Digging in the dirt: Botswana-style

When news broke in tiny Botswana of a corruption scandal involving immigration officials on the take at the chaotic Zimbabwean border, the government's Department of Immigration and Citizenship knew exactly who to call: they had Dr. Marvin Washington on speed dial.

"Botswana has zero tolerance for corruption," says Washington, an organizational sociologist and expert in organizational structures and rules, and strategic planning.

He's been heading to Botswana regularly since 1999, working with the government's various ministries, to help them become effective, efficient and focused on the ministries' bottom line: to run a tight, clean ship that delivers excellent service to Botswana's citizens.

Besides holding joint professorial appointments in the Physical Education and Recreation faculty and the School of Business, Washington is part of a team of business consultants, including Steven Hacker and Tammy Roberts of the Performance Center in Oregon. Their work began with Botswana Telecommunications, then, as individuals with the telecommunications company moved on, taking jobs in government, they called on The Performance Center to help them in their new roles.

So when the proverbial dirt hit the fan the permanent secretary for the Ministry of Labour and Home Affairs, Segakweng Tsiane, didn't hesitate. She called Washington and Hacker immediately. What she wanted to accomplish was music to Washington's ears.

"For me that was the first time in five or six years (of going to Botswana) that there was an immediate problem to solve and they were calling us to come over and help to solve it," says Washington. "Typically we're involved in vision planning, instead we were faced with a very stressed group that the president wanted to fire, worried about losing their jobs, coupled with 'but I still hate this crappy job.' It was bad for them but good for us as now they were eager for learning what they could do."

Washington is pragmatic. "You can't mandate smiling at the customer or people liking their job," he says. "They are dealing with illegal immigration, people not having the right papers, people frustrated with standing in line for five hours; people clearly trying to evade paying customs duty. Then right after that there's the timid person with all the right paperwork who just needs a little help. How do you transition from the first frustrating experience to being friendly and saying, 'Welcome to Botswana?' Really, they have two contradicting jobs.

"They were struggling with that transition. We went further than just customer surveys or customer satisfaction. This isn't the same as sending everyone off for training or looking at how McDonald's does it," he says. "This requires an entirely different conversation.

"We wanted to know, 'what else is going on?' People came up with things like 'they smell funny' and 'I don't like Zimbabweans.' When we get to that level of conversation, that explains why you don't smile."

Washington will return to Botswana in May to follow up with the group. "This will be very similar to what we do when we work with the leaders: walk me through the changes. We will go to the border posts in Francistown and Gaborone and see how things are changing."

Washington's work in Botswana has been part of a large macro project, begun in the early '90's. "This has been a three part series for leaders: how do I coach myself; how do I coach a team and how do I coach the organization. For the first four to five years we focused on leadership training and basic yearly planning - so very teaching focused. Then we focused on reviewing the work that had been done. The recent transition has been how to make them self-sustaining so they can develop their own leaders," says Washington.

That includes levels of measurement, such as spending one's budget. Sounds simple but it means planning wisely and spending to meet the plan; reviewing the results of last year's activities before planning the next year's work and, says Washington, its "Checking in with the leader we worked with: 'You hired us to work with us on a plan. Did you get what you came for?'"

Washington says the leap in progress is gratifying. "I feel really excited that we're finally having the conversations that we are. Two years ago I wasn't sure that I would be going over there again because there was a lot of pushing, whereas now I'm just listening. I'm in a room with really smart people trying to solve a really tough problem and it's very interesting.

"Two years ago I would have been doing all the talking. I enjoy this part more."


Marvin Washington and Steven Hacker are co-authors of "Leading Pack Performance: Lessons from the Wild Dogs of Africa" that uses animal analogies to examine different leadership methods. The book was inspired by their work in Botswana and observations in Botswana's famous game parks.

Dr. Washington also appears regularly on CBC's Drive Home show each Monday at 1650, talking about issues related to business and management.