Retirement begins!

The first baby boomer retired in the USA. Kathleen Casey-Kirschling is regarded as America's first post-war baby and she retired recently. The retirement of baby boomers (born between 1946 to 1964) marks a major change in the make-up in the workplace. In the elections environment, this grouping will make up the bulk of the people at Commission and Executive Management level. The loss of people with such experience will provide a significant dent in the way elections are managed. But are the new crop of election leaders ready for the job at hand? Talent management analysis and solutions, succession planning, as well as orientation programmes for executive leadership in election management bodies to get people up to steam and supported in their first year of office is an critical area for the next few years. Speak to Rushdi and Associates for more solutions.

Why modest goals between elections?

How is it that election commissions set out to run their activities with such modest goals? The task of running an election is not a small one by any measure. The largest peace-time logistics activity in the world is an election. The Electoral Commission of India has to cater for more than 670 million voters and needs to provide each one with a ballot (paper or electronic) during a general election. The United States, Indonesia and Brazil each have a registered voter population in excess of 100 million. These four countries rank as the top 5 most populated countries in the world (China is the largest). The elections machinery that comes to bear on an election tests the entire infrastructure of a country as one sees routine registration and education drives heading to an election. Where sufficient elections experience and capability has been developed, an election commission is well-placed to tackle projects on a large scale with tough timeframes and even tougher budgets. Why is it then that commissions tend to be so conservative when earmarking projects between elections? Surely some of these projects can be tackled with the same enthusiasm as an election. Instead we see commissions playing "safe" and not stretching staff between elections. Projects are extremely modest and gain just enough publicity to keep the clock ticking over, keeping the commission just under the radar. Budgets are often cited as the primary driver, but this belies a sincerity to effect real change. One sees no risks taken, no "BHAGS" (Big Hairy Audacious Goals) that challenge the institution and the staff to reach greater heights. If you are going to tackle a project, look at the scale of what you want to do and see how it can be maximised and how it can involve more staff in the process. You may well find that between elections, a large portion of your staff are idle and WANT to get more involved.