Some theoretical and practical issues on strategic consulting work in the field of Party building organization over nearly 40 years of implementing the renovation process (part 1)

General Secretary and President To Lam attended the opening of the 14th Party Central Committee Planning Cadre Training Course, October 14, 2024 _Photo: VNA

Content, position and role of staff work in the field of Party building and organization

According to the Vietnamese Dictionary, advising is: “1. Giving opinions, helping the commander in formulating and organizing the implementation of military plans; 2. Giving opinions on policies, plans and measures for a person or an organization” (1). Thus, advising is giving opinions, proposing, recommending on policies, plans, content, fields, stages according to the goals and requirements that need advising.

Advisory work is a synthesis of work, activities, and measures carried out according to a specific process of an organization or individual with professionalism and occupation in accordance with organizational and operational principles, meeting the requirements of organizations or individuals needing advice on policies, content, and certain work with identified goals and requirements. Advisory work in the field of Party organization and building is research and proposal based on scientific and practical grounds to help leaders have a basis for making decisions and effectively organizing and implementing work in the field of Party organization and building.

Strategic advisory work in the field of Party organization and building is advisory work at the central level, advising the Central Executive Committee, directly the Politburo and the Secretariat on the organization and personnel work of the entire Party. In particular, the Central Organization Committee plays the role of the agency primarily responsible for implementing strategic advisory work on Party organization and building. In addition, there is coordination between Party agencies at the central level, the personnel organization departments and offices in central agencies, the organization committees of Party committees at all levels and relevant agencies.

The content of advisory work in the field of Party organization and building includes building and managing the organization, staff, civil servants and public employees in the political system; building the Party organization system; building and managing the Party members; personnel work; protecting internal politics. The strategic advisory work of the Party agencies at the Central level on the field of Party organization and building is carried out by the following main methods: Advising on planning the Party's guidelines and policies; advising the Central Executive Committee, the Politburo, and the Secretariat on directing implementation, directly issuing documents guiding implementation, inspecting and supervising implementation, directly organizing the implementation of Party documents; summarizing, concluding and evaluating the results of implementing Party documents on Party organization and building; conducting research, analysis, consulting and forecasting strategies on organization and personnel work in each period; providing comments; inspecting; Appraise documents and projects of agencies in the political system related to Party building and organization work; propose, preside over or coordinate in implementing scientific research topics and projects, and develop theories in the field of Party building and organization.

The important position and role of strategic advisory work in the field of Party organization and building, first of all, comes from the special importance of the Party organization and building sector. In the overall work of Party building and rectification, the work of Party organization and building has always been emphasized by our Party and has been increasingly deeply understood through the congress terms. From the goal set out in the Resolution of the 4th Central Conference (12th tenure) "Resolutely overcome weaknesses in cadre work and cadre management; build a contingent of cadres and party members, especially leaders and managers at all levels with strong political will, ethics, responsibility, capacity and correct motivation, truly pioneering, exemplary, always putting the interests of the collective, the nation and the people above personal interests, truly being cadres of the people, serving the people. Strengthening the people's trust in the Party" (2), the Political Report of the 13th National Party Congress has shown an important development in viewpoints and awareness when emphasizing the first factor in the general development goal in the coming years: "Improving the leadership capacity, governing capacity and fighting strength of the Party; building a clean and strong Party and political system in all aspects" (3), in line with emphasizing and bringing "Strengthening the building and rectification of the Party and the political system" (4). “Clean and strong governance” is the first element in the theme of the 13th National Congress. This is a new development in thinking, continuing to clarify the Party's leadership and governance capacity building guidelines set out in the Platform for national construction during the transition period to socialism (Supplemented and developed in 2011). The documents of the 13th National Congress of the Party have fully and deeply demonstrated the importance of Party building and organization work in the conditions of the Party in power, building and perfecting the socialist rule-of-law state, developing a socialist-oriented market economy and international integration. The report summarizing the Party building work and implementing the Party Charter has presented 5 lessons learned; In which, the third lesson emphasizes that “We must deeply imbue the viewpoint that cadre work is the “key” task of Party building work, related to the survival of the Party and the fate of the regime; cadres are the root of all work, the decisive factor in the success or failure of the revolution” (4). As one of the leadership methods of the ruling Party, the work of Party organization and building must do a good job of advising on the organization and arrangement of the apparatus of the political system and improving operational efficiency, building a team of qualified and qualified cadres for the Party to ensure the achievement of the goal of building a clean and strong Party and political system in all aspects, building a streamlined state apparatus that operates effectively and efficiently. In other words, doing a good job in Party building and organization contributes significantly to enhancing the Party's ruling position, affirming its leadership role and correct guidelines, and is an important condition to ensure the development goals for 2025, 2030, and 2045 as set out by the 13th National Congress.

In any field, staff work plays a very important role in the development of an agency, unit, or organization. The staff department of a unit is built with the right function to help leaders make decisions accurately, reasonably, and effectively, as well as increase the effectiveness of the organization in implementing decisions. Staff products are the input in the process of making decisions and final decisions of the leader. The more scientific, theoretical, and practical the staff product is, the more accurate the leader's decision will be, creating efficiency for the development and progress of the agency, unit, or organization. On the contrary, if the staff product is unreasonable and unfeasible, the leader's decision-making will encounter many difficulties and will not be suitable for reality.

Requirements for strategic consulting work in the field of Party building and organization

First, requirements on quality of advice.

Consulting must ensure quality, accuracy, and vision based on data analysis and information with scientific basis, ensuring feasibility. To provide quality, accurate, and correct advice and proposals, the staff working in the field of Party organization and building must have professional qualifications and capacity, have adequate information, and grasp the Party's policies and guidelines on Party organization and building, and must be honest and objective; consulting products must be realistic and ensure feasibility. Staff members must uphold personal responsibility for consulting and proposing issues; must not be subjective or willful and must have strategic vision, foresight, and depth; must calculate and anticipate advantages, difficulties, and risks, including possible objective and subjective impacts, to proactively propose timely and effective solutions to prevent and overcome them.

Second, ensure compliance with the Party's policies and guidelines on Party building and organization work.

Consulting on the field of Party organization and building must be based on the functions and tasks of the organizing committees at all levels; thoroughly grasp, thoroughly grasp, and seriously implement the Party's guidelines and policies on Party organization and building work, closely following the leadership and direction of the Central Executive Committee, the Politburo, the Secretariat, and Party committees at all levels. Consulting must be based on current regulations of the Party, not arbitrarily following the subjective thoughts and wishes of the individual consulting and proposing. In consulting and proposing to solve assigned tasks, if there are difficulties in implementing assigned tasks and issues arising from the practical application of regulations, it is necessary to report, recommend, and propose to competent authorities for research, amendment, and supplementation.

Third, ensure the content of the consultation is objective and honest.

This principle stems from the requirement to ensure the quality and accuracy of the issues of consultation and proposals. In other words, compliance with this principle creates the basis and ensures that the issues of consultation and proposals are accurate and of high quality. Only on the basis of analysis, mastering the scientific arguments, theoretical and practical bases of Party building organization can the staff member advise and propose effective and appropriate programs, plans and implementation solutions.

Consulting must be based on the reality or objective situation of the work and tasks being solved, and the ability to realize them. Information must be synthesized and filtered from many sources, closely following the Party's tasks, ensuring political orientation, accuracy and timeliness. Respecting the principle of objectivity will eliminate subjective and voluntaristic factors in consulting. Respecting the principle of objectivity in consulting ensures feasibility and realism, achieving high results. The quality of consulting work in the field of Party building organization is closely related to the quality of summarizing practices and theoretical research. Therefore, it is necessary to strengthen summarizing practices and summarizing the implementation of new organizational models, in order to draw out regular issues, gaps and shortcomings to provide scientific arguments to perfect guidelines and policies, and recommend solutions in leadership and implementation.

Honest advice is an objective requirement, a very important principle in advice work, ensuring that advice work is correct and accurate. This principle requires that staff doing advice work in the field of Party organization and building must have sufficient knowledge, talent, virtue, be straightforward, honest, and objective in advising and making recommendations to the leadership. If advice is not honest, it will lead to negativity in personnel work, creating conditions for the emergence of factionalism, "group interests", localism, etc. in personnel work.

Fourth, promote the responsibility of the collective and individual advisors.

Promoting responsibility is the duty of the collective and individual advisors in the face of the trust and entrustment of superiors to limit unnecessary mistakes and risks that may occur. Collective and individual advisors must be extremely careful, consider, calculate thoroughly, and must foresee the consequences. If the advice and proposals are incorrect or inaccurate, the individual and collective must take responsibility. The advisor must commit to the leader about the accuracy of the issues they advise and propose.

Politburo member, Party Central Committee Secretary, Head of the Party Central Committee's Organization Commission Le Minh Hung works with the Standing Committee of Tuyen Quang Provincial Party Committee on preparations for party congresses at all levels _Photo: VNA

Factors affecting the quality of strategic advice in the field of Party building and organization

One is the leadership, direction and assignment of tasks by the Party Committee.

The sharp and wise leadership and direction of the Party Committee plays a decisive role, creating the foundation for the staff work to develop in the right direction and achieve high efficiency. By assigning staff work tasks, the Party Committee not only assigns tasks to subordinates, but also creates favorable conditions for them through material support, funding, and appropriate mechanisms; thereby, demonstrating trust and encouraging, motivating the staff agency and staff to maximize their roles and responsibilities in the working process. Reality shows that places where the Party Committee focuses on and cares about assigning tasks to staff work will achieve high quality and efficiency in this work; at the same time, making the staff team promote their full potential and capacity. On the contrary, in places where the Party Committee does not focus or does not clarify the requirements when assigning tasks, the staff agency and staff team often face difficulties in promoting their roles and capacity. The more specific the content of the assignment is, the clearer the orientation and the more sensitive to the development trend, the more it helps to improve the quality and effectiveness of the staff work. The accuracy and timeliness in shaping the content of the assignment not only helps the staff agency understand the goals and requirements, but also creates conditions for them to apply scientific and creative working methods, thereby being able to solve complex problems.

Second, the organization and staff of the advisory agency.

The organizational apparatus of the advisory body needs to be improved, streamlined, and operate effectively and efficiently, in accordance with the requirements and tasks of the new period. The staff of the advisory body in the field of Party organization and building must have the general standards of a cadre and party member. That is: Having a level of understanding of political theory, viewpoints and guidelines of the Party, policies and laws of the State; having cultural and professional qualifications, sufficient capacity and health to work effectively, meeting the requirements and assigned tasks. Party organization and building is a very difficult industry and profession because it is related to the organization of the apparatus of the political system, touching on people and their status in society. Therefore, people doing advisory work in the field of Party organization and building need to have a steadfast spirit, a pure heart, a discerning "eye", looking at people to correctly assess the capacity of the cadre...

Third, the conditions to ensure the work of the staff team.

To promote the creative spirit of the staff, it is necessary to create a truly democratic working environment, so that staff can access information sources fully and directly on issues related to their fields and tasks. Staff always want to be trusted by leaders, boldly entrust work and create a proactive position for staff to carry out their tasks. The trust of the organization and the leader in staff is an important basis for promoting creativity, boldly researching, proposing new ideas, exploring, discovering new things and improving the quality of staff. Along with creating a democratic, open and transparent working environment for staff to promote democracy in discussing and debating issues, expressing personal opinions, having dialogue with leaders at all levels, being listened to and understood,...; It is also necessary to create a mechanism so that staff can confidently conduct scientific criticism on issues related to policies and projects that will be considered and decided by leaders at all levels.

In addition, the innovation of regimes, mechanisms and policies for the staff must create positive motivation to attract more and more virtuous, talented and promising cadres to work at the Party's staff agencies. Therefore, there needs to be a synchronous policy from recruitment, attraction, training, fostering, staff use regime, opportunities for professional development, to remuneration policies...

In addition, another important requirement is to focus on investing adequately in information, documents, and databases so that advisory agencies are provided with accurate, complete, and timely information to serve research work, thereby creating conditions to propose appropriate advisory opinions to leaders at all levels.

Fourth, the coordination and combination mechanism in strategic consulting work between party committees.

Advising on the field of Party building organization is advising on organization building, implementing personnel work, so it is an interdisciplinary, comprehensive work, related to many other fields, such as inspection, supervision, internal affairs... Therefore, to improve the quality and effectiveness of advising on the field of Party building organization, the important requirement is to have a mechanism for effective coordination and combination between Party committees. It is necessary to ensure the principle: One task is only assigned to one committee or one agency to preside over and take primary responsibility, other committees and agencies are responsible for coordinating to carry out common tasks.

Fifth, the positivity, proactiveness, creativity and professionalism of the consulting subject.

Strategic consulting does not mean being passive, waiting for superiors to order or make requests before starting to research, propose, and advise. The consulting agency and the strategic consulting staff must be proactive, creative, proactive in researching, summarizing practices, grasping the theoretical, scientific, and practical bases, accurately forecasting the situation, in order to proactively propose and advise on new organizational models and new plans to solve the "bottlenecks" that practice is posing. The positivity, proactiveness, creativity, and professionalism in organizing and implementing consulting activities of the consulting entity are decisive for the quality of consulting.

However, it is also necessary to pay attention to the fact that cadres in general and staff officers in the field of Party organization and building all have the need to advance and develop their careers, so it is necessary to create the right motivation for the activeness of cadres. Therefore, the Party Committee is responsible for creating a healthy and objective working environment, with appropriate remuneration and reward mechanisms, and respecting talented people to arouse the positivity, initiative and creativity of strategic staff officers in the field of Party organization and building./.

Dr. TRAN THI MINH

Director of the Institute of Organizational Science and Personnel, Central Organizing Committee

(To be continued)

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(1) Great Vietnamese Dictionary, Culture and Information Publishing House, Hanoi, 1999, p. 1523
(2) See: Resolution No. 04-NQ/TW, dated October 30, 2016, of the 4th Central Conference, Session XII, “On strengthening Party building and rectification; preventing and repelling the degradation of political ideology, ethics, lifestyle, and manifestations of “self-evolution” and “self-transformation” within the Party”, https://tulieuvankien.dangcongsan.vn/van-kien-tu-lieu-ve-dang/hoi-nghi-bch-trung-uong/khoa-xii/nghi-quyet-so-04nq-tw-ngay-30102016-hoi-nghi-lan-thu-tu-ban-chap-hanh-trung-uong-dang-khoa-xii-ve-tang-cuong-xay-dung-chinh-550
(3) Documents of the 13th National Congress of Delegates, National Political Publishing House Truth, Hanoi, 2021, vol. I, p. 111
(4) Documents of the 13th National Congress of Delegates, op. cit., vol. II, p. 226

Source: https://baotuyenquang.com.vn/mot-so-van-de-ly-luan-va-thuc-tien-ve-cong-tac-tham-muu-chien-luoc-tren-linh-vuc-to-chuc-xay-dung-dang-qua-gan-40-nam-tien-hanh-cong-cuoc-doi-moi-ky-1!-203603.html