Communicating in the professional world
I was invited to LUMS today by Jazib Zahir to deliver a guest lecture in the course Applied Business Writing and Communication that he's teaching. I was asked to talk about the role of communication in the public sector and a bit about my work. I flipped the order of the two.
The class was mostly sophomores/juniors with some freshmen/seniors. All majors were represented. In short, the audience had considerable variety which is always a good sign. As we were short of time, I started off the lecture by briefly going over the various initiatives I've been involved with in the last few years.
Next, I went over the structure of the public sector and the critical role of the bureaucracy. I stressed on the importance of nailing down the reasons behind a problem. Once you've identified the reasons, you should do a cost-benefit analysis and then choose your battles wisely. There's no point in attempting to weed out patwaris unless you're willing to unsettle a lot of stakeholders and have a plan to tackle the backlash, over time.
Then, I went over the citizen feedback idea and the need for smart monitoring. The audience enjoyed anecdotes from my experiences with various government departments, especially, my first interaction with Commissioner Gujranwala after which I found out what a Commissioner really was! Since these projects directly aim to benefit citizens, it's actually quite easy to explain/sell it to most people. As Zubair Bhatti says, "baat bohot saada si hai," i.e. it's really straightforward.
After going over the projects, I went on to explain why it's important to understand your client (in this case, the citizen) and his requirements. A common pitfall is attempting to create a need that's really not needed. Even if you score a small win, in the longer run people move on. Instead, you should communicate to make people realize what they need and then serve accordingly. I used the citizen feedback model as an example where the message, simply put, is "Help us, help you!" In other words, speak up when we call so we can better understand the problem and take remedial measures for your benefit.
Once you have data coming in from field officers or citizens, you have to turn it into actionable information that's available, accessible, usable and creates utility for the managers. Like the public sector, the same concepts also apply to the private sector. You can treat the government as a large public limited company and citizens as shareholders who contribute through taxes and expect to enjoy public goods and services in return. It's really not complicated.
How do we sell innovative ideas? Through prototyping. We go through an extensive trial and error process where we repeatedly fail. With time, the idea evolves. A year back, widespread acceptance of smart phones seemed like wishful thinking but now the government is eager to buy a large number of smart phones for monitoring anti-dengue work. If that project is successful, huge numbers will follow. We have our fingers crossed. "Only time" will tell.
Thankfully, the plug went well. The class agreed that we should tape earphones to the CM's ears and play this song on repeat. Just saying.
What sells really well? A live demo. Therefore, I attempted a live demo of the smart monitoring idea. A volunteer from the class filled in a dummy entry, took a photograph of the class and sent it to the server. Yes, it showed up instantly! If you want to have a look, go here and filter to entries from 29th Feb and click the marker on Lahore. Here's the photograph of the class that he took:
As its like after all live demos, it was a proud moment.
I quickly went on to explain why I feel most projects fail. It's essentially a short-sighted approach to a problem that demands a long-sighted approach. In a way, how you bump into obstacles if you look down and not up while walking. It's really not complicated.
I wanted to talk about "the boons and banes" of using Powerpoint and show examples of presentations delivered at TEDxLahore but we didn't have time for that. In the end, I simply ended with a list of "DOs" that answers the question: "But we're still in college. What can we do?"
Perhaps, I should've spent less time talking about the government and left a bit of time for questions. But when I start talking about a topic I'm passionate about, I usually only stop when I get tired. Not that it's the right approach, but still. I was approached by a couple of students later who were interested in pursuing this path.
To them and to all of you considering dabbling in public sector reform, welcome to the tribe. I wish you godspeed.
