The Gap!

At lunch yesterday, one of my guests from Melbourne Australia said “The thing that really gets to me is the ‘Gap’ a leader experiences between the vision and the reality you have to work with”...a few simple words but they say so much!

  

Here in South Africa we have shown that we have great vision but there is clearly a ‘gap’ between that vision and the reality we face.  The way I see it...that ‘gap’...the gaping hole that continues to trip us up is – now cut me some slack here, this will hopefully not be as annoying as it looks - the ‘ghost of our colonial and apartheid past’!    

I’m thinking at this moment of Brazil...having just looked at some interesting statistics.  They had a ‘colonial past’...and yet...no gap seems to be preventing them from moving on.  How then, have they dealt with the ghosts in their closet...how did they close that gap?

Get this...increased employment and reduced poverty and inequality!  Yip...its that simple...until poverty and inequality are reduced to where it becomes noticeable for the right reasons...we can do what we like and nothing will change!  Not in our attitudes...not in our perceptions and apparently...not in our behaviour.

Comparing Brazil and South Africa’s average growth rates between 1992 and 2011, Brazil’s growth was only slightly better than South Africa’s - 3,2 per cent compared to 2,9 – so what made the difference?

Brazillian people manage to focus on building a better future...they utilise the resources they have...they export their minerals...and made productive use of their land.  Mines and land can only be productive if people choose to be...unless we collectively and individually commit to a ‘shared future’ – with our own energy and resources...we have no future...not one worth having at any rate.

In Brazil’s fight against poverty, welfare grants have been helpful, but only where they are accompanied by economic opportunities which the poor can access.  Welfare programmes in South Africa...as impressive as they are...have little impact on helping poor people break free from the trap of poverty and dependence on the state.

Brazil’s success, some say, was in large part due to business as a sector...but not just business...business and government working together.   Reduced poverty in China is also inextricably linked to the fact that government and business work together...a hurdle South Africa must still get over!  For government and business to close this gap it will require a serious attitude change on the part of both – superficial efforts will produce superficial results. 

As for me...and I hope for most of us...we will still have to dig deep – checking our attitudes and actions line up with building a shared future.  It’s just possible that if enough of us get it...who knows...maybe we could go a long way in bridging that ‘gap’ between our ‘super-cool’ vision and our ‘not so cool’ reality!