|
| ‘Play
poker, not roulette’ |
| |
 |
| Mr Teo urged officers
to take calculated risks. |
|
|
|
|
In mid-air, the plane’s
engine malfunctioned. The group was forced to jump off
the plane. Parachuting for the first time in their lives,
they scattered on different parts of the jungle. They
had no food and no water. Worst still, they were racing
against time to prevent Dr T from wrecking pandemonium
by contaminating Singapore’s limited water sources.
Tick, tock, tick, tock… time was slipping away.
What could they do to get out of this quagmire?
What a daunting scenario that is! Luckily, it was just
a scene from the Ministry of Defence’s (MINDEF)
Innovation Game (I-Game).
Jointly designed by MINDEF and an external consultant,
the highly pressurising game sets players off on a journey
of self-discovery to identify their preconceived barriers
and unleash their innate attributes in areas like teamwork,
leadership, risk-taking, innovation and creativity.
The I-Game was played during a conference entitled “Fostering
An Enterprising Public Service: Taking Risk” held
on 10 July 2004.
Jointly organised by the Civil Service College and PS21
Office, the conference was part of the BlueSky Festival,
a three-day festival coordinated by Action Community for
Entrepreneurship to celebrate the spirit of enterprise
in Singapore.
The conference attracted 200 participants. Mr Eddie Teo,
Permanent Secretary of the Prime Minster’s Office,
was the guest of honour.
Said Mr Teo in his opening speech: “An outdated,
inefficient and non-innovative Public Service will drag
Singapore down. Singapore
will lose its competitive edge as a nation, resulting
in job losses and
social unrest.
“Hence innovation, enterprise and risk-taking are
as relevant in the public sector as they are in the private
sector.”
However, Mr Teo cautioned against taking blind risks.
He likened taking blind risks to playing roulette, which
is based on pure luck. On the
other hand, playing poker is like taking calculated risks
as it depends less on luck and more on skill. And with
experience, the chances of winning improve.
“We should all play poker and not roulette,”
declared Mr Teo. He added that taking no risks “may
be the riskiest way to move forward”. Hence creating
an environment that encourages staff to take risk and
stressing the importance of encouraging risk-taking in
every government organisation is imperative.
“When subordinates fail or make mistakes not because
they are lazy, careless or reckless, but because they
want to try something new, treat it as a learning experience,”
he said.
 |
| Deep in concentration:
Players working together on the mission. |
|
| |
Participants also gained insights
on risk management from the experience of the Singapore
Police Force (SPF).
SPF shared about its Management of Mistake framework which
focuses on two key factors: intentions and consequences.
SPF also brought
up examples of risk-taking such as the rescue operation
of RSS Courageous (see the following story) and the liberalisation
of rules and policies on bar top dancing and liquor licensing. |
| |
| |
By
IPAM
Next: Rescue of RSS Courageous:
The SPF perspective |
