Organizational Culture in a Changing World

The idea of change can be deeply disturbing, unsettling and worrisome. Yes, it is! Often, organizations prefer the comfortable and familiar paths which have helped defined their past, amid huge successes or less. The illusion that an organization can stand still while the rest of the world is in constant motion is just that-an illusion. The imperative for change becomes much more critical since every organization exists within the parameters of time, geography, culture, among others.

Every organization is exposed to the dynamics of external and internal forces, which are also subject to change. The external forces being political, economic, socio-cultural, legal, environmental and technological realities, as well as, internal forces - wherein lies organizational culture.

Entrepreneurship Development Programme In Higher Education: A Nigerian Perspective

Entrepreneurship education serves as a panacea to social economic problems. The present situation in Nigeria posed serious threats and challenges to both government and well meaning citizens. These socio-economic problems call for different strategies and action for it to be ameliorated. Entrepreneurship education has been embraced by almost all the developed countries and its capabilities and efficacy in springing up economies is not in doubt. It is believed that refocusing education system will immensely contribute in developing the spirit and culture of entrepreneurship in country. The methodology here involves review of the current situation especially existing education policies and highlights the need for departure by studying some models that can be applied. It was discovered that the current education system is deficient in providing the necessary impetus for development. It also finds out that same problems keep escalating despite various efforts by the government to review policies and programmes in the past. The uniqueness of the paper is providing entrepreneurship education framework as an explanation of what and how it should be rather than what it is. It also challenges policy makers on the need to refocus their policies in problem solving rather than maintaining the status quo.

The Touchstone

Hello,

Permit us to use this opportunity to formally welcome you into the New Year!

A little late in coming you might say? Well, we wanted to be sure we got everything covered before dishing it out to you.

So, here's what we've got -

1. Due to feedback we've been getting from you, we have changed the coverage of our monthly conferences and seminars guide to quarterly. This means that you will now be getting information three months ahead. We reckoned the quarterly edition will make it possible for you to see further into the future and plan well. The guide is available for download on our website and social network pages. Better still, click here to download your (revised and updated) copy.

2. To ease the problems associated with booking hotels when you are going for conferences or training, we have now made it possible for you to book your hotel accommodations ahead of time directly from our website. Click here to view the portal we have set up for this purpose.

3. This year, our Blog, Twitter and Facebook pages are going to assume a new bounce; news, articles, conferences papers and authoritative views and write-ups from eminent scholars, professionals and administrators in the Nigerian training industry. Connect with us on these platforms to get first-hand access to these updates as we post them.

Need we go on? Well, let's keep some of the goodies for next month...

Meanwhile, we encourage you to make very good use of the information we have provided in the 1st Qtr Conferences, Seminars and Training Guide to fool-proof your training and development plans for the new year.

Before you go, here's a little story to encourage you.

Managing Internal Control Systems in Nigeria's Government Ministries - A Way Forward

Out of curiosity I trawled the internet for Corporate Governance in Nigeria and most of the results I found came up with information to do with the banking and insurance sub-sector. I was interested in how our federal government departments managed their everyday businesses more so with regards to internal control systems. Shockingly and as the time of writing this paper none was available on any relevant Nigerian government ministry website. A listing of the federal ministries and government agencies on the Nigeria government website (http://www.nigeria.gov.ng/index.html) came up with the message “This Page will soon be available...” This was repeated for all the ministries and departments listed on this so called “Nigerian Government Official website”!

I changed my approach and searched specifically for the individual websites of government ministries and narrowed this down to the Ministry of Finance. Although a well designed website, there was little mention of risk management from an internal control systems point of view other than the mention of Corporate Governance targeted at specific business areas such as the financial industry e.g. banking and Insurance sector. My research was purely based on my need to know what obtains for governance and business practice in the average Nigeria government department.

November 2011 Conferences, Seminars and Training Guide

“Regret for the things we did can be tempered by time; it is regret for the things we did not do that is inconsolable” - - Sydney J. Harris

Hello,

It's November already. What a year! Action packed, fast paced, full of intrigues and filled with challenges.

The good part is you have made it this far. With some measure of creativity and ingenuity, you can still finish this year with a deep sense of accomplishment, knowing you have done the best you could in spite of debilitating circumstances.

Like the eagle, you should position yourself to, literarily, ‘fly’ above the situations and circumstances that tend to limit you.  You must not run away or escape from the "storm". Rather, you must embrace it and use the "storm" to lift yourself higher. 

The story was told in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, of Eneke the bird who said, "Since men have learnt to shoot without missing, it too has learnt to fly without perching".

While Eneke may not have lived in our time, its wisdom for survival certainly merits our attention and emulation. You can only expect to bring about changes in your circumstances by taking calculated steps to bring about the changes.

On our part, we shall continue to generate "favourable winds" to aid you in your "flight" by always putting at your disposal the information you need to take informed decisions.

Please follow this link to download the Conferences, Seminars and Training Guide for November 2011.

However, before you go, enjoy this story...

The Donkey Story

One-day a farmer's donkey fell into a well. The farmer frantically thought of what to do as the stricken animal cried out to be rescued. With no obvious solution, the farmer regretfully concluded that as the donkey was old, and as the well needed to be filled in anyway, he should give up the idea of rescuing the beast, and simply fill in the well. Hopefully, the poor animal would not suffer too much, he tried to persuade himself.

October 2011 Conferences, Seminars and Training Guide

“What counts is not necessarily the size of the dog in the fight – it’s the size of the fight in the dog” – Dwight Eisenhower

Hello,

Welcome to the month of October. Hope things are coming up as planned. Well, its never over until it is over. Anything is still possible if you put your mind to it. So, keep pushing.

Please follow this LINK to download the conferences Seminars and Training guide for the month of October 2011.

We have adopted this new (pdf) format to make it easy for you to download to your desktop for easy reference.

We sincerely hope you find it useful

To ensure smooth delivery of our mails into your inbox, please add admin@nigerianseminarsandtrainings.com and info@nigerianseminarsandtrainings.com to your contacts.

 Before you go, enjoy this story…

The Gardener's Badge Story

A landscape gardener ran a business that had been in the family for two or three generations. The staffs were happy, and customers loved to visit the store, or to have the staff work on their gardens or make deliveries - anything from bedding plants to ride-on mowers.

For as long as anyone could remember, the current owner and previous generations of owners were extremely positive happy people.

Principles of Leadership

To help you be, know, and do, follow these eleven principles of leadership (U.S. Army, 1983). The later chapters in this Leadership guide expand on these principles and provide tools for implementing them:

1.    Know Yourself and Seek Self-Improvement - In order to know yourself, you have to understand your be, know, and do, attributes. Seeking self-improvement means continually strengthening your attributes. This can be accomplished through self-study, formal classes, reflection, and interacting with others.

2.    Be Technically Proficient - As a leader, you must know your job and have a solid familiarity with your employees' tasks.

3.    Seek Responsibility and Take Responsibility for Your Actions - Search for ways to guide your organization to new heights. Moreover, when things go wrong, they always do eventually — do not blame others. Analyze the situation, take corrective action, and move on to the next challenge.

4.    Make Sound and Timely Decisions - Use good problem solving, decision making, and planning tools.

5.    Set the Example - Be a good role model for your employees. They must not only hear what they are expected to do, but also see. We must become the change we want to see - Mahatma Gandhi

Leadership and Personal Effectiveness

"Management is efficiency in climbing the ladder of success; leadership determines whether the ladder is leaning against the right wall." - Stephen R. Covey

The study of leadership has engendered such groundswell of interest in recent time that one cannot but ask, “What is the hullabaloo all about? Well, the hullabaloo is about increasing your effectiveness, it is about developing the mindset and skills required to lead effectively and get immediate benefit in productivity. It is about understanding how small steps can lead to big results.

John C. Maxwell in his book The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, puts it this way, “success is within the reach of just about everyone. But … personal success without leadership ability brings only limited effectiveness. A person’s impact is only a fraction of what it could be with good leadership. The higher you want to climb, the more you need leadership. The greater the impact you want to make, the greater your influence needs to be…”

Leading from where You are

Leadership is every man’s calling. It is God’s original plan that man rules over the works of His hands. Leadership is man’s natural mandate. The mandate is still more relevant in our days now more than ever before. So wherever you find yourself, the instinct to lead is always inherent.

Leadership has been generally defined as the ability to influence others in achieving worthwhile goals. While many myths has been built around the subject leadership, this write-up is intended to help readers in realizing that not only can they lead, they can do it wherever they find themselves in life; most especially in corporate organizations.

The big and controversial question has always been “are leaders born or made”? While it is generally agreed that leadership traits are inborn, many have come to agree that leadership can be learnt.

Project Management and Leadership Skills

The leadership development level of a project manager is important to a successful project. Effective leadership skills must be used as needed over the project life cycle.

Project managers are responsible for project delivery and consequently are uniquely placed to make a positive or negative impact. Whilst understanding project management methodologies, tools, and techniques is important, the critical test is being able to apply them in practice. This is where leadership skills and behaviours become critical -- as the project manager leads the project team to meet the objectives

Project Management and Leadership: Equal Partners for Project Success

The Four Project Management Processes of Leadership and Management

“Leaders are people oriented, whereas managers are task oriented.

Leaders inspire, whereas managers organize.” - The Realities of Management: A view from the Trenches, Royce L. Callaway

We as project management professionals are all aware of the management aspects of our profession. These include the tasks, processes, and sequences of steps that we all know by heart. However, client feedback and our own self-evaluations or “lessons learned” tell us that we should be addressing an often neglected thou equally important demand of our profession. That demand is Leadership.