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OIS leaders share future vision with Botswana officials
Leaders from the DHS Office of Information Services recently shared the details and history of the OIS business plan with 29 federal representatives from the southern African nation of Botswana.
The OIS executive management team was asked to share their current business plan and vision with the officials, who were on a two-week tour of Oregon. The group included executives from Botswana's president's and attorney general's offices, the trade and industry ministry, health ministry, national museum, and police service.
OIS interim CIO Rick Howard, along with Aaron Karjala, manager of the Applications Maintenance and Support section, Ed Klimowicz, manager of the IT Consulting Services section, and Debra Herrli, manager of the Strategic Systems Initiatives section, met with the group June 12 at the Eola/Viticulture Center in west Salem.
“It was a real pleasure to share our experience growing as a team as we worked through our strategic planning process,” said Karjala. “It was apparent that their organizations share the same passion, struggles and opportunities as we do even though they are half-way around the world.”
Botswana is roughly the size of Texas and has a population of 1.5 million. It is one of Africa's wealthiest nations and has had one of the highest economic growth rates in the world over the past 40 years. The country has made a commitment to be productive, healthy and prosperous by the year 2016, its 50th year as an independent nation.
The group's trip was coordinated by The Performance Center, a Portland-based non-profit organization that specializes in exchanging leadership and organizational practices in a global community. Tammy Roberts, a principal in The Performance Center, has been consulting with OIS leadership to develop their 2007-09 business plan. She invited the executive team to share their process with the Botswana contingent as a part of their Oregon tour.
While in Oregon, the group also visited Bend, where they heard from leaders at St. Charles Medical Center, and Portland, where they met with officials from the Oregon Department of Transportation.
Gaogakwe (pronounced “ho-HAWK-way”) Phorano, from the Botswana Department of National Museum, Monuments and Art Gallery, was excited about what the OIS team shared with them. He saw many parallels between Oregon state government and the national government in his home country.
“In Botswana, the public is also very critical of the government,” he said. “This tells me we are in a global village.”“For transformation to take place, you need formal intention and the consistency to push it out and let your agency know this is what you want to create," Phorano said. "The vision shared by OIS today gives me hope that can happen. I'd like to come back in two or three years to see if they have achieved what they set out to do.”
Howard said OIS also learned from the exchange. “It's always useful to reflect on where we've been as an organization and convey where we plan to go,” he said. “The opportunity to meet with a leadership group from another nation and provide examples of the lessons we've learned along the way was educational for us, as well."
Natalie S. Barnes, communications specialist, DHS Office of Information Services, 503-947-5499, natalie.s.barnes@state.or.us |
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