A Culture of Excellence in Tanzania: a Necessary Ingredient in Achieving our Development Vision

[HKigwangalla]

A Culture of Excellence in Tanzania: a Necessary Ingredient in Achieving our Development Vision

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. He holds a Doctor of Medicine degree, a Master of Public Health and an MBA; he is currently writing his thesis towards his Ph.D. degree in Public Health (Health Economics). His contacts are: www.hamisikigwangalla.com, |Email: info@hamisikigwangalla.com | Mob.: +255782636963

 

[Nguruvi3]

Mh @HKigwangalla
Umeongelea namna 3 ambazo culture of excellence inaweza kutokea (Inherited, Natural occurence and acquired through well designed scientific means)

Umezijadili kwa kuangalia upande mmoja na hivyo jibu linaweza kuwa na utata kama si gumu.
My point is, ni vitu au kitu gani kinaweza kuharibu culture of excellence iwe imetokana na njia yoyote katika hizo ulizotaja.

 

[HKigwangalla]

Ndg. Nguruvi3, bahati mbaya sana sikulenga kuitazama 'culture of excellence' kwa lengo la kutaka kujua inaharibikaje kama ilikuwepo...nilijikita zaidi kwenye kuelezea tu ni namna gani 'culture of excellence' ni muhimu kwa Taifa na ni namna gani 'kama tunahisi hatuna' tunaweza kuibuni na kuihamasisha!

 

[MTAZAMO]

Kwanza turejeshe elimu ya msingi iwe lazima watoto wote wasome kwenye public schools.Natamani iwe hivyo hadi kidato cha nne then high school hadi chuo iwe huru.
Tutapata miaka 11 ya uhakika ya kumjenga Mtanzania wa kesho.
Binafsi naamini mifumo ya elimu ina mchango mkubwa ktk kutengeneza vijana kielimu na kitamaduni.Public school zimeharibika nowdays sababu zimekuwa shule za maskini tofauti na zamani tulipokuwa tunasoma na watoto wa mawaziri.Sio ajabu kukuta kijana hajui kuimba wimbo wa taifa kwa ufasaha na hata heshima kwa bendera ya taifa ilianzia shule.

 

[Nguruvi3]

Ndg. Nguruvi3, bahati mbaya sana sikulenga kuitazama 'culture of excellence' kwa lengo la kutaka kujua inaharibikaje kama ilikuwepo...nilijikita zaidi kwenye kuelezea tu ni namna gani 'culture of excellence' ni muhimu kwa Taifa na ni namna gani 'kama tunahisi hatuna' tunaweza kuibuni na kuihamasisha!

Mheshimiwa HKigwangalla
ni vema kuangalia culture of excellence kutoka pande zote. Kutengeneza tu haitoshi kama hutujui ilikuwepo au la!
Nainchoweza kusema sisi kama jamii lazima tuna culture of excellence katika zile tatu ulizotaja.
Kilichotokea sasa hivi ni kupotea kwa culture hizo ndio maana umeziangali na kudhani upo umuhimu wa kubuni.

Culture of excellence kama lilivyo jambo lolote linaloiunga jamii pamoja na kwa malengo inaharibika sana ikishangiliwa na kitu kinaitwa corruption. Corruption si pesa ni mfumo maalumu wenye malengo maalumu ya ukosefu wa maadili, uzalendo na utu.

Ingkuwa vema zaidi kama ungeangalia mada kutoka sehemu zote kwasababu huwezi kutia maji katika pakacha linalovuja.

 

[HKigwangalla]

Ndg. Nguruvi3, Nakubaliana na wewe, tatizo nikiingia ndani sana, maandiko yanakuwa makubwa mno na watu wanakuwa hawasomi. Hivyo nakuwa sifikii lengo langu la kufikisha ujumbe. Na hii makala ilikuwa inaenda The Citizen na The Guardian...they have limitations in terms of word count...

 

[Mzuvendi]

Dr. HK and others;

Culture of excellence is part of human experience. So I don’t think is a new idea or something that should be built from scratch. For, at individual level, we put maximum efforts into everything that give us maximum satisfaction in terms of financial or social gains. However, for many reasons we fail to channel our energies for work that benefit the public. So the problem isn’t the lack of excellence, but rather how to bring out the best of our individual efforts for common good.

If excellence is in human DNA, off course one could ask why mediocrity is so pervasive at every facet of our society. The answer to that is a bit complex. But we should understand that people apply excellence not for sake of it. They apply because their interests, whether financials or socials, are at stake.

Take for example, the state of public primary schools in Tanzania. They are very poor but for more than 30 years we have tolerated them. We have done so because the government is paying the expenses of running those schools and majority of us don’t associate the costs of free and poor education and our daily lives. I bet, the situation could have been very differently, if parents had been paying the costs directly through taxes. They would have demanded good teachers and instructions.

Mind you, culture of excellence at group or national level is a subset of social characteristics such as religion and tribal values that could be passed from one generation to the next. What’s worse, it’s one of those social characteristics that if you don’t pass them to the next generation, you might pass something that mirror the opposite. The opposite of excellence is mediocrity. So if Tanzania has failed to pass the culture of excellence, most likely it has passed the culture of mediocrity to the next generation.

For instance, one aspect of our national values since independence is to talk politics with no end results. This aspect is already passed from one generation to the current. Unfortunately, this aspect is counterproductive to culture of excellence. If want to change our fortune, we have to reverse the trend. We should talk less and do more.

As I mentioned early, excellence is part of human DNA. We apply it when our interests are at stake. If I am a teacher with good credentials, the only important thing I ask the society is to value my work accordingly. Otherwise, I will find something else to do or perform my duties unsatisfied. Also, politicians, in particular in poor country like Tanzania, shouldn’t associate public services with gifts for the poor because people don’t demand the standards for gifts they receive.

 

[HKigwangalla]

Kwanza turejeshe elimu ya msingi iwe lazima watoto wote wasome kwenye public schools.Natamani iwe hivyo hadi kidato cha nne then high school hadi chuo iwe huru.
Tutapata miaka 11 ya uhakika ya kumjenga Mtanzania wa kesho.
Binafsi naamini mifumo ya elimu ina mchango mkubwa ktk kutengeneza vijana kielimu na kitamaduni.Public school zimeharibika nowdays sababu zimekuwa shule za maskini tofauti na zamani tulipokuwa tunasoma na watoto wa mawaziri.Sio ajabu kukuta kijana hajui kuimba wimbo wa taifa kwa ufasaha na hata heshima kwa bendera ya taifa ilianzia shule.

Ndg. Mtazamo,

Umeleta mezani hoja ya msingi, ni vema tungeanza kuitazama katika sura hiyo pia. Nakubaliana na wewe kabisa. Nitakapokusanya maoni hapa nitaandika pia sequelae ya mada hii ambayo itaunganisha michango yenu wadau mbalimbali mliochangia kwenye makala hii. Sana nitazama zaidi na kuliangalia jambo hili in 3Ds kama anavyoshawishi Ndg. Nguruvi3 na kwa hivo huu wako utakuwa ni moja ya point muhimu inayoelezea pengine wapi tuliteleza na tufanye nini sasa

 

[ZeMarcopolo]

Culture au utamaduni sio kitu cha lazima, ni chaguo la mtu.

Ufasaha wa kazi ni jambo la lazima.

Ili nchi iendelee haihitaji watu wake wote wawe na utamaduni wa kufanyakazi/shughuli kwa ufasaha.

Its actually the opposite, ili nchi iendelee inahitaji watu wachache werevu wanaotambua kuwa watu wengi hawako tayari kufanya kazi/shughuli kwa ufasaha. Kutambua kwao huku kunapelekea kutengeneza mifumo inayowalazimisha watu kufanya kazi/shughuli kwa ufasaha.

Huu ndio msingi wa kubuniwa kwa mihimili mitatu ya serikali.

Tukingoja watu wawe na "culture of excellence" ndio tupate maendeleo, basi tujue kuwa hakuna maendeleo yatakayokuja. Tujenge institutions zenye uwezo na nguvu za kuhakikisha watu wanafanya kazi kwa bidii na ufasaha kwa LAZIMA.

Ili nchi iendelee inahitaji watu wake WALAZIMIKE kufanya kazi kwa ufasaha.

 

[HKigwangalla]

Dr. HK and others;

Culture of excellence is part of human experience. So I don't think is a new idea or something that should be built from scratch. For, at individual level, we put maximum efforts into everything that give us maximum satisfaction in terms of financial or social gains. However, for many reasons we fail to channel our energies for work that benefit the public. So the problem isn't the lack of excellence, but rather how to bring out the best of our individual efforts for common good.

If excellence is in human DNA, off course one could ask why mediocrity is so pervasive at every facet of our society. The answer to that is a bit complex. But we should understand that people apply excellence not for sake of it. They apply because their interests, whether financials or socials, are at stake.

Take for example, the state of public primary schools in Tanzania. They are very poor but for more than 30 years we have tolerated them. We have done so because the government is paying the expenses of running those schools and majority of us don't associate the costs of free and poor education and our daily lives. I bet, the situation could have been very differently, if parents had been paying the costs directly through taxes. They would have demanded good teachers and instructions.

Mind you, culture of excellence at group or national level is a subset of social characteristics such as religion and tribal values that could be passed from one generation to the next. What's worse, it's one of those social characteristics that if you don't pass them to the next generation, you might pass something that mirror the opposite. The opposite of excellence is mediocrity. So if Tanzania has failed to pass the culture of excellence, most likely it has passed the culture of mediocrity to the next generation.

For instance, one aspect of our national values since independence is to talk politics with no end results. This aspect is already passed from one generation to the current. Unfortunately, this aspect is counterproductive to culture of excellence. If want to change our fortune, we have to reverse the trend. We should talk less and do more.

As I mentioned early, excellence is part of human DNA. We apply it when our interests are at stake. If I am a teacher with good credentials, the only important thing I ask the society is to value my work accordingly. Otherwise, I will find something else to do or perform my duties unsatisfied. Also, politicians, in particular in poor country like Tanzania, shouldn't associate public services with gifts for the poor because people don't demand the standards for gifts they receive.

Ndg. Mzuvendi, umenichekesha sana...uliposema medicority is a mirror image of excellence...if we have not been passing excellence to the next generation, then we have been passing the 'opposite', i.e. medicority...couldnt agree more! Excellence in our society is available, but in among the few...it follows a 'normal distribution'...my picture of a 'culture of excellence' is not as far different from your perspective but rather we dont walk together because I think in terms of considering it being a 'call' of everyone of us...'a national thing' not just something that is being held by some of us while others are embracing mediocrity... We want to see a nation for instance is considered excellent in hospitality then everywhere you go in Tanzania you would see the same...when you think of excellence hebu tazama jamii kama ya Japan (wazee wa TQM) ama Thailand...ama China (jeshini, viwandani) utaona namaanisha nini...

 

[ZeMarcopolo]

Kwanza turejeshe elimu ya msingi iwe lazima watoto wote wasome kwenye public schools.Natamani iwe hivyo hadi kidato cha nne then high school hadi chuo iwe huru.
Tutapata miaka 11 ya uhakika ya kumjenga Mtanzania wa kesho.
Binafsi naamini mifumo ya elimu ina mchango mkubwa ktk kutengeneza vijana kielimu na kitamaduni.Public school zimeharibika nowdays sababu zimekuwa shule za maskini tofauti na zamani tulipokuwa tunasoma na watoto wa mawaziri.Sio ajabu kukuta kijana hajui kuimba wimbo wa taifa kwa ufasaha na hata heshima kwa bendera ya taifa ilianzia shule.

Ili mtu afanye kazi/shughuli kwa ufasaha hahitaji elimu, anahitaji kuwa na akili timamu tu.

Actually hapo ndipo tofauti yangu na mleta mada ilipo. Ukisema inahitajika elimu ili mtu afanye kazi kwa ufasaha unamaanisha kwamba huyo mtu mwenye aelewe umuhimu wa kufanya kazi kwa ufasaha. Hicho sio kitu kinachohitajika ili kuiletea nchi maendeleo.

Naamini wewe ni shahidi wa jinsi wasomi wanavyoitafuna nchi. Actually wasomi wanairudisha nchi nyuma zaidi kuliko hata wale ambao hawajasoma if we are to judge statistically.

Kinachohitajika kwa maendeleo ni mifumo ambayo itamfanya kila mtu afanye kazi/shughuli yake kwa ufasaha. Mifumo hiyo inafanya kazi kwa mtindo wa negative feedback, yaani adhabu kwa kila work not well done. Bila adhabu hakuna ufasaha, ndio maana Marekani neno "sue" ni kichocheo kikubwa cha watu kufanya kazi kwa ufasaha.

Nafasi ya elimu ni kumfanya mtu ajue ile kazi inavyotakiwa kufanywa, lakini elimu ina nafasi ndogo sana katika kumfanya mtu aifanye kazi kama vile anavyofahamu inapaswa kufanywa. Kitakachomsukuma mtu aifanye kazi kama inavyopaswa ni incentives - positive incentives and "negative" incentives.

 

[Mzuvendi]

Kwanza turejeshe elimu ya msingi iwe lazima watoto wote wasome kwenye public schools.Natamani iwe hivyo hadi kidato cha nne then high school hadi chuo iwe huru.
Tutapata miaka 11 ya uhakika ya kumjenga Mtanzania wa kesho.
Binafsi naamini mifumo ya elimu ina mchango mkubwa ktk kutengeneza vijana kielimu na kitamaduni.Public school zimeharibika nowdays sababu zimekuwa shule za maskini tofauti na zamani tulipokuwa tunasoma na watoto wa mawaziri.Sio ajabu kukuta kijana hajui kuimba wimbo wa taifa kwa ufasaha na hata heshima kwa bendera ya taifa ilianzia shule.

Mtazamo:

I agree with you that the society should start where young talents are nurtured. In our modern day that should be schools. However, educating children, whether in public or private schools, without commitment to excellence is nothing but a joke. For more than 30 years, majority of our public schools at every level haven’t stood up to the task of educating young Tanzanians and I am afraid that your propositions won’t produce the desired effects.