Pru Wellington – Management Adviser in Bougainville

Before taking a VSA assignment Pru was working freelance with various organisations, mainly government, in areas of strategic planning, business planning, team management, systems and process development.

 What Pru is doing in Bougainville

Pru is working with the Autonomous Bougainvile Government (ABG) to help support teams in the Community and Development Division as they move towards autonomy from Papua New Guinea (PNG). She is helping to assess current systems and put in place procedures to help staff draw down powers from PNG departments. Currently Pru is helping staff take those first steps by assessing progress in their work areas which will form a report to be sent to the Minister.

Making a positive impact

Pru has found that staff appreciate the value of regular staff meetings and are now actively providing input in the running, organising and reporting of the meetings. She thinks the value of these meetings will continue to grow over the next few months as staff realise the progress being made.

Pru’s highlights so far

“As part of my role, I’ve been introducing performance reporting, sitting down with each staff member and noting their tasks and achievements. A real highlight for me was when one of the Minister’s staff who had been observing me, asked if I could do the same with her so she could improve her performance with her Minister.”

What Bougainville has taught Pru

“Patience.”

“Breaking dependency on the internet and other key infrastructure systems.”

“Building relationships outside of your organisation with other peers.”

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