Options and Priorities - the Wood or the Tree Dilemma!

As Chief Secretary I started what was called the INSTAX (Instant Access to Exceptional Information) Station. Instead of relying on the slow and hierarchical flow of information, this station directly accessed information from the print and electronic media, the internet and also received telephonic messages, and mails, SMSs from field officers at the cutting-edge level of crucial departments.

It had a well publicized mobile phone number and an E-mail ID. Field officers of important departments (Police, Drinking Water Supply, Medical and Health Services, Irrigation, Power and Roads etc.) had been given instructions to report details of any untoward or unusual occurrence (fire accidents, road accidents, building-collapses, flash floods etc.) directly to the station while separately sending formal reports in the prescribed form and through the proper channels.

The Station proved to an excellent asset. The December 26, 2004 Tsunami was preceded by a gradual rise in sea levels which was noticed in the villages on the coast of Andhra Pradesh State and reported through media. This information was first reported by the station, giving the system valuable time to ward off more damage than what actually took place.

In other words leave B for the system under you to grapple with. Now looking at Categories A and C, you may find that there are far too many for your time even now. Categorize them further into Vital - do them first, Essential - hopefully get here, and Desirable - if you have the time.

Open two tracks in your administration: One would be the day to day urgent Track 1, and the other would be the parallel, slow, but very firmly placed important Track 2. Create a small mechanism within your office to do nothing but the important track, in your name, with your authority but not directly by you, since you will be busy fire-fighting.

This cell or mechanism must be monitored closely by you and should be given a clear destination, road-map and the milestones to achieve the end goals. Let them use your name and influence (Chief Secretary wants x, y, z, or Collector wants a, b, c to be done, etc) to get them to do their work which may include for example like an irrigation project, a thermal power station, a national high way, a large convention hall, a high tech city, a metro drinking water project, etc.

Their list will consist of important long term development goals that will get constant and aggressive attention from the team. The system will respond to them since they have been created by you and their mechanism carries the influence of your office.

But you need to visit them only at periodic intervals… a week, ten days, to check their progress and hurdles and the need for your intervention at various stages of your drafted milestones, roadmap and destination. It is important to cultivate the ability to remain engaged with the environment with a meaningful dialogue. It is only thus that you can stay in a proactive mode and not merely react to situations in a passive manner.

Slow but steady progress will hence be made for your Track 2 agenda while you are also able to deal with Track 1 that is inevitable. This means that you have effectively started putting in place a mechanism that will help you realise items from your Category A and C, starting with the ‘Vital’ and moving into ‘Essential’ and ‘Desirable’ sub-categories through two clearly defined tracks of governance.

Bringing in an IAS officer as an Executive Assistant while the author was the Chief Secretary to the Government of Andhra Pradesh was one such endeavour. With their relatively higher status they were able to communicate freely with Secretaries, Heads of Departments and District Officers.

And with the knowledge and experience already gained in the field they were able to add substantial speed and value to the processing of a handful of high priority items entrusted to them, while the Chief Secretary remained engrossed in day to day work.

In others words the Executive Assistant spent his time seeing visions of international convention halls, mega multi-purpose hydro-electric projects and inter basin water transfers, underground railways and state - of - the art new airports and such like (many of which have translated into reality subsequently) – while yours truly was busy with tricky legislature questions vexatious, litigation, trade union demands census, elections etc., not to mention cyclones, fire accidents and extremism!

Your mantra is hence a simple ABC, VED and Twin-Track! You have simplified governance such that you can make meaningful contributions in any posting, and given any time frame, to the best of your abilities. But you have to take the 1st step to realising such a plan. You have to categorise and before that, you have to understand, do your homework, research and ask questions.