ST. GEORGE’S, GRENADA– Minister of State with responsibility for Agriculture and Lands, Fisheries, and Co-operatives, Senator Adrian Thomas, has encouraged senior managers in the Ministry to embrace change and to be on board with the plans and programmes of the Minister, Ministry, and the Government.
Speaking at a one-day Retreat held at the Grenada National Stadium on Wednesday 28th September 2022, under the theme: “Transformative Development: Ensuring Food and Nutrition Security and Sustainable Agricultural Development”, the Minister told senior managers that “accomplishing the transformative policy goals will require a refocusing of the current organisational structure and modus operandi of the Ministry and the injection of new systems, processes, resources (human, financial, material and ICT) and adequate involvement of stakeholders… senior managers and staff must be on board with the plans and programmes of the Minister and the Government.”
The retreat was designed to assist senior managers to understand the transformative policy agenda of the Government and the Ministry so that collectively they could develop specific plans and programmes for the Ministry.
Agriculture has been identified as one of the pillars in the transformative agenda of the Government. Permanent Secretary, Aaron Francois, reminded the senior managers that “as public officers you have a solemn responsibility to be aware of Government policies, to understand the policies and to implement them to the fullest. As public officers, we need to totally commit to understanding the Government’s agenda and seek to translate it into programmes and plans. We must be open to understand and to allow ourselves to be transformed mentally as we move forward to implement the agenda of the Government and Ministry”.
Featured Speaker, Economist Dr. Roxanne Brizan-St. Martin, focused extensively on the transformation mindset. She is of the firm view that a transformation mindset matters.
She said, “a transformation leader must have this mindset in order to effect personal change or change in others. If mindsets are not properly aligned, then reshaping the culture of the organisation is going to be very difficult. We should be reminded that culture is shaped and solidified over time through mindsets and behaviours.”
Dr. Brizan-St. Martin told the policy makers and implementers that “transformational mindset embraces and owns changes, requires creativity, insight – this mindset sets the tone for competitive advantage; knowing when to control and protect and when it’s time to create and connect; from being smart to being wise. With this mindset, transformation becomes central to who you are as a ministry and what you do.”
Dr. Brizan-St. Martin, however, had this word of warning: “while you plan and build as a team it is important to be conscious of menaces which works against a transformational mindset; overconfidence, being entrenched in orthodoxy, staying within your comfort zones, thinking too short-term, insular thinking and behaviors and lack of strategic clarity. Rather, it requires growth, investing time and effort to change the approach and combining decision-making with evidence. This does not mean blind acceptance or complacency, but committing to a growth mindset to continuously find new ideas and perspectives.”
The details of the Minister’s Policy Brief were presented to senior managers by Transition Lead, Gemma Bain-Thomas, following which there were group work sessions addressing the areas of Food and nutrition security, Agri- business, Agro-processing and Agri/Agro-tourism, Marine resources and the blue economy, Governance, administration and management of the Ministry, commodity boards and related entities and Co-operatives.
Ministry of Agriculture…ensuring food and nutrition security for all
