Maximum productivity, a prerequisite for private sector growth in Rwanda

As it journeys to Vision2020, Rwanda promised to create a strong private sector which would be responsible for the attainment of the development dreams of becoming a middle income country.

However as the Private Sector Federation’s (PSF) Hanningtom Namara offered, \\\”increasing the potential of the private sector to boost Rwanda’s productivity begins with the maximization of potential of every working individual in the country.\\\”

The PSF Chief Executive Officer made the comment during a morning session that brought together COEs and captains of industries in Rwanda like Faustin Mbundu among others to learn from Franklin Covey’s Productivity Practice Leader Kory Kogan.

The session was focused on the strategies and disciplines that every worker beginning with top managers in institutions to the modest of the employees, needs in order for them to acquire maximum productivity from their work and in their general lives.

Speaking to Rwanda’s cream population in business, Kory scored that today’s working environment and society in general carries in it a lot of destructions that render people incapable of concentrating on the important parts of their lives which could bring about increased production per unit group of workers or an individual.

\\\”For Rwanda and every Rwandan in particular to achieve their dreams for the future, there is adamant need for every individual to concentrate on the important things that make up their production and in so doing be able to achieve extraordinary results,\\\” Kory scored.

Looking at it from Rwanda’s perspective, what needs to be achieved is extraordinary; lifting a country from the least developed nation of the world to middle income status in less than two decades, transforming an agrarian community into a knowledge-based service economy, and getting illiterate citizens that way exceeded 80 percent to literacy in less than a decade.

It is extraordinary but most interestingly possible because there are abundant examples of nations that have achieved similar results to learn from.

However, Rwanda’s dream future cannot be attained unless each Rwandan decides to work beyond ordinary limits and do the extraordinary.

How many times does someone find themselves spending half of their entire time in a day on facebook or any of the other social networks, to the extent that they cannot be able to account for what they achieved in that particular day? When such a question is asked either by oneself or by someone else, the answer most likely is very often.

Among other lessons that Kory shared with the multitude of business heads and top managers in Rwandan institution on the July 11th, was about the four quadrants that need to be considered daily by everyone in their lives. The square has four quadrants; Q1, Q2, Q3 and Q4 which represent the things that occupy people’s daily lives namely; urgent but not important, important but not urgent, important and urgent, and not important and not urgent respectively for the quadrants.

Sharing at the workshop, Kory urged Rwandans to always emphasize on spending most of the time doing the activities in square Q2. \\\”These activities change depending on what is important in a given period of time, but they are most of the times encroached by things that seem urgent yet not important. Such things that unnecessarily consume the time of the working group today include responding to an email message or a facebook chat that seemed urgent yet not important.\\\”

Franklin Covey Co. is an international corporation which specializes in performance improvement. This is done through helping institutions achieve results that require a change in human resource behavior. The company which has operations in 147 countries globally has acquired research based expertise in the areas of; leadership, execution, productivity, trust, sales performance, customer loyalty and education.

Franklin Covey is represented by CEMM Group which is the sole licensee in Rwanda, Burundi, and Uganda.