Adaptive Problem Archetypes in Filipino Culture

Table 1: Agriculture Adaptive Problem Archetypes

Type	English	Filipino	Case
1	disowning problem	Paglaglag ng kapatid	Nabaha at nasira ang tanim ng magsasaka sa Mindanao. Hindi ko na problema yan
2	conflicting values and behavior	Naghiwalay na puso at kamay	Inipit yung cash advance pambili ng abono
3	unspeakables/elephant in the room	Anino na ayaw pagusapan	Agri supplier ng munisipyo si Mayor
4	work avoidance	Iniiwasan ng arinola	malnutrition sa mga GIDA at Indigenous Communities
5	conflicting commitments	Pinagsabong na magkapatid	Department or Agriculture-Department of Environmentpseudo conflict
6	penny smart, pound foolish	Tinubigan na gatas ng bata	Nag publish ng Ingles na Farmer's manual dahil mahal magpa translate
7	myths/widely held beliefs, cultural blind spots	Malawakang maling paniniwala	Katutubo na komunidad na walang pakialam sa kalusugan

References: Heifetz (200_)

Table 2: Health Sector Adaptive Challenges Archetypes

Type	English	Filipino	Case
1	disowning problem	Paglaglag ng kapatid	Namatay sa district hospital, di ko na problema yan
2	conflicting values and behavior	Naghiwalay na puso at kamay	Inipit yung cash advance ng ambulansya
3	unspeakables/elephant in the room	Anino na ayaw pagusapan	Botika ni Dok sa tapat ng ospital
4	work avoidance	Iniiwasan ng arinola	Maternal care in GIDA island brgys
5	conflicting commitments	Pinagsabong na magkapatid	DOH-PHIC pseudo conflict
6	penny smart, pound foolish	Tinubigan na gatas ng bata	Oversubsidizing hospital
7	myths/widely held beliefs, cultural blind spots	Malawakang maling paniniwala	IP walang pakialam sa kalusugan

References: Heifetz (200_)Archetypes

Leadership, Presencing, and That Thing Called Tadhana

by Elmer S Soriano

"Tadhana" is an old Filipino word that means fate or nature. Recently, the 2014 romatic comedy movie That Thing Called Tadhana made the term fresh and popular again. These days, tadhana connotes recognition of an emerging future and the need to move past old feelings, memories, and prisons (as Scharmer would call them) and operate from an openness to one's highest positive tadhana.

Which makes "tadhana" resemble "presencing". According to Scharmer, presencing means:

"liberating one’s perception from the “prison” of the past and then letting it operate from the field of the future. This means that you literally shift the place from which your perception operates to another vantage point. In practical terms, presencing means that you link yourself in a very real way with your “highest future possibility” and that you let it come into the present. Presencing is always relevant when past-driven reality no longer brings you forward, and when you have the feeling that you have to begin again on a completely new footing in order to progress...I use the presencing approach to facilitate profound innovation and change processes both within companies and across societal systems."

http://www.ottoscharmer.com/sites/default/files/2002_ScharmerInterview_us.pdf

Now it might seem a stretch to liken a theory of social evolution with a romantic comedy theme, but then again, the intention is to popularize the understanding of leadership theories by looking for similar terms in the vernacular. In the movie, the girl struggles to liberate herself from her attachment to her past boyfriend. The boy journeys with her and challenges her to open herself up to the emerging future, instead of clinging to the past.

In societies burdened by class structures, marginalization of the poor, leaders need to similarly invite others to open themselves to get past their history and perhaps even identities anchored on poverty.

The video below shows how a social worker Jo Mateo uses stories to invite poor farmers to work toward a more liberating tadhana narrative. Through her story, she articulates how structural barriers and social exclusion are realities which will perpetuate poverty (choosing karit scenario), and how responding/pursuing a positive tadhana (choosing panulat) allows poor farmers to liberate themselves from poverty, first through their dreams, and then through their daily actions choosing (presencing) to respond to the call of their preferred tadhana.

Image credits: https://presencing.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/Screen%20Shot%202013-11-04%20at%203.37.04%20PM.png?itok=38580jfY

Leadership as Ripening and Chunking

by Elmer S Soriano

“Rushing into action, you fail.

Trying to grasp things, you lose them.

Forcing a project to completion,

you ruin what was almost ripe.

Therefore the Master takes action

by letting things take their course.

He remains as calm at the end 

as at the beginning...

He simply reminds people

of who they have always been...” 

― Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

Lao Tzu seems to have been describing "chunking" and "ripening".

Chunking or chunk formation is a concept from the learning sciences that has wide applicability in the leadership sciences.

What is chunking?
'Chunking' refers to organizing or grouping separate pieces of information together. When information is 'chunked' into groups, you can remember the information easier by remembering the groups as opposed to each piece of information separately. The types of groups can also act as a cue to help you remember what is in each group. 

How to chunk information
There are several ways to chunk information. Chunking techniques include grouping, finding patterns, and organizing. The technique you use to chunk will depend on the information you are chunking. Sometimes more than one technique will be possible but with some practice and insight it will be possible to determine which technique will work best for you.
Source: http://www.skillstoolbox.com/career-and-education-skills/learning-skills/effective-learning-strategies/chunking/

Chunking has something to do with synapses and short-term memory at the neurophysiologic level, and has a lot to do with individual and group cognition from the leadership perspective.

At the group cognition level, Heifetz cites Fisher (1980) on Small Group Dynamics , and uses the term "ripening the issue" as another way of describing the emergent and collective chunking.

An issue is ripe when the urgency to deal with it has been generalized across the system. If only a subgroup or faction cares passionately, but most other groups in the system have other priorities in their mind, then the issue is not yet ripe. Determining ripeness is critical because a strategy of intervention to ripen an issue that is only localized is different from a strategy to deal with a ripe issue that is already generalized. (Heifetz, 2009) 

The Art of Hosting, Deep Dive for Design Thinking, and booksprint are forms of generative dialogue that facilitate the emergence of individual and group chunks within groups. The 1957 movie 12 Angry Men is an excellent learning resource for learning the emergent dynamics of chunking and ripening.

Sources:

The Practice of Adaptive Leadership: Tools and Tactics for Changing Your Organization and the World by Ronald Abadian Heifetz, Alexander Grashow, Martin Linsky p.126

http://thenewagemovement.com/main/wp-content/uploads/Heifetz.NotesOnGroupDynamics.pdf

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PxLHWgQ0cHk
Fisher, R. Aubrey, Small Group Decision Making, 2nd Edition,   McGraw‐Hill 1980
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/3f/c2/23/3fc223d45d3fad8aaefb983ed3f59226.jpg

Dynamics of Ownership based on Scharmer and Heifetz

by Elmer S Soriano

A young female physician friend shared recently how she had not yet started the program for drug-users in her town, despite the fact that rehabilitating 800,000 drug users is an urgent and large scale problem in the Philippines these days. She said she had not yet been trained to address this problem. A hidden perspective is that a young female physician faces personal security risks when she interacts with drug users in a small rural town. 

The Bridging Leadership framework (by AIM and Zuellig Family Foundation) propose "ownership" as a core principle in Bridging Leadership. Heifetz and Scharmer both describe the "ownership" mindsets of leaders but from slightly different perspectives. 

Heifetz could describe the doctor's mindset as a form of "work avoidance" because the thought of doing the adaptive work on local drug-users could feel too "distressing", or "too hot" for this female physician. She may be conscious or only subconsciously aware of this distress or disequilibrium that she faces. She therefore conveniently declares that she has not yet been trained as a polite way of dis-owning the problem. (See Figure 1). 

Scharmer would describe the situation as the doctor operating from "me-world" and "it-world", resorting to polite talk or talking tough as opposed to owning the issue at Level 3 and Level 4. (See Table 1 and Figure 2).

This is part of the Adaptive Leadership-Bridging Leadership Dictionary initiative.  

Fig.1: Adaptive  Learning

Table 1: Phrases as Reflections of Structures of Attention/Ownership

Structure of Attention	Thinking  (Individual)	Phrases (Individual)	Phrases (Group)	Phrases (Institutions)
Level 1 - Operating from the old me-world	Downloading habits of thought	That's not my job description. That could be my job but I don't have the required inputs (training, budget, etc) so I can't do it.	I'm already doing my job and fulfilling my role.	That isn't on our plan for this year. Let's include that in next year's plan and budget. (Or some other organizational excuse.)
Level 2 - Operating from the current it-world	Factual Object focused	What are the performance gaps? Of the gaps, which are assigned to me?	That's not my job. I've done my part.	Let's refer the client to the assigned service provider (whether or not the providers are adequate.)
Level 3 - Operating from the current you-world	Empathic Listening	How can I care for the client-partner as myself?	How can we help the client-partner as if we were the client?	How can we change our rules so that we thrive and create shared value with our client-partner?
Level 4 - Operating from the highest future possibility that is wanting to emerge	Generative Listening	What is emerging? What patterns are being formed? What is called of us?	How can we do things differently? What rules are getting in the way of our preferred future? How can we modify the rules that don't work?	How can we create a space so that we have ongoing adaptation/ transformation?

Sources:

https://www.presencing.com/sites/default/files/page-files/Theory_U_Exec_Summary.pdf

Leadership on the Line: Staying Alive through the Dangers of Leading (2002) by Martin Linsky , Ronald A. Heifetz

http://irregularleadership.com/wp-irregdir/uploads/2015/04/Screen-Shot-2015-04-10-at-12.38.59-AM-1024x591.png

http://www.adaptiveleadership.civika.com/home/resources/al-bl--dictionary
www.bridgingleadership.aim.edu
www.zuelligfoundation.org 

Generative Governance: Typology of Governance Frames based on Theory U

by Elmer S. Soriano

How does one develop tools to guide Mayors through the different "structures of attention" all the way to generative governance, going beyond project management? The image above is an example of a Mayor's dashboard that was adopted in 600 municipalities. Using this one-page Mayor's Dashboard as reference, regular coaching/advising sessions were delivered to the Mayor, tracking the evolution of the ecosystem by color-coding the cells red, yellow, and green.

This dashboard serves as a decision-support tool that synthesized three types of knowledge; a) political; b) local; c) scientific/modeller's knowledge into a one-page interface. (Clark et al, 2010 click here)

First, let's dissect a Mayor's executive/governance interventions based on Scharmer's Structures of Attention. The video cases emphasize a particular Structure of Attention, but may reflect multiple structures of attention.  

Table 1: Mayor's Intervention based on Mindset and Structure of Attention (adapted from Scharmer)

Structure of Attention	Mindset of Mayor	Role of Mayor	Case
Governance 1 Downloading habits of thought	downloading projects based on what I think you need	determining priority projects and allocating funds based on Mayor's personal worldview	White elephant projects
Governance 2 Factual, object-focused	evidence-based downloading of projects with limited dialogue or consultation; Technical Assistance (TA)	analyzing data and then aligning priority projects and allocating funds	Bulacan Social Research (click here)
Governance 3 Empathic Listening	reflecting upon how rules can be changed to make the ecosystem work better for you	dialogues with stakeholders to gain deeper understanding of complex interdependencies and counterproductive rules	Kauswagan (click here for video)
Governance 4 Generative Listening	creating spaces and cultivating conversations so that many stakeholders co-own and co-create solutions	creates spaces for dialogue and co-creation; creates social labs, leadership labs, and/or governance labs	Naga People Empowerment (click here for video)

Table 2: Structures of Attention by Scharmer

Sources:

https://www.presencing.com/sites/default/files/page-files/Theory_U_Exec_Summary.pdf

http://heapol.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2011/08/05/heapol.czr054.full.pdf+html

http://neldax.yolasite.com/resources/01-%20Introduction%20to%20MLGP.pdf

https://research.hks.harvard.edu/publications/getFile.aspx?Id=600

Redemption and Restorative Justice in Periods of Institutional Transition

by Elmer S Soriano

“Any fool can be happy. It takes a man with real heart to make beauty 

out of the stuff that makes us weep.” 

― Clive Barker

There was massive looting in the period immediately after Typhoon Haiyan ravaged Tacloban City, leaving over 6,000 people dead. Because families lost their household supply of food, water, and medicine supplies, fathers took along their able-bodies children to acquire supplies from groceries and malls, racing with each other households to get some infant formula, bread, clothes. An aquaintance in Tacloban who was looking for infant formula during that period saw a kid with several bags of powdered milk, and asked   friend who also participated in this mentioned that others also took home flatscreen TVs and other items that were not of survival value. 

How should a community or society deal with periods of individual and collective guilt? How can one apologize and make amends and move on?  

In South Africa, they created the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to institutionalize redemption.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) was a court-like restorative justice[1] body assembled in South Africa after the abolition of apartheid in the 1990s.[2] Witnesses who were identified as victims of gross human rights violations were invited to give statements about their experiences, and some were selected for public hearings. Perpetrators of violence could also give testimony and request amnesty from both civil and criminal prosecution.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truth_and_Reconciliation_Commission_(South_Africa)

How might one navigate through the period of institutional transition?

First, recognize that most stakeholders are honoring certain values they hold dear: family survival and security, protection from threats, medium to long-term liveability of the communities, integrity, rule of law. Stakeholders just express these values and deploy themselves in different ways.

Second, temporary or permanent changes in the rules will make stakeholders appear guilty in the eyes of others, regardless of where they stood, because the line (between correct and incorrect behavior) was moved.

The concept of Restorative Justice helps one navigate through the process of redemption.

Restorative justice is an approach to justice that focuses on the needs of the victims and the offenders, as well as the involved community. This contrasts to more punitive approaches where the main aim is to punish the offender, or satisfy abstract legal principles. 

Victims take an active role in the process. Meanwhile, offenders are encouraged to take responsibility for their actions, "to repair the harm they've done – by apologizing, returning stolen money, or community service".[1] In addition, the restorative justice approach aims to help the offender to avoid future offences.
The approach is based on a theory of justice that considers crime and wrongdoing to be an offence against an individual or community, rather than the State.[2]Restorative justice that fosters dialogue between victim and offender has shown the highest rates of victim satisfaction and offender accountability.[3]

         Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Restorative_justice

Image credits:

http://stephenking1sts.com/wp-content/uploads/The-Shawshank-Redemption-Escape-in-the-rain.jpg

"Hugot" as Presencing: Transliterating Western Leadership Concepts to Asian Languages

I've been involved in teaching Bridging Leadership for a few years now, and we teach a concept from Otto Scharmer called presencing. 

Definition: - Presencing.

A blend of the words “presence” and “sensing,” presencing signifies a heightened state of attention that allows individuals and groups to shift the inner place from which they function.
https://www.presencing.com/sites/default/files/page-files/Theory_U_Exec_Summary.pdf

It's been a challenge teaching the concept of technique of presencing to others, since it's a "heightened state of attention...". We'd either just blurt out the definition and then hope that the learners understand what you mean, or take the learners to that heightened state, and then point out that they in the heightened state of attention called presencing.

Fortunately, the term "hugot" emerged recently in Filipino popular culture and it does resemble presencing.

Definition - hugot

The term “hugot” is a Filipino word which means to draw or to pull out. The usage of the hashtag “#hugot” became popular not so long ago and is usually used along with song lyrics, a quote, etc. that the person tweeting relates to; “#hugot” means the accompanying words draw emotions out of him/her. Hugot. Usually words with potentially and personally deep sentimental or emotional undertones. Because feelings come from "deep within" so you have had to "hugot" your emotions first "from deep within" before you would've actually blurted them out in somehow emotionally undertoned words — subconsciously or otherwise.

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=hugot

The translation of presencing to hugot is not perfect, but I think it works. I think teachers of leadership can help Filipino learners understand presencing through the concept of hugot. If we taught leadership in Indonesia or Thailand, we could also similarly look for a vernacular term that resembles presencing, and I am confident that there are such local terms.

Below is a comparison of the nuances differentiating presencing and hugot.

Element	Presencing	Hugot
Source of awareness	inner place, the "Source"	inner place; feelings; subconscious
How to induce this state of awareness	recall life journey, retell personal narratives, other techniques developed by Scharmer et al.	listen to sentimental songs, recall special memories
Manifestation	open heart, open mind, open will	(over)flow of feelings and memories
useful function	innovation, inspiration, sensitivity to the emerging future	unleash passion; communicate suppressed feelings

I think teachers of leadership would be more effective if we translated foreign leadership jargon into vernacular terms and metaphors so that our learners are better able to comprehend the concepts. I've started a English-Filipino leadership dictionary and anyone is welcome to add any relevant terms, whether you can translate them or not. Click here to co-create and co-edit the English-Filipino Leadership Dictionary.

Comparing Bridging Leadership with Traditional Masteral Curriculla

by Elmer S. Soriano

We asked some 25 university professors who taught Bridging Leadership (BL) to compare the BL framework and methodologies with their current graduate schools offerings. I asked them something like this: "Why we don't we teach leadership to young professionals by putting them through your your regular MBA, MPH, or MPA instead of through this Bridging Leadership course?"

A number of them were initially taken aback by the question. I think many of the professors thought of leadership training as Executive Education, that was somewhat academically more lightweight and less textbookish that their regular masteral course.

Here's a comparison of design elements that differentiate BL from the more traditional masteral classes. I threw in an additional column comparing the typical NGO training format.

Curriculum Design Element	Traditional Courses (MPA, MBA, MPH)	NGO Training	Bridging Leadership
Target Learners	Masteral students	Community members, development professionals	Current or aspiring leaders
Logic of Training	technical skills for employment after graduation	skills for livelihood and political "empowerment"	equipping individuals to induce institutional change during the course
Presumed Problem System	simple, complicated	complex	complex
Language Used	science, management	popular education	stories, systems thinking

Overall, the Some said BL unlocked passion and purpose among their learners in ways that their regular masteral classes did not.

  The Life Map Canvas is an alternative way of describing these elements, and we'll tackle that in a different blog. 

Image credits: http://theinspirationroom.com/daily/2013/nelson-mandela-on-education-as-a-weapon/