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| PS21 ExCEL
Convention: A new
innovation experience |
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| Mr Ho enjoying his tour of the many ideas on display. |
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A touch of brilliance and a dollop of vibrance
was how public officers demonstrated
the spirit of ExCEL. Engaging and
empowering public officers to make a difference
— that was the theme of this year’s PS21 ExCEL
Convention and Award Ceremony, which was
held at the spanking new National Library on
21 November.
More than 3,000 public officers including permanent secretaries,
CEOs of statutory boards, deputy secretaries, heads of
divisions, award recipients and ExCEL activists attended
the one-day convention and award ceremony.
On the importance of leadership to the
PS21 movement, Mr Peter Ho, Head of Civil
Service, said in his keynote address: “Leaders
cannot just pass down initiatives like a mandate
from heaven, and expect buy-in. Leaders must
act. Leaders set the standards. The essence of
leadership is about motivating people to perform
to their maximum potential.”
Ms Yong Ying-I, Permanent Secretary (Health), who is also
Chairman of the ExCEL Committee, said in her welcome address
that “I believe it is timely and useful for the public
sector leadership and staff to come together to discuss
how to update ExCEL to be meaningful to a new generation
of public sector officers facing new challenges. To remain
strong, ExCEL must be a movement that energises and galvanises
us
to act.”
This year saw marked differences in the manner projects
were presented. Sixteen WITS project teams from across
the public sector showcased their projects in creative
ways in an exhibition held at the Events Plaza on the
ground floor of the library. At the same time, they had
to canvass for votes from exhibition visitors. Call it
a “one-stop WITs centre” if
you will.
Through a combination of exhibition votes
and judging by SPRING Singapore accredited
judges, three top teams emerged. The three
finalists from the National Environment Agency
(NEA), Housing and Development Board (HDB)
and Singapore Land Authority (SLA) took to
the stage in the Drama Centre where they
presented their ideas to an audience of 650
public officers.
Once again, the audience had the
opportunity to vote for their favourite
team, this time via SMS, a move described
as “involving and very creatively done” by
Ms Ngian Lek Choh, Deputy Chief Executive
Director of the National Library Board.
SLA’s Satellite-II team emerged the winner
for its project entitled “To Introduce New Land
Survey Technique, Thereby Enhancing Accuracy,
Efficiency and Reducing Cycle Time”.
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| The Star Wars team from MTI. |
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Adding some razzle and dazzle to the convention was a
talk by Dr Low Guat Tin of the National Institute of Education,
who put to rest the myth that faculty and public officers
tend to be ho-hum. Peppering her speech with hilarious
anecdotes, she drove home the notion that innovation is
not an alien concept but something that everyone can learn
to slowly incorporate into their daily lives, and that
it is essential for officers to have fun at work.
And if the talk by Dr Low did not have the
audience rolling in the aisles, this year’s ExCEL
Convention had a performance by the Dim Sum
Dollies, a local singing, dancing, acting trio that
ended the convention on a high and hilarious
note! The message of innovation got through
and everyone enjoyed the ceremony!
The PS21 ExCEL Convention also saw Mr Ho presenting 12
teams with The Enterprise Challenge Awards. Twenty-one
agencies also received Public Service Awards for achievements
in organisational excellence. (Read about the winner of
the Top Public Service Award in the next story)
Ms Joanne Yap, Director of Service Operations
and Performance Management, Singapore
General Hospital, described the convention as
“vibrant” and “refreshing” and was confident
it had benefited the Public Service as “a lot of
knowledge and experience was shared”. |
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By PS21 Office
Next: CPFB: First to win Top
Public Service Award |
