Lead change, or wait and see? Lessons from utilities that learn during the pandemic on July 14, 2020

We have all been learning so much during the pandemic. This has led many people to ask: If the pandemic reveals a problem we didn’t know we have, should we address that now or wait until things are back to normal? What factors should be weighed? Is leading change different during a pandemic?

Next Practices Live hosted Peter Twesigye, Manager Regulatory Affairs at Umeme Ltd, Uganda, and Donnette Henry, National Water Commission (NWC), Jamaica, to share their experiences with these very issues.

Peter is a regular member of PURC’s faculty for the two-week training that we offer each January and June. Peter works in strategic planning, regulation, tariff policy, and organizational development. As a point person for Umeme, Peter is deeply involved in how the company works with the government during this time.

Donnette is the Business Planning & Research Manager at the NWC which is the primary Water and Sanitation Service Provider for Jamaica. She has been with the NWC for 15 years, and works in corporate planning, performance monitoring, regulatory relations and policy and procedural systems development.

Araceli interviewed Donnette and Peter on Tuesday, July 14. They discussed the lessons they have learned during the pandemic, the processes they used to help the organization learn, what factors they considered in deciding whether to make changes now or wait, and how their decisions are working out.