14th February, 2017
Lagos State was admitted into the 100 resilient cities in the world last week by the Rockefeller Foundation as a result of its ability to solve several challenges in the state.
Speaking at a three-day workshop tagged: “Problem Solving and Decision Making Workshop,” organized by the Lagos State Ministry of Establishments, Training and Pensions in conjunction with Human Capital Management & Solutions Limited on Tuesday, at the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry, LCCI Training Centre, Alausa, Ikeja, Lagos, Southwest Nigeria, Commissioner for Establishments, Training and Pensions, Dr. Benson Oke said civil servants must be able to compete with others in the world by possessing the skills to solve problems.
The commissioner, who addressed top management staff, stated that Lagos was admitted into the fold of 100 Resilient Cities because it had been able to solve critical problems in a challenging mega city.
He said the aim of the government was to use the workshop to transform civil servants into better leaders who could be entrusted with responsibilities and projects, having been equipped with the skills to identify and solve problems, lamenting that there were those who ran away from confronting problems.
Oke explained that evaluating a problem would call for clarifying the nature of the problem, formulating questions, gathering information systematically, collating and organising data, condensing and summarising information and defining the desired objective.
He added that civil servants could manage problems using the information gathered effectively, breaking down a problem into smaller, more manageable parts, using techniques such as brainstorming and lateral thinking to consider options, analysing the options in greater depth and identifying steps that could be taken to achieve the objective.
Oke stressed that a consummate problem-solver had to decide between the possible options for what action to take, decide on further information to be gathered before taking action and decide on resources to be allocated to this problem.
According to Oke, to resolve problem, civil servants must implement the action, provide information to other stakeholders and delegate tasks and review the progress, adding that in examining the results, people involved must monitor the outcome of the action taken, review the problem and take proactive steps to avoid similar situations in future.
He said at the end of the training, it was expected that civil servants acquire problem-solving and decision-making skills; develop organizational effectiveness skills; utilize creative and effective techniques in problem-solving and decision-making; and in-depth analysis of alternative Courses of action.