| Nqobile Gumbi | |
| I look for opportunities to deepen my understanding and insight | Consistently |
| I believe that people are more than their work and I am spiritually emotionally and socially considerate | Often |
| I take time to think about work and the changes happening around us | Consistently |
| I see how the work done today affects work that may be required tomorrow | Consistently |
| I consider and discuss how decisions and actions could affect other work groups | Consistently |
| I share information and listen to others to make better decisions | Consistently |
| I pay attention to local and international current affairs which impact our business | Consistently |
| I take time to understand the rest of our business | Consistently |
| I look for ways to improve our business processes and for reducing siloes | Consistently |
| I am very aware listen really well and notice important clues that are not obvious to others | Often |
Please provide examples of how you demonstrate systems thinking and sense-making ability in your career (Approx 100-300 words) | |
| Systems thinking has been central to my work in transmission planning and energy policy. In infrastructure development, individual projects cannot be viewed in isolation. Grid expansion decisions influence renewable integration capacity, tariff trajectories, investment certainty, regulatory compliance, and long term system reliability. I approach planning by mapping these interdependencies before advancing recommendations. In my role, I integrate technical planning data, scheduling discipline, stakeholder coordination, and risk analysis to understand how short term delivery pressures interact with long term strategic objectives. This helps surface trade offs early, particularly where cost recovery, affordability, and infrastructure timelines intersect. By connecting engineering inputs with economic and policy considerations, I contribute to more coherent decision making. My research on harmonised electricity tariff frameworks across Southern Africa further strengthened this systems lens. Rather than viewing tariff reform as a pricing adjustment exercise, I examined its role in enabling regional market integration, strengthening utility sustainability, and supporting inclusive growth. This required synthesising regulatory frameworks, market structures, and technical grid realities into a unified perspective. Sense making, for me, involves stepping back from immediate complexity to identify structural patterns and future implications. By bridging disciplines and encouraging cross functional dialogue, I aim to strengthen decisions that are not only technically sound, but resilient within evolving energy systems. |
