By Hamisi Kigwangalla, MP.
All peoples have a culture. All organizations have a culture. And even countries have a culture. What is culture anyway? In simple terms, it is defined as the arts and other manifestations of human intellectual achievement regarded collectively, or just simply 'the way of life'. I searched for definitions of culture in different readings and I was particularly blissful with the definition in the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, and I would use this for the purpose of this article; that Culture is a way of thinking, behaving, or working that exists in a place or organization (such as a business) or the set of shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices that characterizes an institution or organization. The key words: 'thinking', 'behaving', 'working' and 'shared' should be bolded.
A 'culture of excellence' in an individual (where I would call it a 'sense of excellence'), a community, an organization or even a country is 'a commitment to be excellent' in the fulfillment of shared goals, vision, mission and practices, just simply defined. Excellence is a way of being and thinking and not an outcome, it is not an end itself but just a means.
I, myself, am a strong believer of excellence. I believe that to register any tangible development in anything that one is doing one has to strive to be excellent. Over the years of my struggles I have learnt and remain adamant that without moving together as a nation, we won't go any further. And have come to ask myself, how do we move further and speedier? I found an answer in the necessity of indulging in a nation-wide campaign to inculcate a 'culture of excellence' among our people, our youth, and our children. It might look crazy but that is the only way we could see ourselves fighting poverty, ignorance, diseases and find answers to daunting challenges of unemployment, energy, hunger and environmental degradation. It won't take two years or five to see the results of our efforts but in a long term, maybe ten to twenty years, the results of our efforts would be enormous and would be seen vividly. Building and developing a nation is not a day's work, it takes time. And there are no short cuts, no quick fixes. It needs target setting, vision and mission development, strategy development and above all it needs a shared movement for implementation to be effective.
There is only a single powerful way to make a nation move forward quickly, and this is by inculcating a culture of excellence. A country, similar to organizations or communities needs to have a culture. For any organization or a nation to register a significant breakthrough in pushing forward its developmental mission, a 'culture of excellence' must be acquired. Cultures could be inherited – i.e. passed on from one generation to another from time immemorial, could be a matter of natural occurrence or could be purposefully designed by following a rigorous scientific procedure. I was wondering whether in Tanzania we have a culture of excellence inherited, acquired by chance or we need to design one! I refrain from putting upfront such an 'unhealthy' inquiry of whether we at all have a 'culture of excellence' or not just for the purpose of remaining a loyal Tanzanian soul.
Our people needs to work on a day to day work with a culture of excellence uphold. Developing this culture is an ongoing effort by all of us to strive to 'excel' just for individual satisfaction, and our people should be proud of themselves when they see themselves achieving excellence in whatever they do, and recognizing excellence shall be our 'culture' also. This culture does not have rules but it should be understood that it has to be a voluntary choice by individuals to desire to excel and they would choose to commit themselves to perform beyond the ordinary measures. The culture of excellence means that we have to perform outside the skates of our 'comfort zones', we must wake up and say 'guys, the honeymoon is over', 'let's push ourselves for excellence beyond compare!' Since the process is voluntary and since it involves all of us, we must strive to attain a strong 'culture of excellence' while we enjoy it, this is an important pre-requisite for a successful movement to build a culture of excellence.
For a country which does not have a 'culture of excellence' it must be designed, features created by all, communicated to all so that it becomes a shared endeavour of all such that we go in the same direction with a shared goal. This would make it possible to assess whether our movement achieved whatever it was meant to from the beginning.
The culture could be designed and it can be done. The benefits are enormous, the need is wide open. The question remains: Of the rats who are afraid of the cat so much, which one of us would be bold enough to chain him a bell around his neck such that when he moves or is asleep we shall know it for certain? Who?
Dr. Hamisi Kigwangalla, MP is a Member of Parliament for Nzega Constituency and a Chairman, Parliamentary Standing Committee on Regional Administration and Local Government (RALG) Affairs.
hkigwangallaBlog: blog.hamisikigwangalla.com
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