Botswana: ‘It takes just a quick glance for someone to evaluate you when you meet for the first time. It is in this short time the other person forms an opinion about you based on your appearance, your mannerisms, and how you are dressed. These first impressions can be nearly impossible to reverse, and they often set the tone for the relationship that follows.
Officiating during Botswana Prison Service’s annual reset plan reporting workshop at Mahalapye yesterday, Chief of Staff Lephimotswe Boyce Sebetela said successful businesses achieve their goals through how they package and present themselves to the stakeholders. He highlighted that stakeholders’ perceptions can make or break the organisation hence the need to always guard against it.
He, therefore, encouraged them to focus on the organisational fronts and ensure that their areas of operation and surroundings were always spotless and appealing. He advised the Prisons Management to always treat stakeholders with respect and keep them abreast with the services and products offered.
Sebetela stated that in order to attain its mandate of safe custodial care, rehabilitation and reintegration of offenders, Botswana Prison Service needs to reset its business model. This, he said, can only be achieved through the development and upkeep of standards, including the appearance of offices, turnaround times, branding and visibility of mission statement, vision and values.
He said it is critical to shift the thinking process and embrace the modern approach to doing business. “It is through the Reset Agenda that we can change our business model and propel Prison Service to greater heights by emphasising quality, cost and delivery; this, of course, we can do through stop, start or improve hard choices and actions,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Chief of Staff further urged the Prison Management to capitalise on their strengths, as it is critical in achieving the transformation agenda and high-performance culture. He emphasised the need for the Service to identify one area they do extremely well on and commit to until its successful completion. He cautioned that engaging on multiple projects at the same time can negatively affect performance ratings.
He advised the Prison Service management to utilise the available talent and inspire and mentor their subordinates to ensure that the standards are kept high. He said clearly laid down processes and procedures minimise confusion, thus enhancing service delivery. He also advised them to produce quantifiable reports, which will assist in having accurate statistics to analyse performance.
Sebetela implored the participants to effectively implement the Annual Plan, which is critical in driving the National Development Plan and, ultimately, the National Vision 2036.
On giving her welcome and tone-setting speech, Commissioner Dinah Marathe said the workshop is one of the many initiatives that is meant to assist the Service in realigning and focusing all efforts and resources in the delivery of the mandate. She expressed confidence that the training will facilitate the Senior Management to improve performance through setting SMART objectives with realistic and measurable targets while delivering the Plan on time and on budget.
She said after training, the results should be characterised by improved agricultural production, increased revenue collection and provision of high-quality, needs-based rehabilitation and reintegration services.
She implored participants to introspect, set standards and identify possible areas for improvement. “We need to adopt new approaches and initiatives in order to improve our flagship services to our customers. Let us continuously challenge ourselves so that we contribute handsomely to the Government of the day’s aspirations of attaining a high-income economy status by the year 2036,” she said.
She further urged them to go and deliver on the objectives, initiatives, projects and programmes outlined in the Annual Performance Plan and to incorporate the Reset Plan to ensure seamless reporting at all times. “We need to manage our numbers and continuously measure progress as leaders and through discipline and self-drive, all these can be achieved,” she concluded.
