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| Riding on the crest |
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| Col Lee believes it is critical for NDU to be a Learning Organisation. |
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The Naval Diving Unit
(NDU) may be the
smallest formation in the
Republic of Singapore
Navy (RSN), but it has
been making big waves.
Find out how outstanding
leadership, an exemplary
breed of men, zeal for
continual learning and
improvement, emphasis
on innovation and ability
to sustain momentum
have contributed to
its success.
Based at Sembawang Camp, NDU is
responsible for all the diving operations of the
Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) and plays the
critical role of protecting Singapore’s national
interests in the maritime domain.
NDU’s scope includes underwater tasks like
search, recovery and rescue; ordnance disposal
and demolition; as well as ship boarding and
security operations.
In recent years, NDU achieved many national-level certifications
for organisational excellence (OE) and also outperformed
all other formations at innovation award ceremonies.
Reflecting on NDU’s organisational excellence
(OE) journey, Commander NDU Colonel (Col)
Sean Lee did not fight shy of revealing that
it took a while for the formation to find its
bearings.
“When we were involved in various initiatives
such as PRIDE, WITS, USMS, though we
understood the benefits, some still perceived
them as a chore,” he said, pointing out
that getting full support and buy-in was a
challenge.
The tipping point came when NDU set its mind
on achieving the People Developer Standard
(PDS) and ISO 9000 certification in 2002. In the
face of the changed security landscape after
the September 11 US attacks, NDU realised
the need to be more robust, flexible and agile
to deal with the threat of terrorism.
NDU officers underwent training; new
processes were implemented, practised and
audited. All these disciplines created broad
awareness of OE throughout the formation.
Subsequently, NDU embarked on the
Enhanced Value Organisation initiative. Using
the Balanced Scorecard as a framework
to relate organisational excellence with
operational excellence helped the officers
to realise that OE programmes were key to
making NDU better and more relevant for the
future.
Thereafter, the Dive School, one of NDU’s subunits,
attained the Singapore Quality Class
(SQC) in 2005. The same year, the formation
received the Occupational Health and Safety
Advisory Services certification. And in 2006,
NDU was conferred the status of a Singapore
Innovation Class (I-Class) organisation.
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| NDU divers are
sent in small teams of 6 to 10 persons to
carry out a mission or perform a task. |
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Undoubtedly, the success of an organisation
can be attributed to the commitment and
effectiveness of its leaders, as well as the
quality of its people.
“The leaders are ground people, ground
commanders,” said Second Warrant Officer
(2WO) N. Thiaganathan. “They lead and
participate together with their men. There
are no barriers with rank so we feel free to
communicate our problems and experiences.
They give us a lot of opportunities to learn
new things.”
Moreover, NDU officers are a special breed.
All divers have undergone training that
demands extraordinary physical exertion
and mental toughness. Oftentimes, they are
sent in small teams of up to 10 persons to
carry out a mission or perform a task. The
team, comprising officers skilled in different
areas, is expected to work independently and
proficiently.
The fact that NDU’s work is highly specialised,
the turnover rate is low and the divers work
with each other for a very long time means
that management can confidently embark on
long-term plans.
Said Col Lee, who
has been with NDU
for 10 years: “I can
seed a project, get
it going, and five
years later, unless
new leadership sees
a different need, I’m
pretty sure that we’ll
succeed.”
And OE, he pointed
out, is one of those
things that “can take
quite a while”.
Continual improvement is a basic tenet of OE
and Col Lee believes it is critical for NDU to be
a Learning Organisation.
In NDU, many systems and structures are
in place to engender learning. For example,
teams have a habit of conducting a review
session after completing an exercise to
evaluate their performance and identify areas
for improvement.
NDU recently revamped its website to
improve information accessibility to its
stakeholders and employees. It plans to start
an anonymous forum for officers to share
information, exchange ideas and enhance
knowledge. It is also looking into ways to
promote coaching so that officers will learn
by doing and talking.
To maximise the innovation potential of its
officers, NDU created the posts of Chief and
Assistant Work Improvement Team Scheme
(WITS) Facilitator in 2003.
2WO Puah Tee Hiang, who holds the latter
post, recounted going through projects that
had been submitted in the past but were
left unattended to, identifying the ones with
potential, reviving them, beefing up the
teams and also engaging officers to think of
new ideas.
As a result, many NDU WITS projects bagged
impressive awards at the RSN, ministry and
national level. In fact, at the National Innovation
Quality Circle, NDU bagged three awards in
2003 and 2004. And in 2005, NDU made a splash
with three golds, one silver and one bronze.
Another key move was tapping on the
resources and expertise of the MINDEF
Innovation and Transformation Office (MITO)
for the Jumpstart Programme in early 2005.
The programme takes a unit through a series
of milestones to develop solutions that are
linked to the unit’s strategic concerns.
MITO provided many innovation activities
such as iDive, WITs* (WITs Star), iThink and
iGame workshops. It was at the Leadership
Engagement meeting that Col Lee and
other members of the management team
developed NDU’s innovation vision, mission
and objectives.
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| With “Nothing Stands in Our Way” as their motto,
NDU officers will overcome all obstacles to achieve
their goals. |
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Having come a distance in its OE journey,
NDU’s main concern now is sustaining
the momentum. And this is particularly
challenging for the formation.
2WO Alvin Chia pointed out: “Not only do
we have new entrants (full-time National
Servicemen), we have many new initiatives.
We’ve been introducing new OE initiatives at
least once a year — PSD, SQC, ISO, I-Class, etc.
So there’s a constant need to educate people.”
Early efforts to permeate and strengthen
the excellence culture in NDU have been
encouraging. Going forward, the formation is
gearing up for more challenges.
For example, although NDU achieved the I-Class certification
last year, it is already making plans to conduct internal
audits annually. A new team has been formed to drive the
I-Class efforts until NDU goes for recertification in
2009.
Sharing NDU’s immediate plans, Col Lee said:
“We just achieved I-Class. We are now going for
SQC for the whole formation. We’re continually
working to entrench and embed all we have
learnt about OE, deepen it, propagate it to
achieve more buy-in and sustain it.” |
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by Ministry of Defence
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