NP News

GovTech hand-picks Dialogue in the Dark (DiD) – Singapore’s only training experience facilitated by blind guides – for its leadership development programme.

Get the Gist

• In today’s evolving workplace culture, GovTech wants its senior leaders to understand the benefits of collaboration and create a culture where everyone thrives.
• It sees the power of the unique DiDsg learning experience in enabling leaders to develop important skills such as empathy and inclusion.
• Through an immersive experience in pitch darkness, they develop empathy for what blind people go through every day and gain understanding of what it takes to build trust with teammates to get through challenges.
• The DiDsg experience is now inducted into GovTech’s overall L&D programme, augmenting its efforts in strengthening human connections, which are core to helping senior leaders shape a culture of trust and collaboration.

Today’s workplaces call for senior management personnel who possess a myriad of personality characteristics. Beyond delivering profits and sales, the need to strengthen human connections through deeper understanding and support of diverse talent is essential to building resilient teams that are able to deliver increased productivity and work well together within their organisations.

Committed to growing more effective leaders, the Government Technology Agency of Singapore’s (GovTech) Learning and Development team spares no effort in selecting training partners that could best engage and impact members of its senior leadership team. As the lead agency driving Singapore’s Smart Nation initiatives and public sector digital transformation, GovTech plays a critical role in developing technology to support the public sector’s digital transformation to enhance the lives of citizens and businesses in Singapore.

“We wanted our senior leaders to understand the benefits of true collaboration, and how we can work together to create a culture where everyone can thrive,” said Ms Christina Lee, Head of Learning and Leadership Development at GovTech.

“The DiDsg experience was added to our L&D programme for senior leaders as it stands out as a one-of-a-kind immersive learning experience.”

Established by Ngee Ann Polytechnic (NP) in 2009, DiDsg has seen over 200,000 visitors. It currently has a team of about 15 blind trainers and guides who deliver a unique, experiential learning experience to facilitate stronger teamwork and change management for companies.

As part of NP’s vision to be an agent for social impact, DiDsg designs and carries out programmes on diversity, empathy and inclusion, essential elements for building a socially sustainable society in Singapore.

Evolving Workplace Culture

Like many organisations, GovTech has recognised the evolution of workplace culture. Its search for an alternative learning experience led them to DiDsg and a programme developed by NP to enable participants to develop skills such as empathy and inclusion, communication, leadership and change management.

Added Ms Lee, “We discovered that the learnings from DiDsg set the participants’ mindset right from the beginning. The spirit of trust and collaboration, understanding vulnerability, learning to respect opinions and overcome prejudice – these skills carried through to the other leadership programmes that we had planned, and I feel that it really benefitted them as a group.”

Changed Mindsets Lead to Positive Outcomes

Ms Lee continued, “In the IT world, there is much uncertainty. The DiDsg experience empowers our people to do their jobs with greater confidence – to work together with our stakeholders to develop a solution, to overcome obstacles or challenges to achieve an outcome. For GovTech, this directly translates to how we can better support our stakeholders in their digital transformation initiatives, and how we transform ourselves from being a tactical vendor to a strategic partner.”

Beyond this, Ms Lee has observed that her colleagues are more open to discussion, willing to take ownership of issues, and ready to collaborate with each other.

“The DiDsg training is an impactful and indispensable tool in our overall L&D programme. The experience augments our humanity. Besides gaining a deeper understanding of what blind people go through every day, being placed in pitch darkness removes all boundaries and exposes vulnerabilities. Participants have to trust and depend on each other to get through the experience. I have not seen any other experience that is so powerful,” said Ms Lee.