119 Organisational development ‘If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together’. This African proverb captures the balance between speed and sustainability in achieving goals. Going fast and going alone reflects the ability to act decisively, innovate quickly, and take bold steps when needed. In a competitive and developmentallyorientated environment, this agility enables organisations to seize opportunities, adapt to change, and respond to challenges with confidence. Going far and going together, on the other hand, speaks to the importance of collaboration, inclusivity, and shared purpose. Sustainable success requires the strength of many – diverse perspectives, complementary skills, and mutual support. When teams and other stakeholders are aligned, the organisation builds resilience, deepens commitment, and ensures that progress becomes not only faster, but also lasting. At Grain SA, we recognise the value of being able to do both. In this financial year, CEO Dr Tobias Doyer launched the first Strategic Implementation Support (SIS) project as part of our ongoing organisational development journey. The initiative was designed to build on the value propositions created the year before and to support all teams set both one- and five-year target conditions, starting the process of creating clarity of direction and a structured process for tracking progress. Each team engaged in quarterly sessions with facilitator Cheryl Muller from Lucca Consulting, under the project oversight of Tessa De Wet from Integrated Development & Employment Alliances (IDEA). These sessions provided space and opportunity to review progress and plan the next quarter. Importantly, the process went beyond individual teams and created opportunities for inter-team learning, strengthening collaboration across the organisation. Each quarter also concluded with a joint review session between Grain SA, Lucca and IDEA, ensuring leadership had visibility of progress and could reinforce strategic alignment. Evaluation feedback from the first year of SIS underscored the strong value of the project’s co-creative and inclusive design. The sacrifice of time away from tactical day-to-day work tasks was offset by the value gained from reflecting, setting collective goals, and engaging in meaningful discussion. The chance to learn directly from other teams was highlighted as particularly beneficial, sparking cross-entity awareness, creating informal learning opportunities, and broadening perspectives on how each unit contributes to Grain SA’s larger mission. The true value of the SIS project lies in its ability to build alignment, collaboration, and disciplined resource stewardship across the organisation. By engaging in structured planning and shared reflection, teams have the potential to be more coordinated, more resilient, and more capable of pursuing collective goals. Looking ahead, further sharpening of the proverbial axe will be to include continuous improvement and systematisation processes as part of the Grain SA organisation development journey, embedding these practices deeper into the organisation’s culture. In this way, Grain SA is positioning itself not only to go far together but also to move swiftly when opportunities arise – combining the energy of improvement and innovation with the endurance of co-creative and inclusive collaboration. This dual capacity ensures that Grain SA does not simply get ahead but continues to stay ahead in serving and supporting South Africa’s grain producers. HUMAN RESOURCES AND CORPORATE SERVICES Going far and going together, on the other hand, speaks to the importance of collaboration, inclusivity, and shared purpose.
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