Transforming Traditional Politics

The Case of Municipality of Kawayan, Biliran

DIAGNOSING THE CHALLENGE

The Leader

• Born into politics with a politician father and siblings• Exposed in the world of politics at an early age• Forced, pressured, and eventually convinced into politics by his

father

- unwilling to take difficulties of politics

- felt obligated to abide by expectations of his political family• Struggled with alcohol addiction for most of his adult life

DIAGNOSING THE CHALLENGE

The Leader

• Managing their family business enabled him to develop competencies

- required him to deal with people from different economic and social levels

- honed his ability to relate to people

- acquired skills in dealing with the poor and the needy

- polished his problems-solving skills in finance and administration

• Working in the US in odd jobs enabled him to develop his ability to adapt to different situations and required him to be independent

• A fifth class municipality• Main industry include coconut farming, palay farming and

fishing• Basic necessities were not available• The municipal government did not have enough funds to

meet the needs of the people

The Community

• Political orientation – traditional

- pakikisama attitude

- patronage, nepotism and overdependence• provision of basic services and infrastructure was the main,

if not the only, responsibility of a local executive• little appreciation for other aspects of community leadership

such as training and building competencies of personnel• use of power of position and fear to make things happen

The Political Landscape

- role as mayor involved more than providing basic services and physical infrastructure

- confronted with the challenge of changing the very foundation of the people’s values and way of thinking

- understood the need to empowerment municipal personnel and to be capacitated with skills and perspectives different from what they already have

- understood the need to change people’s perspective on accountability and responsibility for their own lives and development

The Realizations

As defined by Ronald Heifetz, adaptive challenges are:•challenges for which there are no simple, painless solutions•problems that require us to learn new ways•making progress on these problems demands not just someone who provides answers on high, but changes in our attitudes, behavior, and values•to meet challenges such as these, we need a different idea of leadership and a new social contract that promote our adaptive capacities, rather than inappropriate expectations of authority

Adaptive Challenge

Adaptive change is needed because the problems confronting the community are not amenable to authoritative expertise or standard operating procedures. When none of the previous solutions available to the organization works, we need to identify new ways of solving the crisis. Such new modalities almost always require a shift in the very way people feel, think and behave.

When people resist adaptive change, the leader then “faces the dangers”:•Marginalization – the community keeps the leader from playing a meaningful part of the issues in a general way. Authority figures are sidelined when they allow themselves to be identified with an issue that they become the issue.•Diversion – the community consciously or subconsciously make you lose focus (by broadening your agenda, overwhelming you with it to disrupt your plan)

•Attack – the community distort or misrepresent your views by attacking on your character, competence, family•Seduction – the community make the leader lose his sense of purpose altogether.

All of these serve a function: •to reduce the disequilibrium•maintain what is already familiar•protect people from the pains of change

Although Mayor Espina did not have the benefit of Heifetz’ terms and distinctions, he began to realize that while he may have been successful in putting up the physical infrastructure for his community, these were not enough to bring the kind of development his people needed.

While his perspectives changed, he expected others around him to change theirs too.

The Challenge

However, the shift in Mayor Espina’s leadership, while seemingly simple and basic, posed a challenge to foundational beliefs

• In a traditional political setting, patronage and dependency on leaders are encouraged

• Responsibility for their own lives is resisted by constituents• Empowerment is against the very essence of traditional

politics

The Challenge

Ronald Heifetz identified three basic hungers that leaders should learn to manage since these hungers can overwhelm a leader and lead to his or her downfall.•power and control •affirmation and importance•intimacy and delight

The Hunger

In the case of Mayor Espina, affirmation and importance was clearly his primary hunger.

•While learning about empowerment, he continued to believe that his success in providing basic infrastructure, encouraging capacity-building seminars amongst his employees, and training barangays to become more accountable for their lives should be more than enough to convince voters to deliver him a landslide win. This inflated view of himself and his cause lead to grandiosity – the heroic lone warrior who saved the community.

The Hunger

When the results of his re-election did not coincide with his expectations of a landslide victory, his hunger for affirmation and importance became manifest.•backed off from the responsibilities•overwhelmed by self-doubt•performed his duties in the most minimal way possible•Sunk back to his alcohol addiction•Indulged in silf-pity

The Hunger

Managing HungerThe cleanest way for a community to bring a leader down is

to let the leader bring himself down. A leader is vulnerable to falling pray to his own hunger.

“Self-knowledge and self-discipline form the foundation for staying alive”.

Managing Hunger Respect the ready availability of and need for power and

control, affirmation and importance, intimacy and delight Manage the hunger for control and power by containing

conflict and imposing order without getting them into the head

Manage the hunger for affirmation and importance (grandiosity) by remembering that people see a leader more in your role than as a person

Manage the hunger for intimacy and delight by understanding more compassionately hunger and vulnerabilities

Use transitional rituals to demarcate your roles

Managing HungerMayor Espina, however, managed to “manage his hunger”

in the end. Faced the problem of his addiction for alcohol by

seeking counsel from Alcoholic Anonymous Detoxified himself from alcohol Re-groomed himself Bounced back to his feet and went “back to service” Began to build himself back again Regained confidence Developed a renewed resolve about himself, his

weaknesses and strengths Found ways to understand how to make the people

become participants in the development of their own lives

Managing HungerMayor Espina transcended his situation by

understanding better that he must manage his own expectations of himself as well as of others

realizing that he should always be in touch with his own vulnerabilities

ensuring that while he tries to change the ways of other people, he should also make sure that he himself goes through his own transformation as a person and a leader

Learning and InsightsThe incident of the elections highlighted the reality that

adaptive change cannot happen overnight. It involves a long process of change that requires much from the leader, even at a personal level. Mayor Espina, in expecting the people to embrace the new way of politics and development, was not able to fully learn from the lessons imparted by Heifetz for leaders doing adaptive change:

Learning and Insights Pacing the Work

“People can stand only so much change at any one time. You risk revolt, and your own survival, by trying to do too much, too soon.”

The people were clearly not yet ready to take on the kind of responsibility pushed to them by the Mayor. The benefits of the status quo were too much to resist. For the Mayor to expect people to change their ways on how they deal and select their leaders was too much, too soon.

Learning and Insights Controlling the Temperature “Leaders leading adaptive change need to know when

to increase the pressure, and when to lower the heat to avoid too much stress.”

While the Mayor explained to the people that there is a need to change their ways of dealing with their leaders, he did not give them sufficient structures on finding new ways of engaging their leaders, thereby easing the tension of the unknown by providing new skills and perspectives. The stress of trusting a process of empowerment was unfamilar, making them vulnerable to the pressures of tradition and status quo.

Learning and Insights Anchoring Yourself

This was the most critical lesson that Mayor Espina had to learn. He failed to distinguish himself from his role. The manner by which the people made their choices during the elections became to his mind, a rejection of himself. He failed to realize that it was not about him and who he was - it was more about who the people were and what they were willing to accept and change. Because of this, he felt his own self-esteem eroded. Combine this with his own personal addictions and weak personal anchors outside of his professional roles, the net effect almost devastated him at the personal level.