The Impregnable Systems Fortress

ThinkingIf Abraham Lincoln had been a Singaporean, he might have said something like “……that the systems of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from this earth…”

In a previous post, “A Fort Means A Lot. A Last Stand It Is Not“, I said that forts are meant for area domination, not as last stands. People think of last stands when they think of forts because of the films from Hollywood. It has gone into our collective subconscious. Some mindset change is needed here.

When I meet people from overseas who have chosen to come work and live in Singapore, I always ask them why they chose to come here. Most of the time, the reasons listed all have to do with systems. Very few have to do with people. We depend more on systems than people. When pressed, we retreat into the fortress of systems we have built to protect ourselves. That isn’t a bad thing. We definitely need good systems. What is disconcerting to me is that our good people are seldom mentioned. What ever happened to “Get Me A Worker From Singapore“? It is even more disturbing to me when I remember that Singapore used to be called “The Impregnable Fortress”. The question is “Impregnable to what?”

POSPerhaps we need to reduce our reliance on systems when we think of adding value to the world. Not SOP – Systems Over People, but POS – People Over Systems. We need to be remembered more for our people than for our systems, excellent as they are, no doubt. Something to think about? What are your views?

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