Hello, welcome. I'm Scott Graphes and this is but first the team. I want to mention up front that for content accessibility purposes this presentation deliberately uses large size fonts and some high contrast elements, and I'll also be describing the on screen content. In a few cases, there's very little text on screen and I'll be reading that word for word or thereabouts. But for most of the presentation that's not the case. It won't be ever beat him reading of exactly what's on screen but rather just to describe it again for content accessibility purposes. So kicking it off. One great tech products or services and who doesn't. One of the things that takes a great team. And that's what this is all about is Bruce Techman's model of team development, which if you're not familiar, and we'll go into it is stood the test of time because it remains highly relevant and beneficial.  A member of a team or you might be in one of the future. That covers just about everybody. Or you're just looking to develop your related skills this talk which is based on Techman's model, but with a fresh angle and it's this 0% theory 100% practical usable information. It'll give you a practical framework with actionable tips for working in and leading teams successfully. So here are the objectives for this quick talk. At the end you should understand the five phases of team development, the characteristics of each phase and then most importantly, certainly is usable strategies for effectively navigating them with speed and agility from start to finish. So this talk is structure, the agenda is the introduction objectives and agenda, which we're wrapping on that right now, some about information. The main portion of this presentation, it covers the five phases of team development, then a quick wrap up, followed by takeaway. So at the end I'll cover that I have a digital download that you can get a hold of that has bibliography and also a overview visual from this presentation. So cover that at the end. And speaking of Q&A, during the talk I'm going to focus 100% on getting you the content from this talk and not looking at chat or any other streams with regards to questions or feedback, but your questions and feedback are important to me. So at the end of the presentation and any remaining time. I'll take that up via chat functionality. If we run out of time, or you have a question later, you can always reach out to me my contact information is on the website for the conference. There's some information in this presentation, and there's even more in the digital download. So I do look forward to your feedback in your questions. Here's the about information about my company exceptional PPM and PMO solutions. So those acronyms, the PPM stands for project portfolio management, and the PMO stands for project management office so this is really an umbrella and a hand for project program portfolio and PMO management which includes agile traditional also known as waterfall and hybrid approaches. So what we do exactly is we help our client organizations fortify and advance their project management capabilities, so that they can best realize their strategic objectives. So every engagements unique but usually the goals are quicker cycle time faster time to market higher satisfaction on budget on time and the list goes on. And so confident are we that we have a delighted client guarantee. So here's some information about me some of which I guess I already highlighted and that's that. I'm the founder and CEO of exceptional, and I'm a project management consultant practitioner author and speaker. And I'm quite honored that content from my books, speaking engagements and other sources have been featured and used by a variety of different sources such as media outlets publications businesses governments universities. So just a few examples I won't list them all, but I'll hear I'll list Yahoo finance tech stars computer weekly the United States Department of Energy, Gardner Cisco Ford, Sweden's innovation management, New Zealand government, Tufts University, and the list goes on. These are the first four professional credentials for anyone curious the first four speak to agile and scrum in particular. And then the fifth one is by most accounts the gold standard for project management, which is a project management management professional or PMP for short and rounding them out is it i l and lean six sigma green belt. And then lastly in terms of the about information. My background spans diverse industries from advanced tech consumer products entertainment government media tech telco and others. Here is the main portion for this talk, the five phases of team development. And as mentioned earlier, 0% theory 100% practical information. And that's the case. Before getting into the detail, however, I found that it's helpful to give some background context so maybe for about a minute or so. I'll do that here. This is Tuckman, who got his doctorate in psychology from Princeton use university did some extensive research on team dynamics. And that's also referred to by some as team performance group dynamics group performance and so on. Anyways, he he published his model in 1965 way back in 1965. And most importantly, this model remains highly relevant and beneficial today for people in tech and all industries and sectors. And I'll give you some examples of that so this presentation draws on my own firsthand real world experience, but is also supported by Tuckman's own research research recommendation and coverage sense from a variety of organizations I thought you might be interested in just a few who have published materials in support of Tuckman's model, and I won't list them all, but Microsoft IEEE Harvard Business Review MIT Project Management Institute, and many, many, many more. The details to these nine sources and more are in the download as part of the select bibliography for this presentation so if you're curious, it would like to learn more. There is that information for you through the download. So, I want to underscore the models continuing relevance and value. So all those sources I just showed you, I deliberately pick some diverse ones, and they're all published in the last 10 years. So while Tuckman's model goes back to 1965. All those examples I gave you and I could have given you thousands, but are in the last 10 years and many of them in the last year actually. So in terms of models, I don't know about you but I find that it's often best to convey these kinds of concepts through visual supported by, you know, practical information and examples. That's what I've done here. And I really contemplated exactly the best way of presenting the information so that it would be conveyed and understood and be usable for you. And so, I reflected on different options you know the standard fair, at least for this presentation, there's no clip art. No, no clip art, and there's definitely no stock photos, and absolutely no generic content. None of that works here for this presentation. And so here's the phases of team development, which again is a custom visual that I created, and it gives the overview of the five phases of team development. Now I realized that this particular view might be difficult to make out the detail, but in about a minute or so we'll start going through the phases in detail. So you'll be able to make out that information better on screen at that time. Before moving on I want to mention a couple of things. The first is that the overall, how this model works overall and that is to accompany this overall visual, and that is that teams typically go through all five phases from left to right, forming, storming, norming, performing and adjourning. They're typical and inevitable for teams to grow and tackle problems and deliver results according to Bruce Tuckman and countless research sense. Below the graph is a table and the table has the columns with the five phases. And then the first row in the table is characteristic so these are the things that you typically see the behaviors that are typically exhibited during each respective phase so it's almost can be used for you know if you're not already familiar with the phases sort of the diagnose where the team is, if you will. And then the second row in the table are strategies. These are the proven practical things that can be done to help the team grow and improve and that typically means move on to the next phase. So that's the overview. I'll go through each phase in detail in just a moment but you know, that's nice just to have the phases but you know we're talking about people. And again I didn't want any clip art or any stock photos or anything generic. And I wanted something maybe to be well this topic can be quite valuable important and serious in some regards. There's no reason that this presentation can be light and fun. And so, or as light and fun as possible. So I reflected on, you know, Tuckman's model was created 1965 what was created around that time frame that might be able to leverage and incorporated aspect of in this presentation to accompany the visual for the phases and while I'm referring to the team to have a visual for the team in the five different phases. And here's what I found. So I don't know if there's any Lego fans out there. So these characters were originally created in 1969. Obviously the Lego versions this is a photo of the figures, the Lego version is, you know, more recent. I compared that to them being introduced in 1969, but these characters will be utilized in terms of representing the team in the presentation to accompany the overview visual. So, here we go. First up is forming. And here we have a visual of a group of people coming together. They've been assembled to produce a unique product or service or improvement or some other form of work. So they're forming to for that end in that purpose. And here's what you typically see. Now, these are typical. These characteristics and also the strategies I should say apply whether the team has worked together before. They're all new or some combination. But if a team has worked together before well, they're going to go through the phases more quickly than a team that probably than a team that's never worked together before. Anyways, I'm getting ahead of myself. Here are the characteristics of the team during the first phase forming. Things are new. There's often a little bit of excitement in the air so there's eagerness and there's socializing especially if one or more the team members haven't worked together before. There's a lot of thinking. People are generally polite, sticking to safe topics, but you know, even if information's furnished at this point, about this new thing that they're working on. There's still some uncertainty about exactly how they fit in and how they're going to be able to be successful in this endeavor. So some questioning is is typical and expected during the farming stage. Things that can be done to help the team grow in advance. Now these can be done by somebody who's within the team. Maybe it is a project manager, maybe it is a scrum master, maybe it's somebody who's involved with the team but not directly in the team like an executive champion or a sponsor, or somebody else. It doesn't really matter who that person is. These are the strategies that can be employed to help the team grow in advance and move on to the next phase. Being highly visible, taking a leadership role in terms of, you know, the opposite of being in the back seat, being in the front seat, and being very directive about matters. And that, for example, is if one or more people haven't worked on the team before, facilitating introductions is extremely helpful. Some companies do ice breakers, some don't, that's up to you. And then if there isn't a big picture information or success criteria, now's the time to share it. Maybe there, maybe I'll give you a hypothetical. Maybe the team is charged with delivering a new groundbreaking product or service and launching it on or before January 1. You know, if that's the case, it's good to know it now, right, versus later on. However, the success criteria or the big picture is including, you know, how it aligns with the company's mission and vision can be extremely helpful for the team to be successful and help them grow in advance on. And whenever there's any questions or issues, quick response time is essential. And so moving on to storming. These labels I suppose to an extent are self explanatory. But again, I want to reiterate that Bruce Tuckman and others have validated that these are inevitable for teams to go through these phases and be successful. So for storming you have a very different visual compared to an army. What typically happens during storming is there's based primarily on different opinions and feelings. There's maybe some resistance and maybe even some lack of participation at the 100% level. There's a competition within the organization or within the team rather for who's sort of the formal informal lead and then compared with other phases high emotions. But you know here's a tip off a hint that the team is starting to move out of storming and into norming. And that is when things start to quiet down. And here we go with strategies to help the team. So requesting and encouraging feedback. I don't want to request like if you have feedback, let me know. I mean that's fine, but that's not enough. That's not sufficient. Asking for feedback asking repeatedly, maybe it's orally verbally and also in writing. Maybe it is also important what is important to have the proper tone and body language. For example, if somebody comes to you with feedback you want to thank him for the feedback and so they go back and share that with their team members. And so that you're more likely to get more feedback and you know, one of the reasons for that is that there's many. But one of the reasons for that is some issues will be obvious but not all issues will be obvious but by getting the feedback you can uncover them and help in their resolution. And honoring commitments goes a long ways in building trust. That is really the mechanism for building trust primarily in the storming phase and I'll give an example. Well I'll start the example now and I'll pick it up in a minute. An example might be a commitment is that every workday between nine and nine 15, the team is going to get together.  So the team is going to get together every workday from nine to nine 15 and update each other and sync up on what's been accomplished since the last meeting and what they're going to work on in the now new business day. And then the issues that they need to discuss. So that would be an example of a commitment, but and then that would need to be honored. Moving on to norming and I'll continue that example in a moment. Moving on to norming you have very different visual here. I'm going to jump on to the fourth bullet point. Oh no I'll make that the last bullet point, because it really speaks to the visual more than any of the other ones do. For me at least Ness the team is starting to develop some cohesion maybe some formal or informal structure. Some refer to this as self managed managing or self organization. Anyways, the purpose and goals compared to with earlier phases are much more well understood during norming. And so the byproduct of that is that typically the team members are more confident, and their commitment is improved, and they're supportive, compared with earlier phases, there's lower anxiety so it's normal to be anxious during storming, or have a level of anxiety during storming and that is a lower door eliminated during the norming phase. And the team is developing cohesion which I guess I already mentioned, in terms of strategies to help them grow in advance which really means move on to the next phase. There are 15 efforts, both at the individual in the team level, giving feedback. Well feedback is consistent throughout but it bears repeating, or any opportunities perhaps related to the work that they're doing and delegation from within the team, and monitoring the energy of the team you know I do want to revisit the example I gave you I guess I've revisited it already twice but of the daily stand up meeting. The goal of building trust would be to have the meeting when you say you're going to have the meeting. If things happen and maybe a meeting gets canceled so I'm not referring to that, but let's say the meeting gets canceled, two or three times in a row. So I'm being honored and that will erode at trust. So that really speaks to all phases but I wanted to add that. And then the example I gave you with that extra bit of information. So the team is norming which is the second highest level regarding performance. So the next level is the highest and that's performing. And also going well you're really just monitoring the team. If there's any issues or problems are being tackled so this is related to why it says I'm monitoring the energy of the team. So the next is the highest level of performance which is called performing. And here you have quite a different visual. This visual probably speaks best to, I'm thinking this the fourth bullet point. Yeah, the fourth bullet point is demonstrations of interdependence and self management. Some refer to that as self organization. This is why the visual I'm using the visuals to accompany of the team to accompany the characteristics and the strategies so you can kind of see how things change in terms of the interactions within the team. What you typically see characteristics wise during performing as high motivation trust and empathy consistent performance because they're delivering the highest level of performance. Individuals deferring to the team needs, typically, it bears repeating that there's interdependence and self management. They're producing deliverables. I guess I already covered that. And there's a balance of tasks and process and I had a word that differently I would say that mindful of strategic and tactical big picture but also just attentive to the tasks. And that's really ensuring success in terms of the delivery and that's why this is the performing phase. Now, you might ask me and it would be a fair question. Well, why are there strategies to help them move if this is the highest level of the five phases. And the answer is, well, this is an active phase, not until this phase is over. And we're talking about a journey which is next is everything done. It's active so they're actively performing right now. So the role is guiding from the side or minimal intervention, celebrating milestone successes along the way. And the team is probably already, you know, doing some collective decision making and problem solving. So if they are you're encouraging them to maintain that. And if they aren't you're encouraging them to start doing that so this is really more about keeping the moment of moving during the performing phase in terms of the role for strategies. And then the last phase is a journey. And the visual here quite different from all the other ones. Of course. And the team is done. They are disbanding. If you were to Google or whatever your search engine of preferences, if you were to Google Bruce Tuckman or phases of team development or my name, or any combination therein, you would get a lot of results. First of all, some of them would refer to four phases of team development. And that's not quite right. There are five phases and the reason I say there are five phases is because Bruce Tuckman, it did introduce four phases forming stormy norming performing in 1965, but Bruce Tuckman updated his own model in 1977 to include a journey. So since Bruce Tuckman updated his own model to include five phases, there are five five phases. So if people ever mentioned for where you come across any literature that talks about for now you know why that might be. This final phases sometimes referred to is outperforming transitioning transitioning or morning. I'll give you an example. It may not be so obvious actually. The team is successful. Everything's done. There's some pride, maybe some celebrations more on that in a moment. But you know, I'll give you an extreme case, not typical, but just to illustrate the point. Let's say the team had 100 people, not five. And let's say they worked on this for a year. The result was fantastic. And they were able to disrupt the industry in a good way meaning they achieve the goal and they have many more customers and more revenue and there's promotions and growth in the company as a result and the list goes on and on. So that's great. But everything's over and people get disbanded and they get returned to wherever they were working previously. If they were working on this project full time. And so sadness is not unusual. It might be counterintuitive with all the joy and happiness and celebration that there would also be sadness but there can be. And it's important to realize that that might be the case, but there are things that can be done about that. And so strategies to help the team grow. Here's another question you might ask me and it would be a fair question and that's happy that things over. Well, this is really strategies to help the team and the company grow as well as individuals. So here's what can be done. Recognizing change, right being very clear that where people were before this project started. They were on this project for how far along they were on it. And in what's happening now is they're returning to their former departments or whatever the situation is in your organization for the project. So things that can be done is evaluations, both at the individual and also the team level. Some refer to this as lessons learned. Immortem, post project review, retrospective, and the list goes on and on. Doesn't really matter what you call it. But typically happens is the question wording might vary and does vary actually, but you're typically capturing what went well what didn't go well and what would you change or improve going forward. And so that's very important because it will give the company an advantage. If there is a similar project in the future, so that they can leverage that learning and being at an advantage again, compared with not having that information and that history and perspective. So acknowledgments are, I guess I covered that already but providing acknowledgments are quite helpful and important. In some form of celebration, it may or may not be a party. In the case of a big one year project with a major product release with tremendous success. Perhaps there's a internal company party on on premises, you know I'm talking about post COVID. But on premises, and maybe there's a party afterwards also that's just the team that's off site at a restaurant or whatever. There's a million million possibilities. The term after party has multiple connotations first of all after in the sense that the project or the work that was done is completed. So this is an after party in that regards and also after party in the sense that it's, it's not unusual, especially on the larger projects to have one party after another after another so there's a party to after party, and after after party. So the message is party. So I mentioned the examples of the kinds of questions that usually occur during the retrospective or the post project review or whatever label you use. And here are a couple alternative questions that you might want to complete if you haven't already, because you can get a bit tiring to be keep asked the same question over and over again on all of your project, especially if you have a shorter cycle like at running every two weeks or a month or something in an agile situation. So here's the question that perhaps the team can ask and answer, how can we, the team, make an even bigger positive impact on the company. So this is very open and subject to interpretation and that's not bad that's a good thing, and you will uncover all kinds of information that you wouldn't otherwise if you were just to ask what went well and what didn't go well, typically. And here's another one along the same lines. How can we, the team achieve even greater ease of work. And then perhaps there were issues or problems that weren't major and, you know, weren't formally surface during the project but maybe somebody well if we if we only had the latest version of that Microsoft tool, that would have been helpful. So things come out when you ask these questions that wouldn't come out otherwise, and most cases. So I just wanted to give you two alternatives to to consider, in addition to maybe more this more standard typical questions. So those are the key highlights for the five phases of team development. And if I didn't mention it already, the direction is almost always from left to right, meaning the team goes from forming to storming to norming to performing to a journey. There are some cases, and they're usually very rare, but there are some cases where the team can go in the opposite direction. But the good news is that you have the characteristics and the strategies, so that you can diagnose where the team is, and know what you can do that are proven strategies to help the team get back on track. So let's do a rather straightforward example of the direction moving and the opposite, the normal direction. And that is, let's say there's a team of five people, and they're a web development project team. And they've been working together for quite a while, and they're very successful and they're in the performing stage for sure. So let's say that two out of the five move from the London office to the New York office and the company just hired two new people to replace them. Well, what's probably going to happen is, this is my hypothetical example so I can tell you what's going to happen, but in the real world what will probably happen is the same thing. The team reverts to the farming stage, right, and then they move through storming and norming and get back to performing again. So there are examples or cases where the direction can move from, from right to left but again, you have the information to diagnose where they are, and the proven strategies to help them move on to the next phase. To quickly wrap up, farming, storming, norming, performing and adjourning are all necessary and inevitable for teams to grow and deliver results. This presentation presented the, I said that twice, the five phases of team development and describe the characteristics of each one and gave you, most importantly, the usable strategies for navigating them from start to finish with speed and agility which is really fast tracking them for success. So absent of the strategies, it would take the team longer to get from forming to performing, for example, then if these strategies are employed. So here's information on the takeaway. So the examples I showed you earlier on the screen, Harvard Business Review, Microsoft and so on, and others are listed in the select bibliography. And then I also have the visual for you. So here's a two page high resolution PDF. And if you'd like it, you can get it by going to bit.ly slash take dash C's CZ. So I'll spell it out b i t dot L y forward slash T a k e dash C as in Charlie is Z as in zebra. So, if you were to Google phases of team development or my name or Tuckman, you know, you'll see some materials, you'll probably see some materials I produced previously. And at first glance they may look identical or very close to the material I have here. Every one to two years I update the material. It hasn't been updated until about a the last time it was updated was about a year and a half ago, but I just now for you updated it here for this presentation for this download sometime in the coming new year. I'll also release this on blogs and Twitter and Instagram and Pinterest and all the other LinkedIn and all the other social media platforms. For now, you have this updated version and high resolution others do not have this information that was produced just for you for attending this conference. And I also have this Earl on the last slide as well. So I hope that you're able to use these proven strategies to help your teams go farther faster. And I'd like to go through the thank yous here I want to thank first you for attending this conference and this talk. I appreciate it. Thank you to this organizers and thank you for a thank you to the sponsor red hat. Without you, the organizers and the sponsor this wouldn't be possible so I appreciate it very much. And here's my last slide. I mentioned at the top of this presentation. I'm going to use the remaining time to cover any questions or feedback that you might happen to have. If I don't if we don't have time to get to you, or if you have a question later. You can contact me through the information that I have on the conference website. I have the digital download, which also has my information about my website and other ways to reach me. And and then of course there is my Twitter handle right here on this slide as well. So I look forward to your questions and your feedback. And I want to let the organizers know that I'm going to end the video feed in just a second here and then jump on to chat to answer any questions or address any feedback that people have. Thank you once again for attending the conference and this talk. But first the team. I hope you're able to use the information for your advantage. Thank you again.


Welcome to NTIA Nightly. I am Genelle Norville. This edition stops stories. St. Lucia records 9th and 10th COVID-19 related deaths. Minister for Agriculture reflects on the year 2020 and Karikam leaders call for a global summit to address equitable access and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines. Health officials have guaranteed that the rate of COVID-19 patients requiring critical care remains within the sector's capacity to manage. At news time only one of the 331 active cases in care were listed as critical after two patients had succumbed. Ensuring adequate medical equipment is one of the measures taken to avoid overwhelming scenarios. We've increased the ventilator capacity to manage COVID-19. We have 24 new ventilators and also the other oxygen machines that's being used as well. For COVID-19, generally, in terms of the percentage, it's 5% of cases that usually needs critical care within your hospital. The clinical team, they're monitoring the situation in terms of setup. They will always ensure that we have extra ventilators prepared just in case. St. Lucia's 9th and 10th cases of COVID-19 related deaths are female nationals aged 71 and 63 years old, both were in care at the time of their passing this week. Meanwhile, health officials confirmed 42 new cases of infection and 58 recoveries on 21 January 2021. The steady rates of recovery are a great relief to the sector. However, officials have instituted a management system to avoid burdening the health sector. This includes permitting self-isolation. With the increasing number of cases, we have taken a policy to allow isolation at home for persons who meet the criteria and are asymptomatic or very mild. The capacity to be able to keep, and these are mild and asymptomatic persons, most of them, we only have one person in critical care. I'm notwithstanding persons who have moderate or don't have the conditions at home for isolation, we keep those within the hospital setting. So the patients that we have at the respiratory hospital, the majority of them do not actually need hospital care. They're there for isolation because they don't have safe isolation conditions at home. We're also using some guest houses and inns to house some of those positive patients. Chief Medical Officer Dr Sharon Belmar George. As part of newly instituted measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19, the Government of St. Lucia has announced the scale down of commercial activity for 10 days. Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Commerce, International Trade, Investment, Enterprise Development and Consumer Affairs, Sophia Henry, advises of several implications with respect to commercial activity on Island. Commercial activity will be scaled down over a 10-day period from Friday, January 22nd, 2021, at 6 p.m. until Monday, February 1st, 2021. During this period, the services which can be rendered, or businesses which are allowed to remain open and engage in activity include the following. Supermarkets, minimats, small shops, bakeries, doctor's offices, diagnostic and lab services, pharmacies and other related health support services, farming, fishing and other agricultural activities, food supply and preparation services, example restaurants, take-out services only, approved COVID-19 hotels, utility companies, gas stations, petroleum services, financial including banking services, law offices, accounting firms, sanitation, solid waste management services, standalone hardware retail, call centers, broadcasting and media services, manufacturing and export-related services, customs brokerage, courier services, vendors, public transportation, garages, critical public sector projects and other ongoing private sector construction projects. A more comprehensive listing of services allowed will be available on the website www.covid19response.lc and the various government online platforms. The services and businesses listed are to operate under established protocols and are further urged to adopt a blended approach that is a combined physical and virtual component where practicable so as to limit the person-to-person contact. This suggests that where possible staff are allowed to work from home while meetings and other conferences are to be held virtually. Any sector or business not listed should remain closed for the 10-day period. For businesses seeking additional clarification on these matters, kindly contact your commercial membership organizations or the Ministry of Commerce at email mincommerce at govt.lc or contact number 468-4218. You are further reminded that business operations and commercial activities must cease no later than 9 pm. The Government of St. Lucia fully appreciates the adverse impact that these measures may have on commercial activity on island and on the livelihoods of our citizenry. We do not take this decision lightly but rather we move forward in the best interest of the health and safety of all our citizens. The objective of these new measures is to limit the movement of people in order to prevent further transmission of COVID-19. The year 2020 has been a challenging one the world over and for St. Lucia the situation is no different. The Government of St. Lucia has been confronted with a number of challenges with the coronavirus tipping the skills. The Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries, Natural Resources and Cooperatives, reflecting on the past year highlighted the many challenges and triumphs for the sector. Hermadi Mark has the details. Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries, Natural Resources and Cooperatives Honourable Izzykal Juzov explained that the COVID-19 pandemic is not the only thing affecting the agricultural sector. Speaking to the banana industry, the Minister disclosed that both Winfresh UK and Winfresh WI have gone into receivership. Despite the situation, St. Lucia remains the only shareholder still exporting bananas to the UK. Having said this, the Minister explained that opportunities also exist. Opportunities that the Ministry of Agriculture will be exploring. This year we have to really focus especially early in the year as to how we restructure this industry and for us to continue to build the confidence of the farmers or the members who are still involved in the banana industry. I'm sure you would agree and you would realise and General Solutions would realise and agree that since we came in in 2016 the project that we put in place we have seen benefits, we have seen more farmers get back into production, we have seen the acreage increase so that is a sign that the farmers are buying into the policy as it pertains to that industry. But of course like you would know if you put in your extension hat, one of the main things or the main challenges for us to continue and for farmers to continue is a reliable market and if the market is not then giving support to the farmers on a timely basis and if farmers are not being paid on a timely basis that can be very discouraging. The Ministry of Agriculture has taken the lessons learned with the closure of the Windfresh Entities seriously and denoted that it cannot be business as usual. Looking closely at another entity, the National Fair Trade Organization, Minister Honourable Joseph said the mode of operation must change. The Cabinet under the leadership of the Honourable Prime Minister gives financial support on many occasions to the NFTU. But the Cabinet was saying since the situation with Windfresh, Cabinet was saying look the time has come for us to understand and for farmers to understand for the leadership of the NFTU to understand that they should not seek the government as a cash cow. Each time things go bad, rental government for money and the management of the organization is not performing to a level that we are satisfied with. The Ministry of Agriculture is committed to working with the entity for the betterment of all stakeholders. Still with agriculture, Minister Honourable Ezekiel Joseph explained that it is paramedic that the National Fair Trade Organization, NFTO, becomes self-reliant. He stated that the NFTO recently requested financial support from the government of St. Lucia to the tune of over eight million dollars. Minister Honourable Joseph noted that the government cannot continue with these financial bailouts. He added that a critical step in bettering the organization is the restructuring of its management. The last time the Board met last year with the Cabinet, that is the Board of the NFTO with Cabinet, it was clearly articulated to them that for government to continue to give support to that industry, there must be some serious restructuring of the NFTO to a level that we are satisfied with. Dear Green, and through the Ministry we hired a consultant and the consultant went out there and met with mostly all the farmers branches, members, executive, some of the stakeholders and to come up with some recommendation options as to how we could restructure the NFTO. Officials from the Ministry of Agriculture have met with the NFTO to discuss the recommendations which include the amalgamation of member organizations and a Board of Directors comprising of four individuals selected by the NFTO and three selected by Cabinet. What was also agreed was that I'm saying agreed between the Ministry of Agriculture and the NFTO that the chairmanship of the new Board would be a member of the NFTO. I would say regrettably the Cabinet did not agree with that aspect. The Cabinet said that why do we agree with the composition of four free composition but the chairman should be a member of one of the three directors that government is recommending to be on the Board. The NFTO is expected to meet with members to make a decision on the offer presented by Cabinet. Cabinet has concluded before any additional financial support can be provided to the organization that needs to be an improved organizational structure, a holistic plan for the banana industry, a plan to provide support to farmers, a proper marketing strategy and a plan for the reduction of quality claims. St. Lucia's population is part of nearly one billion people to be immunized in the Americas against the COVID-19 virus. Pan American Health Organization's director Dr. Caricia Etienne says the task is daunting but not unrealistic once authorities remain committed to the process. Pao she says will play a key role supporting countries along the way. At present, seven countries in the region are vaccinating their populations as part of bilateral agreements. St. Lucia and other signatories to the Covax facility are expected to join in the coming weeks, commencing their own immunization programs. The Covax facility is a global mechanism to source COVID-19 vaccines to ensure equitable access to the vaccine by all participating countries. As we speak, Covax is actively negotiating deals with Pfizer and with further announcements that can be expected in the near term. Vaccines are expected to reach countries by March, if not a little earlier. Pao's Revolving Fund, which has four decades of experience procuring and distribution vaccines, will play a key role in this process, supporting countries along the way. In addition to vaccines, the fund helps member states with the acquisition of syringes, safety boxes, cold chain equipment, and other supplies that allow vaccines to be safely delivered to every corner of our region. Having a comprehensive, safe plan in place will greatly facilitate the successful vaccine rollout in any country. All Pao member states participating in the Covax facility are developing a national vaccine deployment plan that is adapted to their context and their population. So far, 18 countries have shared the national vaccine deployment plans with Pao for feedback, and 23 countries have completed the vaccine readiness assessment tool. The vaccine rollouts already underway are also generating important lessons for the region. We are seeing, for instance, the importance of assessing the readiness of each health facility where vaccines will be distributed and administered. And we are also learning just how critical it is to have strong information systems in place to find target populations and to track vaccinated individuals. By hearing these lessons now, countries will be better prepared to introduce the vaccines as soon as the doses are available. Dr. AT&T further stressed equitable access to vaccines when they are introduced to populations in the region, first attending to frontliners and others most at risk. Since the start of the year, the Americas has registered 2.5 million new cases of COVID-19, more than half of all global infections. This is NTN Nightly. Stay with us when we come back. Caricam leaders call for Global Summit to address equitable access and distribution to COVID-19 vaccines. Welcome back. Caricam leaders call for Global Summit to address equitable access and distribution to COVID-19 vaccines. We hear more from Caricam News Time to San King English Francis. Caricam member states have signed on to the Covax facility, the globally coordinated mechanism for providing equal access and affordable vaccine options against the novel coronavirus. However, Caricam heads of government are concerned that the current trends are revealing inequitable access for small states to begin vaccinating frontline workers and the most vulnerable populations. In a statement on January 13th, Caricam heads of government called for a Global Summit to discuss equitable access and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines through the World Health Organization's Access to COVID-19 Tools ACT Accelerator Facilitation Council. The community also underscored how much a vaccine is tied to the economic recovery of regional economies. Caricam News Times to San King English Francis. As part of efforts to widen the coverage of COVID-19 testing within the castries to Grosillais Basin, the Ministry of Health and Wellness has established a temporary testing site at the VG Sports Complex in Castries. Persons with respiratory symptoms and those who are referred from contact tracing can access free COVID-19 testing at this site. This activity commenced on Friday, January 22, 2021 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and will continue on Monday, January 25 to Friday, January 29, 2021 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily. The intervention will also focus on health education on COVID-19, including the promotion of infection prevention and control measures. All coming to this location are required to bring a valid form of identification. The Ministry of Health asks for your cooperation. The Rich for Wellness Center has been closed for retrofitting works from June 12, 2020 under the Smart Health Facilities Project towards safer greener and more sustainable facilities. Retrofitting works are complete and services will commence on Monday, February 1, 2021. In light of this, services at the temporary location in the building at the Larisius Junction will be suspended for one week from Monday, January 25, 2021 to Friday, January 29, 2021 to facilitate the move back to the original site. During this time, clients can access health care services at the Denver Hospital. The Department of Health and Wellness funds the general public, especially for those from the affected areas, for their continued cooperation and apologizes for any inconveniences caused. The Ministry of Equity, Social Justice, Local Government, and Empowerment wishes to notify all clients of the Public Assistance Program, PAP, of Barbano, Castries, Grosile and Soussi Millet regions that payment for the month of January will take place from Monday, 25 January to Wednesday, 27 January, 2021 at the Castries City Hall from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. daily. New PAP clients' payments will be processed at the financial institutions. For further information, please contact the Ministry at telephone number 468-5108. The Ministry of Equity, Social Justice, Local Government, and Empowerment hereby informs all clients of the Public Assistance Program that a recertification exercise within the Castries Basin that reviews previously scheduled for Monday, 25 January to Friday, 29 January, 2021 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily has been suspended until for the notice. Clients are advised to lodge their queries and other requests via the use of the forms that will be stationed at the Security's Desk at the Graham-Louisey Administrative Building. An Office of the Department will arrange to facilitate a telephone interview with the respective individual. Under the revised COVID-19 protocols, the unit will seize its operations at the VG Sports Complex. Beneficiaries of the Public Assistance Program are therefore asked to pay close attention to the media houses and radio stations for recommencement of the recertification process. That brings us to the end of NTN Nightly. Join us next time at 7 p.m. with a very peaceful catch up with us anytime on the St. Lucia Government Facebook page or YouTube channel. I am Janelle Norvel.