaningful way in this community.
Often these people are unheralded, go unrecognised, are in danger of being forgotten, and their input is often ignored for puerile personal/political like/dislike reasons (i.e. grow up, people), or just not sought after. I talk of people like Lindy Boulanger (Lonehill's most caring connector); Joy Cook (vociferous Complex representative), Geoff Caplin and Bill Parr (both made the Observer program tick like a well-oiled clock), to name just a few. There are many others that I can mention.
This forum has been very much about the strategic RAISING of our community standards by getting the 'right people on the bus' and removing those who have clearly not made any significant measurable difference off the unique foundation of a cash-positive community initiative that we contributors have provided them with.
The continual raising of standards is the essence of LEADERSHIP that everyone should look for in any project that they champion... and which is almost universally lacking in most projects driven to failure.
This interesting presentation - The Importance of Being a Leader - www.fngla.org/leadership/doc/ImportanceofBeingaLeader.ppt - has some interesting pointers (from slide13 - titled Give Credit Where Credit Is Due) that can be applied to greater effect in our Lonehill community initiative:
Pointer 1. Create a climate where people are involved and important.
Pointer 2. Always give credit for the contributions of others…no matter what the size of the contribution.
Pointer 3. We become more powerful when we give our power away.
Quote: 'You can accomplish anything in life, provided that you do not mind who gets the credit.' - Harry S. Truman
Some further interesting quotes and pointers from the presentation that stimulate thought related to our initiative are:
Quote: 'The success of a grassroots group is attributable, in part, to the coordination and motivation of group members. The extent to which a grassroots organization encourages members to identify with the group may be important for sustained success.' (Bettencourt, p. 170.)
This quote highlights one of my key concerns for our current LRA executive who appear to operate almost directly contrary to the above sentiment. Methinks they appear a little too fearful of, or overly-sensitive to, the criticisms of others and/or lacking in confidence to bring a major day-long INDABA together of all key interested stakeholders in this community (yes, decision-makers in Summercon, the Shopping Centre, Complex Chairpeople, Church Leaders, Business People, anyone with a passionate interest in our community) - whether they agree or disagree with individual Board members views.
If the challenge is a fear for facilitating such meeting, I will happily do it (as much-loved as I am by many of the above ;-) or I will find the second-best of facilitators from outside this community to do it.
The danger in not doing the above is that the 'few' will again misread the sentiments of the community or thumbsuck their own assumptions once again which will lead to a repeat of last year's disastrous first AGM happening again in the future.
To repeat Point 1. above again: Create a climate where people are involved and important.
Quote: 'Ninety-nine percent of all failures come from people who have a habit of making excuses' George Washington Carver
Anyone attending the latest quarterly feedback session would have been galled at the silly excuse of people being too short to do a decent job on the community noticeboards. I long ago gave up buying the silly excuses emanating consistently from the same source. I find it difficult to accept that short people lacking in any ideas are still around to regale us with consistent excuses and apologies. It does nothing for the current executive who appear to stand by such mediocrity. Someone please show me what they do to make a positive difference in this community that can't be done a thousand times better by those more motivated. Get the right people on the bus... or show me some measurable indication of their positive contribution to growing this initiative.
By the way, did anyone notice at the last quarterly feedback meeting presentation that our unilaterally changed logo (obviously changed sometime during our farcical marketing debacle era) seems to reflect the singular resident - "Lonehill Resident's Association" (note the apostrophe) as opposed to what we used to be - "Lonehill Residents Association" - reflecting all residents. Someone please correct me. Am I again showing my grammatical ignorance, to which I will always profess.. ;-)
If I'm correct this error will forever symbolise for me the classic mistakes of mediocrity made by autocratic, unitlateral decision-makers who believe that they alone represent a community's interests. I wonder who signed off on it?
Quote: 'Success on any major scale requires you to accept responsibility….In the final analysis, the one quality that all successful people have is the ability to take on responsibility.' Michael Korda - Editor-in-Chief, Simon & Schuster
What are the measurables (KPI's/CSF's - Key Performance Indicators/Critical Success Factors) that LRA service providers and LRA board members are asked to deliver on? What numbers can we use to assess how well people are delivering on their responsibilities? These have not been clarified in the current executives term which can indicate a specific weakness or fear for accountability. As community stakeholders we're entitled to hold our service provideres and excutives to account... and they should relish the challenge.
Pointer: 'You Cannot be a Leader if Your “View” Does Not Change… A leader encounters the world outside the boundaries of an organization, the more you know about the world, the easier it is to approach it with assurance. Take every opportunity to expand your “view”.'
To be honest, I think that current LRA board members seem to have done a great job of re-instilling basic MANAGEMENT criteria over people that should be able to manage themselves. I don't believe that this is 'leadership'. I believe that leadership needs to recognise that strategy and direction needs to be applied to stimulating a massive leap in the growth of our community initiative project. Get rid of those who cannot manage themselves.
Pointer: 'True leaders foster risk taking, encouraging others to step out into the unknown, rather than play it safe' (Kouzes & Posner, 2002.)
Personally, I have found this to be the one major stumbling blocks for the vast majority of those who have found their way onto the LRA board during my time of involment since initiating this Lonehill community project. What they miss is that it took some huge risks by us founder/initiatitors of this initiative to put our reputations on the line to deliver an initiative of this scale. To take it to the next level takes much less of a reputational risk than it does to sit back and preside over its mediocre collapse into a heap of mismanagement and disarray.
So in giving credit where credit is due to those who have brought us back to a basic minimum standard that we had once achieved a few years ago... my ongoing encouragement is for the LRA Board to be different to their immediate predecessors and open up to include those who want to make a massive difference in this community... everyone can be catered for (regardless of their vested interest) with the correct strategic thinking. Just do it..!
For extra reading:
Communities: Coming Together Through Effective Leadership
http://www.achievementgaps.org/nea/CommunitiesComingTogether.pdf
Regards
Trevor Nel - 011 705-2790
Lonehill Resident
It seems to be pretty clean and in good condition once again, and the proactive guards and vehicles seem to be far more visible and attentive again. Just the way we like to see it as a minimum basic standard of service delivery.
Clearly, LRA Chairman Rob Gillespie and his team have stimulated a marked improvement in the management of security service levels, communication and visibility of our inititiative. Let's give credit where credit is due.
It is always important to encourage those who make a difference.
Giving credit where credit is due... the more I think about this... the more I believe that this is what makes for quality leadership.
I'd certainly like to see a lot more prominence given to those who have clearly stood up at significant moments in Lonehill's past, and to those currently and in future who do and will stand up, to make positive difference-making things happen in a MASSIVE meaningful way in this community.
Often these people are unheralded, go unrecognised, are in danger of being forgotten, and their input is often ignored for puerile personal/political like/dislike reasons (i.e. grow up, people), or just not sought after. I talk of people like Lindy Boulanger (Lonehill's most caring connector); Joy Cook (vociferous Complex representative), Geoff Caplin and Bill Parr (both made the Observer program tick like a well-oiled clock), to name just a few. There are many others that I can mention.
This forum has been very much about the strategic RAISING of our community standards by getting the 'right people on the bus' and removing those who have clearly not made any significant measurable difference off the unique foundation of a cash-positive community initiative that we contributors have provided them with.
The continual raising of standards is the essence of LEADERSHIP that everyone should look for in any project that they champion... and which is almost universally lacking in most projects driven to failure.
This interesting presentation - The Importance of Being a Leader - www.fngla.org/leadership/doc/ImportanceofBeingaLeader.ppt - has some interesting pointers (from slide13 - titled Give Credit Where Credit Is Due) that can be applied to greater effect in our Lonehill community initiative:
Pointer 1. Create a climate where people are involved and important.
Pointer 2. Always give credit for the contributions of others…no matter what the size of the contribution.
Pointer 3. We become more powerful when we give our power away.
Quote: 'You can accomplish anything in life, provided that you do not mind who gets the credit.' - Harry S. Truman
Some further interesting quotes and pointers from the presentation that stimulate thought related to our initiative are:
Quote: 'The success of a grassroots group is attributable, in part, to the coordination and motivation of group members. The extent to which a grassroots organization encourages members to identify with the group may be important for sustained success.' (Bettencourt, p. 170.)
This quote highlights one of my key concerns for our current LRA executive who appear to operate almost directly contrary to the above sentiment. Methinks they appear a little too fearful of, or overly-sensitive to, the criticisms of others and/or lacking in confidence to bring a major day-long INDABA together of all key interested stakeholders in this community (yes, decision-makers in Summercon, the Shopping Centre, Complex Chairpeople, Church Leaders, Business People, anyone with a passionate interest in our community) - whether they agree or disagree with individual Board members views.
If the challenge is a fear for facilitating such meeting, I will happily do it (as much-loved as I am by many of the above ;-) or I will find the second-best of facilitators from outside this community to do it.
The danger in not doing the above is that the 'few' will again misread the sentiments of the community or thumbsuck their own assumptions once again which will lead to a repeat of last year's disastrous first AGM happening again in the future.
To repeat Point 1. above again: Create a climate where people are involved and important.
Quote: 'Ninety-nine percent of all failures come from people who have a habit of making excuses' George Washington Carver
Anyone attending the latest quarterly feedback session would have been galled at the silly excuse of people being too short to do a decent job on the community noticeboards. I long ago gave up buying the silly excuses emanating consistently from the same source. I find it difficult to accept that short people lacking in any ideas are still around to regale us with consistent excuses and apologies. It does nothing for the current executive who appear to stand by such mediocrity. Someone please show me what they do to make a positive difference in this community that can't be done a thousand times better by those more motivated. Get the right people on the bus... or show me some measurable indication of their positive contribution to growing this initiative.
By the way, did anyone notice at the last quarterly feedback meeting presentation that our unilaterally changed logo (obviously changed sometime during our farcical marketing debacle era) seems to reflect the singular resident - "Lonehill Resident's Association" (note the apostrophe) as opposed to what we used to be - "Lonehill Residents Association" - reflecting all residents. Someone please correct me. Am I again showing my grammatical ignorance, to which I will always profess.. ;-)
If I'm correct this error will forever symbolise for me the classic mistakes of mediocrity made by autocratic, unitlateral decision-makers who believe that they alone represent a community's interests. I wonder who signed off on it?
Quote: 'Success on any major scale requires you to accept responsibility….In the final analysis, the one quality that all successful people have is the ability to take on responsibility.' Michael Korda - Editor-in-Chief, Simon & Schuster
What are the measurables (KPI's/CSF's - Key Performance Indicators/Critical Success Factors) that LRA service providers and LRA board members are asked to deliver on? What numbers can we use to assess how well people are delivering on their responsibilities? These have not been clarified in the current executives term which can indicate a specific weakness or fear for accountability. As community stakeholders we're entitled to hold our service provideres and excutives to account... and they should relish the challenge.
Pointer: 'You Cannot be a Leader if Your “View” Does Not Change… A leader encounters the world outside the boundaries of an organization, the more you know about the world, the easier it is to approach it with assurance. Take every opportunity to expand your “view”.'
To be honest, I think that current LRA board members seem to have done a great job of re-instilling basic MANAGEMENT criteria over people that should be able to manage themselves. I don't believe that this is 'leadership'. I believe that leadership needs to recognise that strategy and direction needs to be applied to stimulating a massive leap in the growth of our community initiative project. Get rid of those who cannot manage themselves.
Pointer: 'True leaders foster risk taking, encouraging others to step out into the unknown, rather than play it safe' (Kouzes & Posner, 2002.)
Personally, I have found this to be the one major stumbling blocks for the vast majority of those who have found their way onto the LRA board during my time of involment since initiating this Lonehill community project. What they miss is that it took some huge risks by us founder/initiatitors of this initiative to put our reputations on the line to deliver an initiative of this scale. To take it to the next level takes much less of a reputational risk than it does to sit back and preside over its mediocre collapse into a heap of mismanagement and disarray.
So in giving credit where credit is due to those who have brought us back to a basic minimum standard that we had once achieved a few years ago... my ongoing encouragement is for the LRA Board to be different to their immediate predecessors and open up to include those who want to make a massive difference in this community... everyone can be catered for (regardless of their vested interest) with the correct strategic thinking. Just do it..!
For extra reading:
Communities: Coming Together Through Effective Leadership
http://www.achievementgaps.org/nea/CommunitiesComingTogether.pdf
Regards
Trevor Nel - 011 705-2790
Lonehill Resident
Thursday, June 07, 2007
Lonehill - At The Edge Of The CHASM, Once Again!
I made two points in last week's post related to the LRA feedback meeting:
1. 'Am I thankful for these efforts? YES.'
2. 'Am I impressed with what I saw and experienced last night? NO!'
I wrote: 'To be fair, I am clearly of a very different mind-set to what makes for the type of leadership, quality of project, and commitment to excellence that I'd like to see in Lonehill.'
By way of explanation and positive input, in my opinion, a community feedback session should see the first 30 minutes showing how our money is being spent (identifying the primary recipients of our revenue flow and their vested interests), the results that have been achieved (critical numbers: e.g contributors, incidents, et al), and follow-up of decisions made from the last meeting (e.g. what happened to the past key-contributor recognition program, and the Junior Council follow-up with Crawford College?).
Short, sweet, to-the-point, open, transparent, effective.
Thereafter, the community should be encouraged to discuss issues that they consider important for leadership to take note of.
1. 'Am I thankful for these efforts? YES.'
2. 'Am I impressed with what I saw and experienced last night? NO!'
I wrote: 'To be fair, I am clearly of a very different mind-set to what makes for the type of leadership, quality of project, and commitment to excellence that I'd like to see in Lonehill.'
By way of explanation and positive input, in my opinion, a community feedback session should see the first 30 minutes showing how our money is being spent (identifying the primary recipients of our revenue flow and their vested interests), the results that have been achieved (critical numbers: e.g contributors, incidents, et al), and follow-up of decisions made from the last meeting (e.g. what happened to the past key-contributor recognition program, and the Junior Council follow-up with Crawford College?).
Short, sweet, to-the-point, open, transparent, effective.
Thereafter, the community should be encouraged to discuss issues that they consider important for leadership to take note of.
This neat graphic from - Crossing the Chasm Book Review - had me thinking that perhaps we are again approaching the edge of the chasm which seperates the unique and visionary community ideal we saw for ourselves back in 2000... as opposed to the typical apathetic residents association malaise that exists in most mediocre community-type associations.
As I play over in my mind the magnificent work put into establishing this Lonehill initiative back in 2000 (and as to why it set itself so clearly apart from any previous resident/community association projects going before it), I am convinced that it grew in an open, transparent, mass-collaborative mode to the lip of the chasm (at the time of the marketing tender debacle) where, in my opinion, an autocratic managerial-style adopted by the then LRA leaders made some silly behind-closed-doors ego-centric decisions that saw the entire project falling headlong into the chasm.
The depth of this fall was identified at the AGM debacle of last year and it has taken time for the 'new' LRA board of directors to re-climb all the way back up to the lip of the chasm once again.
Sadly, at last week's 'feedback' session, I detected many of the very same autocratic-style ego-centric warning signs surfacing that may again have our Lonehill Community Initiative slipping back into the chasm once again. My biggest concern was for the almost unilateral style of decision-making by the few on behalf of the community... without first asking the community for its input. As discovered last year, such unilateral decisions can lead to serious embarrassment for the instigators and can result in a considerable waste of time and money should the community want to undo and/or unravel them.
Now, please note, that this is not an attack on any one or more individual/s, it is one person's opinion of what he believes should be happening at leadership level to 'cross the chasm' to the type of community initiative that we are all looking for. In this opinion there is plenty of room for stakeholders with differing opinions and/or vested interests to be settled by means of mature debate, open & participative decision-making, and mutually-beneficial community solutions.
I will try to make it as simple as ..1 ..2 ..3:
1. Allow DISCIPLINED People To Flourish - these are passionate people who will align our community goals with their own goals and who can deliver. It means having people in management that do not need to be highly-managed. It means removing those in management who cannot or will not deliver. It means instituting SMART objectives and deliverables with accountabilities and responsibilities clearly designated. It means actively encouraging those with voluntary and/or vested interest desires to establish and drive mutually-beneficial community projects. It means allowing a process for all stakeholders to participate in developing and/or selecting the projects they want to see as priorities.
2. Create a culture of DISCIPLINED Thought. 'Create A Culture Where The Truth Can Be Heard'... where openness, transparency and fact are sacrosanct... and where opinion is widely sought and encouraged.
3. Allow the above people and culture to stimulate DISCIPLINED Action. Eradicate all bureaucratic hurdles - what Tom Peters' identifies in these two quotes from his slides as 'The Management Paradox':
"Ninety percent of what we call 'management' consists of making it difficult for people to get things done" - Peter Drucker
"There's a war on between the people who are trying to do something and the people who are trying to keep them from doing something wrong" - Bill Creech
Here's my concern, I don't believe that current leadership have yet bought into the above 3 simple factors.
Disciplined People, Disciplined Thought, Disciplined Action... three simple factors identified by one Jim Collins that can take the Lonehill Community Initiative from mediocre, to good... to GREAT. But it takes exceptional leadership to unlock and encourage these three simple factors. As another slide from Tom Peter's 2007 collection says: 'Leaders "SERVE’ people. Period.” - Anon
So whilst I am extremely thankful for the return to the basic levels of management over expected service-provider deliverables, I expect much more of our leadership who have a moral duty to override their own emotions, assumptions and pre-conceived notions to act in the very best interest of our entire community. This cannot be achieved without stimulating the widest, committed, participatory input of the most passionate and critical community stakeholders who WANT to provide input - and understanding that some may well be of VERY different mind-set and opinion to those currently on the LRA.
Leadership is simple... and, as mentioned in previous posts, our Priority No. 1 Strategy should be simple:
As I play over in my mind the magnificent work put into establishing this Lonehill initiative back in 2000 (and as to why it set itself so clearly apart from any previous resident/community association projects going before it), I am convinced that it grew in an open, transparent, mass-collaborative mode to the lip of the chasm (at the time of the marketing tender debacle) where, in my opinion, an autocratic managerial-style adopted by the then LRA leaders made some silly behind-closed-doors ego-centric decisions that saw the entire project falling headlong into the chasm.
The depth of this fall was identified at the AGM debacle of last year and it has taken time for the 'new' LRA board of directors to re-climb all the way back up to the lip of the chasm once again.
Sadly, at last week's 'feedback' session, I detected many of the very same autocratic-style ego-centric warning signs surfacing that may again have our Lonehill Community Initiative slipping back into the chasm once again. My biggest concern was for the almost unilateral style of decision-making by the few on behalf of the community... without first asking the community for its input. As discovered last year, such unilateral decisions can lead to serious embarrassment for the instigators and can result in a considerable waste of time and money should the community want to undo and/or unravel them.
Now, please note, that this is not an attack on any one or more individual/s, it is one person's opinion of what he believes should be happening at leadership level to 'cross the chasm' to the type of community initiative that we are all looking for. In this opinion there is plenty of room for stakeholders with differing opinions and/or vested interests to be settled by means of mature debate, open & participative decision-making, and mutually-beneficial community solutions.
I will try to make it as simple as ..1 ..2 ..3:
1. Allow DISCIPLINED People To Flourish - these are passionate people who will align our community goals with their own goals and who can deliver. It means having people in management that do not need to be highly-managed. It means removing those in management who cannot or will not deliver. It means instituting SMART objectives and deliverables with accountabilities and responsibilities clearly designated. It means actively encouraging those with voluntary and/or vested interest desires to establish and drive mutually-beneficial community projects. It means allowing a process for all stakeholders to participate in developing and/or selecting the projects they want to see as priorities.
2. Create a culture of DISCIPLINED Thought. 'Create A Culture Where The Truth Can Be Heard'... where openness, transparency and fact are sacrosanct... and where opinion is widely sought and encouraged.
3. Allow the above people and culture to stimulate DISCIPLINED Action. Eradicate all bureaucratic hurdles - what Tom Peters' identifies in these two quotes from his slides as 'The Management Paradox':
"Ninety percent of what we call 'management' consists of making it difficult for people to get things done" - Peter Drucker
"There's a war on between the people who are trying to do something and the people who are trying to keep them from doing something wrong" - Bill Creech
Here's my concern, I don't believe that current leadership have yet bought into the above 3 simple factors.
Disciplined People, Disciplined Thought, Disciplined Action... three simple factors identified by one Jim Collins that can take the Lonehill Community Initiative from mediocre, to good... to GREAT. But it takes exceptional leadership to unlock and encourage these three simple factors. As another slide from Tom Peter's 2007 collection says: 'Leaders "SERVE’ people. Period.” - Anon
So whilst I am extremely thankful for the return to the basic levels of management over expected service-provider deliverables, I expect much more of our leadership who have a moral duty to override their own emotions, assumptions and pre-conceived notions to act in the very best interest of our entire community. This cannot be achieved without stimulating the widest, committed, participatory input of the most passionate and critical community stakeholders who WANT to provide input - and understanding that some may well be of VERY different mind-set and opinion to those currently on the LRA.
Leadership is simple... and, as mentioned in previous posts, our Priority No. 1 Strategy should be simple:
SECURITY ==> VISIBILITY & VIGILANCE ==> FUNDING
Security is a function of the quality of proactive Visibility & Vigilance of our security force on the ground which in turn is a function of the inflow of funds from local stakeholders and elsewhere.
Leadership's role should be to say: how can we stimulate and encourage people to develop concepts and ideas to underpin our strategy?
Let's face it, one of the BIGGEST successes in this community began with the step taken to initiate and drive the Lonehill Security Action Group in 2000 - which, through a process of openly-encouraged participation, attracted many contributors within the community to build the platform that we have today, having generated over R100 million in revenue flow through the LRA.
As one who has been there, done that and got all the T-shirts in the above community process as a volunteer for four-and-half years it is my firm opinion from my experience at the front-line that the process slips into the chasm when community-input is not sought, avoided and/or ignored, and when autocratic egos take unilateral decisions behind closed doors believing that 'they' know what's best for the community.
I'm a believer that the community is a lot smarter than such people give credit for. To repeat: "Leaders ‘SERVE’ people. Period.”
Let's face it, one of the BIGGEST successes in this community began with the step taken to initiate and drive the Lonehill Security Action Group in 2000 - which, through a process of openly-encouraged participation, attracted many contributors within the community to build the platform that we have today, having generated over R100 million in revenue flow through the LRA.
As one who has been there, done that and got all the T-shirts in the above community process as a volunteer for four-and-half years it is my firm opinion from my experience at the front-line that the process slips into the chasm when community-input is not sought, avoided and/or ignored, and when autocratic egos take unilateral decisions behind closed doors believing that 'they' know what's best for the community.
I'm a believer that the community is a lot smarter than such people give credit for. To repeat: "Leaders ‘SERVE’ people. Period.”
Regards
Trevor Nel - 011 705-2790
Lonehill Resident
Friday, June 01, 2007
Systematic RAPE Of Lonehill?
Tony Platt writes:
It is with growing concern that I witness the systematic rape, bySummercon, of our Lonehill environment , it's infrastructure and all they are bringing to our neighbourhood. For the residents of Lonehill, we have them to thank for increased traffic volumes, less than desirable tenants in some of their disgusting developments, and 'a couldn't care less attitude' to some of the other problems resulting from their building of monstrosities on previously open land.
Three residents, of long standing in Lonehill, and to the east of theirTinza, Lonehill Estate and No.17 on Forest developments have recently spent over R60000-00 to drain away excess water seepage, which we have had confirmed as a direct result of these developments, notwithstanding all the boardroom induced propaganda we have heard about 'attenuation'tanks etc.
The indigenous trees they are planting to help beautify Lonehill do nothing to replace the 15 trees we have lost in our gardens due to flooding. Summercon appear to have unlimited access to the powers that be in theCouncil, and my biggest fear is that will manage the clout necessary to cause the Council to redefine some of our open areas and start further development theron.
Their contribution to Lonehill is Nil, as they do their own garden maintainence, employ their own security and all the buyers of their units live off the fat of the land at our expence. It's time for the LRA to become very envolved, together with our Councillor to ensure that the beauty that was once Lonehill is not further ruined by Summercon. They have conned us sufficiently.
From: "Platt" <shaunant@telkomsa.net>
It is with growing concern that I witness the systematic rape, bySummercon, of our Lonehill environment , it's infrastructure and all they are bringing to our neighbourhood. For the residents of Lonehill, we have them to thank for increased traffic volumes, less than desirable tenants in some of their disgusting developments, and 'a couldn't care less attitude' to some of the other problems resulting from their building of monstrosities on previously open land.
Three residents, of long standing in Lonehill, and to the east of theirTinza, Lonehill Estate and No.17 on Forest developments have recently spent over R60000-00 to drain away excess water seepage, which we have had confirmed as a direct result of these developments, notwithstanding all the boardroom induced propaganda we have heard about 'attenuation'tanks etc.
The indigenous trees they are planting to help beautify Lonehill do nothing to replace the 15 trees we have lost in our gardens due to flooding. Summercon appear to have unlimited access to the powers that be in theCouncil, and my biggest fear is that will manage the clout necessary to cause the Council to redefine some of our open areas and start further development theron.
Their contribution to Lonehill is Nil, as they do their own garden maintainence, employ their own security and all the buyers of their units live off the fat of the land at our expence. It's time for the LRA to become very envolved, together with our Councillor to ensure that the beauty that was once Lonehill is not further ruined by Summercon. They have conned us sufficiently.
From: "Platt" <shaunant@telkomsa.net>
Lonehill Shopping Centre & NOISE Issues
Writes Joei:
I would like to ask you if any of your stakeholders
1. are affected by the noise, drunken patrons, speeding cars etc, if so can they please provide an affidavit (I am available to assist).
2. would be interested in receiving progress updates regarding the noise. If so can they send their email addresses to me and I will update the database accordingly.
Thanking you
Joei Woodman - joei.orourke@businesslogicsystems.com
0829285966
I would like to ask you if any of your stakeholders
1. are affected by the noise, drunken patrons, speeding cars etc, if so can they please provide an affidavit (I am available to assist).
2. would be interested in receiving progress updates regarding the noise. If so can they send their email addresses to me and I will update the database accordingly.
Thanking you
Joei Woodman - joei.orourke@businesslogicsystems.com
0829285966
Lonehill: When SMOKE Gets In Your Eyes
Aaaaah shame... I couldn't stay to the end of the Lonehill feedback meeting as I couldn't breathe given the smoke engulfing the room, so I don't know how it ended.
Travelling home I wondered if the tears in my eyes were as a result of the smoke, or for being thankful that some basic management structure had at least been returned to restore our initiative, or for the opportunity once-again lost to show the required sensitivity for community strategic leadership that inspires us on to bigger things.
First, what was good.
+-150 to 200 people in the room to show that communication makes a difference. It's a start.
The announced return of Col. Mickey Ferreira to reinvigorate visibility and disciplines into our security personnel.
An attempt to make something happen to bolster the Environment Fund. The proof of this pudding will be in the eating.
'Come Home To Quality' as a byline has a neat ring to it.
Am I thankful for these efforts? YES.
My compliments again to LRA Chairman Rob Gillespie and his team for getting us back to where we were some 3 years ago.
Am I impressed with what I saw and experienced last night? NO!
To be fair, I am clearly of a very different mind-set to what makes for the type of leadership, quality of project, and passionate commitment to excellence that I'd like to see in Lonehill.
My biggest disappointment is that I last night witnessed a primarily prescriptive leadership attitude based on the apparent ASSUMPTIONS of a few (the very same attitude that led to last year's first AGM debacle) with very little sensitivity for open participative or consultative processess to include the input of interested, committed, passionate community stakeholders.
I believe that this community has so much collective intellectual property at its disposal that is so much bigger than any overly authoritarian ego needs of the few to prove themselves. This, sadly, was highlighted in the handling of the Shopping Centre issue. What we heard was one person's opinion and assumptions attempting to over-ride the mandate sought by passionately involved stakeholders. For me, it spoilt the promising potential of the evening.
Leadership should have no fear of allowing two antagonistic positions of clear community importance to be openly declared, debated and decided upon by consensus. It IS a community problem, and the community SHOULD have a very real say.
Perhaps it's just the arrogant nature of us as South Africans that has us each believing that we know what's good for others.
Despite this, it's not my aim to overly criticise those that are cleary trying and who need to be encouraged to continue their progress (see the complimentary comments letter below), and what I am going to do is recommend that the board follow-up on an advert running on 702 right now to attend a program by Dr. John Maxwell: 'Leadership Is Influence: Nothing More, Nothing Less'.
Maxwell clearly understands the critical difference between voluntary association leaders (being close friends with one of the best - Bill Hybels) and commercial enterprise leaders. He will probably quote Harry A. Overstreet who observed, "The very essence of all power to influence lies in getting the other person to participate."
I believe this will be money well spent by this community to have our core leaders (those intending to remain on the Board for next year) attend this program.
This in from Laurette Jones (copied to myself), from a family I value highly in this community for courageously standing up to help stimulate last year's change of our disturbing decline, and who leaves the type of encouragement that the current Board will obviously like to hear:
Dear Rob,
Just wanted to congratulate you with an excellent feedback meeting.I am feeling advantaged having you as Chairman. Thank you for everything you have done so far and for everything you are still going to do. Please also know that my time and expertise is at your disposal should you require my help with whatever.
Our household will definitely support the ‘Environment Fund Campaign’ = R60 p.m. as we have done for the last 5 years and we also definitely support the Lonehill Shopping Centre ‘Stop The Noise Campaign’ = R60 p.m.
Thank you for committing the LRA to both campaigns equally in effort and energy. I look forward to read the reports on both campaigns.
Best regards, Laurette Jones
I can't end this post with better encouragement than that!
Regards
Trevor Nel - 011 705-2790
Lonehill Resident
Travelling home I wondered if the tears in my eyes were as a result of the smoke, or for being thankful that some basic management structure had at least been returned to restore our initiative, or for the opportunity once-again lost to show the required sensitivity for community strategic leadership that inspires us on to bigger things.
First, what was good.
+-150 to 200 people in the room to show that communication makes a difference. It's a start.
The announced return of Col. Mickey Ferreira to reinvigorate visibility and disciplines into our security personnel.
An attempt to make something happen to bolster the Environment Fund. The proof of this pudding will be in the eating.
'Come Home To Quality' as a byline has a neat ring to it.
Am I thankful for these efforts? YES.
My compliments again to LRA Chairman Rob Gillespie and his team for getting us back to where we were some 3 years ago.
Am I impressed with what I saw and experienced last night? NO!
To be fair, I am clearly of a very different mind-set to what makes for the type of leadership, quality of project, and passionate commitment to excellence that I'd like to see in Lonehill.
My biggest disappointment is that I last night witnessed a primarily prescriptive leadership attitude based on the apparent ASSUMPTIONS of a few (the very same attitude that led to last year's first AGM debacle) with very little sensitivity for open participative or consultative processess to include the input of interested, committed, passionate community stakeholders.
I believe that this community has so much collective intellectual property at its disposal that is so much bigger than any overly authoritarian ego needs of the few to prove themselves. This, sadly, was highlighted in the handling of the Shopping Centre issue. What we heard was one person's opinion and assumptions attempting to over-ride the mandate sought by passionately involved stakeholders. For me, it spoilt the promising potential of the evening.
Leadership should have no fear of allowing two antagonistic positions of clear community importance to be openly declared, debated and decided upon by consensus. It IS a community problem, and the community SHOULD have a very real say.
Perhaps it's just the arrogant nature of us as South Africans that has us each believing that we know what's good for others.
Despite this, it's not my aim to overly criticise those that are cleary trying and who need to be encouraged to continue their progress (see the complimentary comments letter below), and what I am going to do is recommend that the board follow-up on an advert running on 702 right now to attend a program by Dr. John Maxwell: 'Leadership Is Influence: Nothing More, Nothing Less'.
Maxwell clearly understands the critical difference between voluntary association leaders (being close friends with one of the best - Bill Hybels) and commercial enterprise leaders. He will probably quote Harry A. Overstreet who observed, "The very essence of all power to influence lies in getting the other person to participate."
I believe this will be money well spent by this community to have our core leaders (those intending to remain on the Board for next year) attend this program.
This in from Laurette Jones (copied to myself), from a family I value highly in this community for courageously standing up to help stimulate last year's change of our disturbing decline, and who leaves the type of encouragement that the current Board will obviously like to hear:
Dear Rob,
Just wanted to congratulate you with an excellent feedback meeting.I am feeling advantaged having you as Chairman. Thank you for everything you have done so far and for everything you are still going to do. Please also know that my time and expertise is at your disposal should you require my help with whatever.
Our household will definitely support the ‘Environment Fund Campaign’ = R60 p.m. as we have done for the last 5 years and we also definitely support the Lonehill Shopping Centre ‘Stop The Noise Campaign’ = R60 p.m.
Thank you for committing the LRA to both campaigns equally in effort and energy. I look forward to read the reports on both campaigns.
Best regards, Laurette Jones
I can't end this post with better encouragement than that!
Regards
Trevor Nel - 011 705-2790
Lonehill Resident
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