Page 17 - AnnualReport2022-23

PAR T A: GENERAL INFORMATION

The SAMRC’s Transformation Plan responds to three 2. Our culture, values and relationships within our
time-based categories of challenge to meeting our teams;
strategic goals: 3. The education, training, skills and capacities of
individual employees;
• We strive for employment equity to break down 4. The personal values, world views and personal
the consequences of past injustices; struggles of our employees.
• We are committed to address the challenges
of the present day, with particular emphasis on Highlights from the past year
employee perceptions of our culture and values,
as well as external contextual factors; and Culture and Values Campaigns
• We are working hard to anticipate future In response to employee proposals, greeting
challenges and build an organisation that is and appreciation campaigns were designed and
resilient and agile, and that has the greatest implemented. All societies use a form of greeting.
prospects of flourishing in a world that appears Greetings constitute a first step toward social
increasingly volatile and uncertain, including inclusion, and in some cultures are viewed as a way to
from external, contextual factors such as climate recognise people’s humanity. A failure to greet may
change, the 4th and 5th industrial revolutions, wars lead to misunderstandings, or feelings of rejection
and conflict, political uncertainty and dysfunction or hurt. To promote the practice of greeting, pop-
in basic environmental health services. up stands, posters and a list of basic greetings in
South Africa’s official languages were designed and
The 2022/23 financial year constitutes the first in our widely distributed across the organisations.
3-year Transformation Plan 2022 – 2025. During this
first year we have invested in listening to, and learning Expressions of appreciation or recognition reinforce
from, the SAMRC community, and are currently trust, good behavior, performance or practices
translating many of their suggestions into actions that result in better outcomes for organisations.
and campaigns to improve the work experience Two dimensions of appreciation are important:
and productivity of the organisation. These are private and public. Over the past year, we initiated
being complemented by interventions arising from a campaign to increase private, “in the moment”
the perspectives of our leadership, organisational expressions of appreciation at the SAMRC.
Transformation experts we have consulted and our Appreciation cards were designed for the SAMRC
reading of the scientific literature on organisational President, as well as for senior leaders and
change. Our interventions may be categorised into management, and are being very well regarded
four key areas of action: by recipients. The current private appreciation
interventions will be complemented with public
1. Our systems, policies and practices appreciation mechanisms later in the year.

Good Ke
morning! gona! Molo!
Unjani?

SAMRC Greetings campaign
Say hi, make someone smile

SAMRC ANNUAL REPOR T 2022-23 15
All societies use some form of greeting. How to go about greeting someone:
Greetings constitute a first step toward • Greet others immediately on seeing them;
• It is important to greet others, even when you’re feeling
social inclusion, and in some cultures moody or shy;
• Simply make eye contact, smile, say hello and, depending
greetings are viewed as a way to on the context, offer a handshake, fist bump or elbow
acknowledge someone’s existence and bump. If you already know someone, hugging may be
appropriate;
to recognise their humanity. A failure to • If you know or remember it, include the person’s name in
your greeting;
greet may lead to misunderstandings • If you’re entering a meeting where silence is required,
or feelings of hurt or rejection. a smile, wave or nod will suffice;
A failure to greet should be the rare exception,
Some benefits of greeting: rather than the rule
• It is an opportunity to be polite and respectful; • From time to time we all face problems or crises, or we
• Greetings serve as an ice-breaker and creates a friendly may be feeling stressed. During such times, we may
environment; become pre-occupied or distracted, and neglect to greet
• It helps us connect with people on a personal level and others. However, we should all strive to ensure that a failure
build relationships; to greet others is the rare exception, rather than the rule.

“ When you don’t greet me, you make me
feel like a ghost; like I am nothing.”
Takalani, SAMRC