Motivation in Public Service

By:  Ambassador Henrietta T. De Villa
First National Assembly of Education Leaders, PICC Manila Philippines, Sept. 20- 22, 2017

Why is the heart so important because it is where all dealings are made?  There is the heart.  The heart is the first organ that is visible. Engaging your heart is vital because you have the power, you have the means and you have the captive subject to shape a new and different future for the country. I hope you are very excited about what you do.  Yes, o yes, you have to be because it is always an adventure and an adventure to newness really is quite exciting.  Servant leaders of the nation with a heart, a pure heart, a clean heart, a compassionate heart.  And you have the power to chart a new course for our country that could even impact our ASEAN nations to draw them out, to draw us out, of the grab mentality.  Grab power, grab profit, grab pleasure.  I hope you will ponder on this and start doing it. 

I still remember my mother who was a Math teacher in FEU.  For her, math is not merely addition, subtraction, multiplication, division or equation.  She expanded her math lessons to wider dimensions, a more holistic meaning to the mathematical processes.  Subtracting pain through sharing, adding joy and hope through good deeds.  Multiplying talents with community work and dividing work load through volunteerism.  Sharing pain, having joy and hope, multiplying gifts, dividing the burden, this is engaging the heart of education leaders.  The sit of wisdom, the heart, compassion, most of all the start up motor of humanizing the person in society.  Education is an on-going process, a life-long project.  Even if in your case, education would be, educating in schools, within the confines of classrooms, within specific timelines, still there must be that consciousness that education is life-long and life-wide.  

What you teach and how you teach can detonate positive or negative heart bites.  TO TEACH IS TO SHOW SOMEONE HOW TO LIVE.  Teaching is not merely transmitting literal knowledge.  Teaching is making word and happening one.  So it is witnessing.  Pope Paul VI teachers teach best when they are witnesses.  Realize that engaging the heart is the dynamic force for motivation, experiences that becomes memories of the heart and lessons for a life-long and life-wide practice.

Mothering or parenting and teaching form a single vocation.  Both engage the heart to the hill in motivating their children and students to strive for excellence and to account for the hope that is in them.  Engaging the heart does not mean permissiveness.  It requires discipline.  A danger, parents are sometimes prone to probably due to the lack of time since both father and mother have to work.  Or the guilt provoked by this lack of time.  Neither does compassion mean, you can’t confuse it with pity.  If we spoon fed our daughters and sons of whatever age.  Your students of whatever level, there is a danger of turning them to become mental wimps, worst with hearts that crumble at the slightest stress or difficulty. 

Forms and substance but this has no reference to impeachment requirements.  Impeachment cases have become a dime a dozen now a days which is a sad commentary on public service.  Was it Jefferson?  I think its Jefferson who said, what we acquire too easily, we esteem too lightly. Going back to my sharing, this will focus on form and content.  The form, anecdotal narratives.  The content flushed out from the Constitution of the Republic of the Philippines which is invoked by every congressional investigation in aid of legislation, a dime a dozen too now a days.  Since I am not a lawyer or an elected servant of the people, I just went as far as the preamble articles I to III, because I find them all the highlights I needed in these sections which can be crunched into three headings for purposes of motivation, motivating you as educators and public servants.  

The three motivators; maka-Diyos, makabayan, makatao.  Maka-Diyos when you read the constitution, that is the first part.  It invokes God, so it is recognition of the primacy of God.  And makabayan states the national territory that is our country, the Philippines which public servants and all of its citizens have to develop her patrimony and secure her posterity.  And then makatao particularly the poor, ang mga pinapahirapan, ang mga isinasaisantabi, mga kinakalimutan para sa panahon natin ngayon mga pinapatay.  Paulit-ulit, andun po sa Philippine Constitution ang karapatang pantao napakahalaga na ang karapatang pantao, hindi pinapahalagahan ng isang libo lamang.  Wala pong . . . ,  it cannot be buy you.  Do not be scared even if you are public officials to concern what is right and what is wrong.  I admire your secretary.  She vouched for the character of Kian De Los Santos.  That was brave.  I thought that was very brave.  What will make maka-Diyos, makabayan, makatao excellent motivators is love.  And love is not an emotion.  It is an action of the heart.  Love for God, love for country, love for people especially the poor.  This love must be proactive not passive.  Not just a passing emotion. Naku, kawawa naman.  Naku talagang mali ‘yan.  Magrarally tayo.  Pagkatapos, nakalimutan na.  It has to be a passion for it to be a life-long and life-wide. 

Passion is a produce of the heart.  A heart that has been loved.  A heart that has known what it is to be loved and what it is to love.  ‘Yong mga nakaranas, naïve, na mahal sila.  Na inibig sila.  Those who experienced how to be loved without looking at our warts, or moles, or defects, simply for ourselves, that is the best motivation, iyon ang nag-uudyok sa puso na magmahal din,  that dictates the heart to love too. 

I am a Catholic.  And I’m very proud to be one.  I believe in one God for whom nothing is impossible.  My God whom I believe who loves me and is always there for me, come hell or high water.  You have to believe in something or in someone.  Whatever your faith is or whatever god you worship, your faith, your god must be your all in all.  What is this that gives meaning to life?  To your vocation as educators.  God who is love is the absolute motivation for remaining faithful in being maka-Diyos, makabayan, makatao, in all things that we do and say. 

You know, Pope Francis is a very practical man.  He is very kin on encounter.  Iyong makipagtagpuan.  Because life is all about relationships. You relate with our children.  Children relate with their parents.  You relate with your students.  You relate with each other.  Life is relational.  We relate with people we encounter. Kaya best iyong person to person contact eh.  Kaya ako, hindi ako naniniwala nung bibigyan na lang ng assignment ang mga estudyante.  Darating na lang kapag may eksamin.  Sa college yata iyon, mas type nila yon.  At hindi na nakikita.  Wala iyong exchange, interaction, engaging the heart.  And we need to encounter God in especial moments of our lives.

I met my God early in life.  I know it was not through my effort for what grade three girl student for seriously know who Jesus is.  He must have been the one who drew me.  To wake up early every morning and walk to an early mass. 6:00 o’clock in the morning.  And then, so that we will not be late in school which starts the next day at 7:30.  Since then, Jesus and I have been friends.  And I can tell you.  There is no bff better than He is.  And I know, He will save me from whatever fall I find myself into from whatever foolishness I may do He will save me because He loves me.

When you know you are love unconditionally, faithfully walking with you in sunshine and in rain.  Then this gives meaning to your waking, sleeping, breathing, working living. 

Motivation starts with relationships, carried through relationships, which bear fruit in relationships.  They can be good or bad fruit depending on the relationships you established and encounters that you have.  I am a Filipino and I am very proud to be one. 

You saw that, The Devil Wears Prada?  Ang galing-galing ni Merill Strip.  The Devil Wears Prada, kase kapag nagkaron tayo ng mga ilusyon, to buy this, to buy that, to wear this to wear that.  Hay naku, umpisa na ang katapusan.  Madali po kaseng matisod, di po ba?  Kaya kailangang balik-balikan ang dalisay na hangarin sa paglilingkod.  Alalahanin n’yo po si Bonifacio.  Humayo kayo, humayo tayo at ibangon ang bayan sa kawalan ng puri dahil sa katiwalian. 

When somebody does something for you, no matter how small, or even if it’s their duty to do so, show some appreciation, some affirmation because some affirmation expands the heart.  And motivates it to go an extra hundred miles for the magi’s be abundance to life. One of the things I cannot forget, he told me because he made an order that I should repeat it to as many people as I can.  Pope John Paul II said, “God has blessed the Philippines, with two things that is not present anymore in other countries; the richness of your faith and the closeness of your families. 

Engaging the heart knows no distinction, no barriers, no differences.  The three motivators, Maka-Diyos, makabayan at makatao.  I hope you will always remember God who is kind and merciful.  Slow to anger and rich in forgiveness.  Even if your students are nakakagigil.  That you will remember that.  Na araw-araw hahayo kayo at ikalat na walang pag-ibig pa, na hihigit sa pagkadalisay at pagkadakila,  kundi ang pag-ibig sa tinubuang lupa.

That when you encounter people especially the poor.  That you will teach them, rather show them, through your hugs and affirmation that there are no children of a lesser god.  And what better motivation for you than being true to what you are and what you do which is a privilege no amount of money can equal that privilege to form the minds and engage the hearts of the young Filipino, the new Filipino, the future’s authentic Filipino servant leader.  Education is on-going, life-long, life-wide.

Habitual Tardiness, Undertime and Absenteeism Considered Administrative Offenses

By:  Florabelle R. Porras
Records Officer- Designate
DepEd Malaybalay Bukidnon
Originally posted at depedmalaybalay.net

Officers and employees in the public service except those covered by special laws are mandated under the law to render at least eight (8) hours of work daily for five (5) days in a week or a total of forty (40) hours a week, exclusive of time for lunch. As a general rule, such hours shall be from eight o’clock in the morning to twelve o’clock noon and from one o’clock to five o’clock in the afternoon daily except Saturdays, Sundays and Holidays. Flexible working hours may be allowed subject to the discretion of the head of office provided that the required working hours shall not be reduced. The head of agency has the duty to require all officers and employees under him to strictly observe the prescribed office hours.

In an office, it’s quite evident that there are employees who report for work late in the morning or past 1 o’clock in the afternoon. At times, others leave from work earlier than the prescribed eight-hour work schedule in a given working day. They have all the reasons in the world when asked why they were late or why they had to take undertime. There is a need to limit the number of times an employee is allowed to be tardy, absent or go on undertime because of its inimical effect to public service. Hence, let us revisit the policies on Undertime, Tardiness and Half Day Absence and identify the corresponding sanctions/penalties for each offense which will surely prompt employees to render work within the prescribed period of time.

The CSC issued Memorandum Circular No. 16, s. 2010 promulgating the guidelines on Undertime which mentions that Undertime is not classified as tardiness. It states that any officer or employee who incurs undertime, regardless of the number of minutes/ hours, ten (10) times a month or at least two months in a semester or at least two (2) consecutive months during the year shall be liable for a Simple Misconduct and/ or Conduct Prejudicial to the Best Interest of the Service, as the case maybe.

Under CSC MC 23, s. 1998, Tardiness refers to the failure of an employee to report for work or resume for work on time. Any official or employee shall be considered habitually tardy if he/ she incurs tardiness regardless of minutes per day, ten times a month for Two (2) consecutive months or Two (2) months in a semester during the year. He is subject to disciplinary action: 1st offense is reprimand, 2nd offense is suspension for 1 day to 30 days and 3rd offense is DISMISSAL.

CSC MC No. 17, s. 2010 provides guidelines on HalfDayAbsence with conditions that any officer oremployee who is absent in the morning is considered to be tardy and is subject to the provision on Habitual Tardiness and any officer or employee who is absent in the afternoon is considered to have incurred undertime, subject to the provision on Undertime.

An employee who has incurred UNAUTHORIZED ABSENCES, exceeding the allowable 2.5 days monthly leave credit under the Leave Law for at least three (3) months in a semester or at least three (3) consecutive months during the year shall be considered habitually absent. Those who incur habitual absence is subject six (6) months and one (1) day to one (1) year suspension on the first offense and Dismissal on the second offense.

There shall be no off-setting of tardiness or absences by working for an equivalent number of minutes or hours by which an officer or employee has been tardy or absent, beyond the regular working hours of the employees concerned.

You may also like reading Overcoming the Procrastinator in Us and Getting Our Brand Stand Out

Overcoming the Procrastinator in Us and Getting Our Brand Stand Out

By:  Gilbert M. Forbes
DepEd Quezon

According to Filipino Financial Expert and Leadership guru, Francis J. Kong in his article published in the Philippine Star entitled, ‘Are You the Late Juan dela Cruz,’ the way we particularly behave and show ourselves to others is our brand.  If we think that only marketed products need branding, we too need branding. 

Francis J. Kong said that “You are a brand, just as I am my own brand and your next-door neighbor is his own brand. Who we really are and what people perceive us to be – our brand – may be two different things, but as the famous line goes, “Perception is reality!”

Many of us couldn’t deny that many of us are constant procrastinator since time we could remember.  The reason why the word Filipino Time has become a negative connotation to less than we, the latecomers ourselves.   We simply love to do things between deadlines.  We always feel like we can do things better when it’s almost time.  We find it hard to start from scratch if there’s still enough time.  I don’t know but I find it easy to start and finish things while cramming.  I’m sure others would share the same experience.

However, we have to realize that it is creating a negative images or mark on our brand.  That brand is of being a peculiar procrastinator.

We may not be the only procrastinator in town but if we are popular, we would stand out as the leader of all procrastinators.  So, we have to slowly get away from this negative label.

Francis Kong reminds us that we have to remember that our constant tardiness costs the  company or the government  money, but we need to understand that it actually costs us more. It’s because our reputation is put on the line every time we are late.

“Habitually late people are usually procrastinators who have trouble resisting immediate gratification. Sometimes, they even enjoy putting something off until the last minute. Such habits become ingrained over time. Chronic lateness is like an illness – it begins with a few symptoms that grow into a full-blown sickness.”

“Despite the consequences, tardiness is often a difficult habit to break. Battling it takes more than setting the clock 10 minutes advance. That never works. Stop making up excuses, and start managing your time with these helpful tip that Francis Kong recommends:

1. Traffic is terrible, so why not simply set out early? You will never know what may go wrong while you’re off to work or to an appointment. And then there are days when just about e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g goes wrong. But if you’ve set out for work early, you can run behind yourschedule and still be on time for the call time.
2. Compute the time it takes to do other tasks.  Travel and traffic are just two things, but what about the time it’ll take for you to secure a parking space? If it’s your first time to go to a location, consider also the time you’ll spend looking for the right address and asking for directions. 
3. Better plan the night before.  The clothes you’re going to wear, the shoes you’re going to use, the things you need to bring – if all these were prepared the night before so that all you have to do is just grab them on your way out, you will definitely save a lot of prep time. So stay organized!
4. Let technology serve, not enslave you.  Cell phones, SMS, email. These things make us available to everyone 24 hours a day. Assign only a specific time for checking and returning them. Intermittent opening would take up a lot of your time without you noticing it. You should do the same even in returning clients’ phone calls. Keep in mind that there are more than two countries in this world of ours aside from “Rush-ia” and “Urgent-tina”. Don’t get caught up with long conference calls or last-minute memos. Keep it off and open it only during break times.  For emergency, give the emergency hotline of the office or the institution you are working for.  Inform your peers, friends and family members that you could only communicate with them during break time.  It would be better if your could leave your cellphones in a locker just like those working in factories and department stores.
5. Don’t just stand there… Do something!  When there’s a job for you to do, start it immediately. It’s really rare to find people who actually work best under pressure, so don’t fool yourself into thinking you’re one. Looming deadlines become less bothersome when you start working on the task early enough and when you keep at it until it’s finished.

Kong further explained that every time we make people wait, we are communicating to them that they’re not important to us. we are robbing them of their precious time. We are silently announcing to them our arrogance. 
 
So, let us be punctual. It will reflect our character. It will build our brand every day of our life. After all since time immemorial, our forefathers, are known not only in their honesty but on punctuality.

If there is an American Time, there is Filipino Time because Filipino Time is on Time!

(Mr. Gilbert M. Forbes had his Bachelors Degree and MA in Educational Management (CAR) from the Philippine Normal University.  A campus paper adviser and trainer for 13 years.  Currently, he is a school principal in one of the central schools in the Division of Quezon.) 

Reference:

Kong, Francis J., Are You the Late Juan De la Cruz?, The Philippine Star

Forbes, Gilbert M., Getting My Brand Stand Out and Overcoming the Procrastinator in Me, A Reflection Paper Submitted at the Philippine Normal University as part of the requirements in Human Behavior and Management, First Semester 2012

What is Good Attitude

 By: Aurelio O. Tolentino
Philippine Daily Inquirer First Posted 23:21:00 11/14/2010 

We may not be able to change where we come from, but at any time we have the power to change where we go.

Let me tell you about positive attitude from my experience.

I started a life with a very negative outlook. Indeed!  In my desire to improve my conditions and those around me, I acted as a critic not just of myself but also of people around me. After all, it’s said, “Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
In the end, I not only failed to raise my standards, but people were unhappy with me and I was unhappy with myself!  My civic work, family and Church offered little help to clarify my situation. Even now, students do not take up positive attitude in school.

Norman Vincent Peale

With this disposition, you can imagine how the 1952 book of Norman Vincent Peale, “The Power of Positive Thinking,” so impressed me. Here are quotes that kept me strong after college:

“Believe in yourself! Have faith in your abilities! Without a humble but reasonable confidence in your own powers, you cannot be successful or happy.”

“When life hands you a lemon, make lemonade.”

“Never talk defeat. Use words like hope, belief, faith, victory.”

“You can if you think you can!”

Robert H. Schuller

Then, I moved on to Robert H. Schuller who influenced my early years at entrepreneurship with his “Possibility Thinking.”  Here are his thoughts that keep my heart warm when it gets cold outside.

“Never cut a tree down in the wintertime. Never make a negative decision in the low time. Never make your most important decisions when you are in your worst moods. Wait. Be patient. The storm will pass. The spring will come.”

“Let your hopes, not your hurts, shape your future.”

“Any fool can count the seeds in an apple. Only God can count all the apples in one seed.”

John Maxwell

Much later, John Maxwell’s books guided me in exercising leadership with 200 people on regular status under my care. I found these treasures in his books:

“The future belongs to those who see possibilities before they become obvious.”

“The pessimist complains about the wind. The optimist expects it to change. The leader adjusts the sails.”

“Your success stops where your character stops. You can never rise above the limitations of your character.”

“A man must be big enough to admit his mistakes, smart enough to profit from them, and strong enough to correct them.”

“People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.”

Stephen Covey

Then the thoughts of Stephen Covey on abundance mentality made bright my days as my company grew to more than 400 people:

There is so much to be shared in life. Look for its abundance, not its scarcity. When we share life’s abundance, we grow with others and they grow with us.

Here’s a paraphrase:

Meron ako, wala ka, share tayo.
Meron lahat tayo!
Wala ako, meron ka, share tayo.
Meron lahat tayo!
Meron ako, meron ka, share tayo.
Lubos lahat tayo!

“The pen is mightier than the sword.”  This is why I write.  Can you feel the spirit moving with all these thoughts? Can you see how the spirit of good attitude can be mightier than even the pen?

A common definition

If good attitude is so important, then we must define it and not leave its application to chance.

Remez Sasson defines it in his Internet article: “Positive thinking is a mental attitude that admits into the mind thoughts, words and images that are conducive to growth, expansion and success.”

I grew with these thoughts but had to struggle with three concerns.

First, even gangsters can apply such positive attitude at work and succeed! Why, I thought, if I had to change, I’d rather change for the better, not for the worse!

Second, positive thinking can be misconstrued as wishful thinking, braggadocio, losing touch with reality.

A man who aspires to rise above a difficult situation needs to be firmly grounded on reality. He is able to discern the quality of action leading to his aspiration and to take this kind of action from day to day.

In other words, good attitude, if it is truly good, may be translated to specific types of action that lead to success. Otherwise, such attitude is mental gymnastics, a self-delusion.

Third, at every step of any undertaking, how can we know if we’re moved by good attitude or negative attitude? If we’re not careful, we can fool even ourselves!

Evil minds can masquerade negative attitude as positive attitude to attract people to their way of thinking and behaving. Watch political ads in elections!

Define negative attitude

I thought that to clarify what positive attitude was, it would be helpful to define negative attitude.  I then had to consider all life’s nasty realities which make retreats necessary.
As shown in any altercation among people in unruly traffic, bad attitudes are human acts arising from uncontrolled anger, pride, laziness, envy, gluttony, greed, lust.

They result in a hardened heart and sickness inside.

Go back to your past experiences of bad attitudes. Test them against this definition.

Define good attitude

Then, I studied the opposite of these seven characteristics.

They are love, patient endurance, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, humility and self-control. Here are two, more—joy and peace.

Note the difference. Good attitude inspires; bad attitude depresses.

Let us put this distinction to a test. Would you know why the following examples inspire?

Now that we have defined good attitude, we can measure every act, every thought, every goal in accordance with what good attitude is before we launch ourselves into it.

If you know an action or event would give rise to a bad attitude or be motivated by it, would you still proceed?

We do not have to reinvent the wheel. The spirit of good attitude has been around for thousands of years, although it might not have been termed good attitude then.

Here’s the inspired reference on attitudes, Galatians 5:19-23, my source for their definition. This definition is so full of common sense that we don’t have to be Christians to believe it.

Good attitude is the key to competitiveness. It is the road of hope—the road less traveled.
But have faith and be discerning. It is the road to success. Take it.

(The writer is an entrepreneur, and author of the books “The Peso ExchangeRate: Why Are We So Poor?” and “The Philippine Economy: Do Our Leaders Have A Clue?” Feedback at map@globelines.com.ph. For previous articles, please visit map.org.ph.)

The Myth of Multi-tasking

If you think, multi-tasking is a boon, you have to think twice for research says that productivity actually drops by as much as 40 percent when people try to do two or more things at once according to researchers from the University of Michigan.

If you think multitasking is good, think twice. (firehow.com photo)

According to an article published in Entrepreneur Magazine, as workers' attention spans are whipsawed by interruptions, something insidious happens in the brain:  Interruptions erode an area called effortful control and with it the ability to regulate attention.  In other words, the more you checnk the messages in your email or cellphones, the more you feel to check them.

"Technology is an addiction," says Gayle Porter, a professor of Management at Rutgers University who has studied e-compulsion.  "If someone can't turn their cellphones off particularly the high end BlackBerry, there's a problem.

The cult of multitasing would have use believe that compulsive message-checking is the behavior of an always-on, hyper-productive worker.  But it's not.  It's the sign of a distracted employee who misguidedly believe he can do multiple tasks at one time.

Science disagrees.  People may be able to chew gum and walk at the same time, but they can't do two or more thinking tasks simultaneously.Say, a teacher who is writing test items while reading and checking messages from her phone.  Those are both language tasks (reading and writing) that have to go through the same cognitive channel.

Trying to do both forces, her brain to switch back and forth which results in "switching cost," forcing her to slow down.  The switching exacts other costs too-- mistakes and burnout. One of the study's authors, David Meyer, asserts bluntly that quality work and multitasking are incompatible.

Brian Bailey and Joseph Konstan of the University of Minnesota discovered that sleeve-tagging peripheral tasks triggered twice the number of errors and jacked up levels of annoyance to anywhere between 31 percent and 106 percent.  Their interrupted test workers also took 3 percent to 27 percent more time to complete the reading, counting or math problems.

In fact, the harder the interrupted task, the harder it was to get back on track.  A Microsoft study suggests it takes 15 minutes for a worker to refocus after an interruption

The damaging effects spread well beyond the office cubicle.  Kate LeVan, a communication consultant in Evanston, Illinois, coaches executives whose brains are so scrambled by electronic interruptions that they stumble during key face-to-face interactions: board meetings, investors pitches, sales presentations.

"They can't have an extended conversation for more than a few minutes.," LeVan says.  "That's the impact of having all these data going back and forth. They have problems in conversation because they can't focus."

If this problem exists among professionals, what more on ordinary young students who used to multi-tasked?

Source:  Entrrepreneur Magazine, June 2010 Issue, Philippines

Resistance to change

By:  Francis Kong
www.franciskong.com

 Luisetti was voted college player of the year in 1937 and 1938. He finished second to George Mikan in the Associated Press’s poll to select the best player of the first half of the twentieth century.

Hank Luisetti died on December 17, 2002, living plenty long enough to see his style perfected and embellished by the likes of Earl Monroe, Julius Erving, and, of course, Michael Jordan. Had somebody not had the courage to break convention, then basketball today would have remained static and boring.

Through out history you will see that resistance to change has always been there. Hindsight is 20-20 vision. Today as we look back we find it humorous. Take for instance this story:

In the late nineteenth century, a controversy erupted among educators about a new American invention. For decades, students had used lead pencils in doing their work. But in 1880, a technological breakthrough came. For the first time, they began attaching rubber erasers on the ends of pencils.

This had never been done before. And many educators opposed the use of this newfangled pencil on the ground that it encouraged students to make mistakes. “Let them avoid errors in the first place, and they won’t need an eraser.”

When calculators were introduced accounting and engineering professors were against the machine. The devices were prohibited entry into the classroom. One accounting professor proclaimed with passion and conviction that those who persist in using the calculator will become dumb. Of course today, if you are not using the calculator you are already dumb. When was the last time you ever see someone carrying the slide rule and algorithm to class? Hardly.

Be open to change. But stick firm to biblical values.

These are the only thing that should never change for it they do change then they are not considered values in the first place.

Make change your friend. People who soar and succeed are those who refuse to live in the past but whole eyes sparkle with the prospect of the future embracing change along the way.

Also see:  Innovate or Die

Are you the cause or are you the effect?

-->From the original article of Francis J. Kong, at The Philippine Star dated September 25, 2011.  Slightly edited to fit to school setting and not become so general

There are 3 kinds of people in the world:

Those who make things happen.

Those who wait for things to happen.

Those who ask: “Why? What happened?”

Winners and achievers always make things happen. They live the philosophy that Ralph Waldo Emerson articulated many years ago: “Shallow people believe in luck. Wise and strong people believe in cause and effect.”

Is the person you are today the effect of some random event, of chance? Are you the product of someone or something which you can easily put a blaming finger on? Or are you a cause, a change agent as you make things happen today?

Every morning when you wake up, ask yourself these questions: “What do I want to cause to happen today? What do I want to produce?” I ask myself the same questions every morning, and then I qualify with “I need God’s grace and wisdom to help me carry through those tasks…” Then I move on towards my goal.

Those are the best management questions of all. People who have a hard time managing people simply have a hard time answering those two questions, because they’re always thinking about what’s happening to them instead of what they’re going to cause to happen.

Leadership means taking the initiative to make things happen. When your people see you as a cause instead of an effect, it won’t be hard to teach them to think the same way.

Teachers in particular are working leaders and managers in their own ways for they necessarily need to make things happen.  And that is learning. Weak leadership and management techniques in the classroom will be chaotic.

Now here’s an unpopular idea. You might hate me the moment you read my suggestion, but I’ll say it anyway: Stop criticizing the school management!  If there’s something to be critical and be against of are those of evil acts such as corruption and other acts in violation of the civil service and administrative laws.  This should be done in a civil legal way for this only involves the person and not the whole organization, 

In any organization, schools or institutions of learning included, there will always be jerks, those people who brighten up the room by leaving it. The question is: are you going to let them control you? Or are you going to take charge of your day, work to produce, and move forward to your success goals in life? You can cause that to happen.  Remember the young minds under your care.

When you start criticizing management, you’re inadvertently distancing yourself from them and joining the majority of whiners, moaners and mediocres sobbing the same sad stories of how victimized they are and how unfairly treated. Trust me, these negative people won’t add value to your success goals.

Whining about the management can come in various forms which you might unaware of*:

You’re quiet, but you roll your eyes every time the name of a subject coordinator or committee chairman is mentioned.

You mutter under your breath, “I don’t know why they’re doing this!”

You grumble, “They didn’t consult me because they know I wouldn’t agree to this policy….”

You get mad and say, “These jerks just do not understand what we’re doing here!”

You attend trainings and seminars for following and as a mere requirement and so none of it has changed your teaching styles since you were hired.

Notice how one word keeps appearing in all of the statements: “They”. What you’re actually doing when you’re whining is you pit “They” against “Us”. You keep people from playing as a team, and you keep other team players from working effectively. When you go from being a producer to being a critic, you start going south. Your toxicity affects other team members because you generate the following impressions about the management, destroying morale and motivation:

1. Management is unfair and they are only using us.

2. This organization has no future.

3. You, together with other leaders, are weak and powerless.

You may think you’re bonding with the losers, but criticizing like this actually leads to deep trust problems and promotes disrespect to the integrity of the organization.

Be a cause, not just an effect. If you’re a leader, have the courage to honorably represent upper management and not run it down. If you’re a team member, have the courage to work effectively and foster unity, without giving in to management gossiping. You know you’ve arrived when you stop using the word “They” and start using the word “We!”

What does Scripture say? “Obey your earthly masters in everything; and do it, not only when their eye is on you and to win their favor, but with sincerity of heart and reverence for the Lord.”

That is being a cause and not being an effect.

7 Things Teachers and School Administrators Should Learn from Steve Jobs

By:  Gilbert M. Forbes
www.factoidz.com posted 10/10/2011

The untimely death of Steve Jobs, the man behind the iconic Apple computers, Ipad, Iphone and Pixar has brought to life many valuable lessons in life. He is astoundingly a leader and man of vision where many who are in the area of education, leadership and management could learn from. Here are the seven striking things from the self titled article of Erick Jackson The Top Ten Lessons Steve Jobs Can Teach Us - If We’ll Listen

1. Never fear failure – Many are afraid to do experiments, even innovate and most importantly changes what one has been used to do through the years. Many, in the field of education are succumbed to that culture of fear of going out of their shell, of the box, of their comfort zones. That’s why we tend to live and follow the shadows of others whom we admire instead of just having them as our inspirations instead of doing our own marks, our own legacy. Jobs however didn’t. He went on for his passion. For it, he was later fired by the successor he picked as a CEO only to be taken again, when the Company he himself built is on the brink of collapse. It was one of the most public embarrassments of the last 30 years in business. Yet, he didn’t become a venture capitalist never to be heard from again. He didn’t start a production company and do a lot of lunches. He picked himself up and got back to work following his passion. Eight years ago, he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and told he only had a few weeks to live. As Samuel Johnson said, there’s nothing like your impending death to focus the mind. From Jobs’ 2005 Stanford commencement speech:

“No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.
"Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary."

2. Don’t care about being right. Care about succeeding – I am just like many who worry about what others will say about me. This most of the time limits my ability to try new things. To innovate and course things up. Jobs used this line in an interview after he was fired by Apple. If you have to benchmark on others’ great ideas to make yours better, do it. You can’t be married to your vision of how a product is going to work out, such that you forget about current reality. When the Apple III came out, it was hot and warped its motherboard even though Jobs had insisted it would be quiet and sleek. If Jobs had stuck with Lisa, Apple would have never developed the Mac.   To continue reading, just please click this link.

(Mr. Gilbert M. Forbes had his Bachelors Degree and MA in Educational Management (CAR) from the Philippine Normal University.  A campus paper adviser and trainer for 13 years.  Currently, he is a school principal in one of the central schools in the Division of Quezon.) 

Improving the School System for Quality Learning

By Gilbert M. Forbes
Principal, Padre Burgos Central School
Padre Burgos, Quezon

Raising the standards and quality of education in our schools depends largely on the existing system that the school effectively follows and implements.  Actually, as former DepEd Secretary Lesli Lapus puts it when he took office, there is no more need to reinvent the wheel.  What school leaders, teachers and the rest of the school stakeholders need to do are to keep it rolling.

Aside from making the existing system works and the wheel rolling, Kathy O’Neill, Director of Learning Centered Development Program based in the US suggested the following which we may be acquainted already but we’re only doing some only for compliance.

• Using Data to Focus Improvement.  We have it already under our so called School Basic Education Information System.  What we need to do is to enrich it aside from looking for trend.  One way to enrich it is to take it down to the classroom level seriously.  Lots of data are generated every year.  All we need is to utilize it fully and design a workable program out of it in consultation with the stakeholders which should be integrated in the School Improvement Plan.  It should always be remembered that schools that successfully improve student achievement regularly use data to guide decisions about instruction, student support and professional development.

• Creating a High-Performance Learning Culture.  It is uncommon to see schools fully supporting a school which support a true culture of excellence due to underlying behaviorial, attitudinal, and values prevalent under the present circumstances in the Philippine School System.  If itsn’t the school leader, problems lie mainly on teachers and other stakeholders who still prefer mediocrity versus quality and excellence popularly known as ‘puwede na yan’ and ‘bakit pa’ attitude.   Schools cannot improve when the culture does not support school improvement. Often in the push to improve quickly, the school's culture is forgotten. School leaders should learn what that culture is and why it must be challenged, changed and cultivated for the better; what roles leaders play in growing the culture; and what tools and strategies are available to help leaders foster a culture that supports improvement, high expectations and the well-being of students.

• Using Root Cause Analysis to Reduce Student Failure.  Improving student learning by changing classroom and school practices both requires and results in changes to a school's culture. Culture also impacts how and what improvements are made to benefit student learning, and data can be a powerful lever to explore inequities, expose systemic biases, and change beliefs and practices needed to improve the achievement of disenfranchised pupils and stakeholders. We need to gain analytical tools to uncover the real problems that school leaders need to address to close success gaps in schools. Aside from the school leaders, teachers being at the forefront of the teaching and learning has a pivotal role in this regard.  One way to do it is the so called student tracking system long time promoted by DepEd in the late 90’s.  Another way is identification of highly at risked children through the Project REACH and DORP, the promotion of at least basic but strong guidance and counseling program, and basic parenting seminars in our schools.

• Providing Focused and Sustained Professional Development.  Professional development is a powerful tool for changing schools, yet professional development is frequently done poorly and results in little or no positive change.  This is a long time ago.  With the introduction of the NCBTS and CB-PAST, individual teachers now has a hand and a say on what professional development assistance they need.  The first and foremost need however is how could teachers fully utilized these tools when current observations point out that they usually don’t know where they really are.   This a major challenged that is seen so far which school leaders should  attend.  School leaders should lead teachers in the realization that standards are standards.  It is non-negotiable.  For one to claim that he/she is able to meet one standard or is competent of doing something should be evidenced-driven and is highly observable on varying degrees.

• Organizing Resources for a Learning-Centered School.  How can schools more effectively use time and resources for teaching, planning and professional learning?

• Building Instructional Leadership Teams That Make a Difference.  The heart of leadership is the willingness to assume responsibility. Schools that improve and sustain improvement use teams to lead school reform. A crying need exists for teachers to lead by taking a more formal and explicit role in the supervision and improvement of instruction. 

• Communicating to Engage Stakeholders in School Improvement.  Effective communication is the key to an improving school community. Often the best intentions are sidetracked by poor communication. One feature of poor communication which doesn’t promote strong stakeholders involvement is the lack of transparency and enough for full cooperation characterized by mutual understanding and democracy.  On extreme cases aside from monetary issues, clash with the PTA’s leadership come into being when school administration appear to be autocratic instead of democratic and consultative.

• Leading School Change to Improve Student Achievement.  School leaders have gotten used to the idea that "the only constant is change." Productive school leaders understand the forces that influence the change process and can direct these forces for continuous school improvement. Learn how to lead change rather than react to it.

• Benchmarking and Coaching for School Improvement.  Schools undergoing transformational school improvement processes often need external models or bench-mark and coaches to help them through the process. The main challenge however in our schools is that too few want to share their secrets of success.   While any school could benchmarked a model school, they base it merely on outside and observable indicators because more often than not, selfish desire sad to say exists due to shallowness of professional beliefs and values as successful school leader implementers would often see other school leaders as competitors to their possible rise to the educational ladder.

Certainly, there are no shortcuts in making our school continuously improve and be a quality and excellent one.  The great challenge however to achieve it in a long sustainable and continuing way is for us to change our attitudes and values for the common good.  All best systems are already there.  The only thing and the main challenge is for us is to make those systems work.

(We welcome reactions, sharing and additional ideas in relation to this article.  All that will help our schools.)

(Mr. Gilbert M. Forbes had his Bachelors Degree and MA in Educational Management (CAR) from the Philippine Normal University.  A campus paper adviser and trainer for 13 years.  Currently, he is a school principal in one of the central schools in the Division of Quezon.) 

Knowledge Should Equate Competence

From the original article entitled Knowledge and Competence

BUSINESS MATTERS (BEYOND THE BOTTOM LINE) By Francis J. Kong

(The Philippine Star) Updated June 11, 2011 12:00 AM

Two pilots are trying to land an airplane. As they touch the ground, one pilot screams, “Pull up! The runway is ending!”

The second pilot swiftly gets the plane back up in the air. They make a big turn and prepare to descend again. But the moment they touch ground, the pilot screams again, “Get the plane up  the runway is ending!!!” This goes on for another round.

On their fourth descent, the first pilot says, “This is so dumb. They built this huge and expensive airport, but made such a short runway.”“I know,” answers the second pilot, “But look how wide they made it...”

Some people think that by pulling rank, bullying people or throwing their weight around, they can get others to admire them, fear them and follow them. This is so dumb  as dumb as the pilots in the story. Those pilots are certainly not very competent or very know-ledgeable in flying an aircraft.

Competence and knowledge  is there a difference (apart from the spelling, of course)?

Yes, there is. Knowing is not the same as doing. Competence means one has progressed beyond knowing what to do to doing what one knows.

There are four levels of competence:

1. Unconscious Incompetence  You do not know that you do not know.

2. Conscious Incompetence  You know that you do not know.

3. Conscious Competence  You know that you do know.

4. Unconscious Competence  What you know is already automatic with you.

If you want to gain people’s respect, enchant people and inspire them, you need to be knowledgeable in what you do and be competent at it.

I have met people who pretend to be knowledgeable, when in fact what they do is just echo others’ ideas and opinions. They read a book and suddenly become experts at the subject matter. But once you get to know them and work with them, they fall awfully short of expectations.

There are others who may know what they’re talking about but are not really competent at it. They’re the Talkers. They talk a lot. Yakitty-yakitty-yakitty-yak they go, but when it’s time to act on the things they speak oh-so-well of, they do a poor job. That’s why I feel a little awkward when people introduce me as a person who practices what I preach. I’d rather be known as someone who preaches what I’m already practicing.

Two persons were having a conversation. One said, “I don’t think success has gone to her head.” “No, just to her mouth,” the other said.

In a different conversation, a church member boasts, “My pastor is so good, he can talk on any subject for an hour.” A member of a different church responded, “That’s nothing! My pastor can talk for an hour without a subject!”

Don’t just talk without knowing. And don’t just know without being competent at it.

Learn. Do. Act. Correct. Be humble and speak less. You make less mistakes that way. But when you do open your mouth, speak of what you know and you’re competent at. People will not only listen to you  they will believe you.

Five Leadership Strategies for School Leaders

Based on the original article by Eric Sheninger entitled Five Leadership Strategies for the New Year

As the calendar turns to August, school leaders across the country are meticulously planning for the upcoming year. This process has become more difficult as mounting challenges such as budget cuts and what seems like a relentless attack on the profession of education have taken their toll on staff morale. With this being said, quality leadership becomes even more essential in order to cultivate a school culture whose primary focus is on the learning and achievement of each and every student.

Here are some of my leadership strategies for making change during challenging times. Please feel free to share any other ideas in the comments section below.  

Strategy One: Make No Excuses

Success in this endeavor relies on us to take a no-excuse attitude. Ask yourself this: What am I prepared to do to improve all facets of my school? How will I accomplish more with less? Think and reflect upon the ways to accomplish the goals you set as opposed to the challenges, roadblocks, and pushback you will experience. These are all common complications that arise during the change process and should not be used as excuses not to push forward.

We must be the pillars of our respective institutions and focus on solutions rather than problems. Succumbing to the negative rhetoric, abiding by the status quo, and having a bunker mentality will do nothing to initiate needed changes in our building to improve teaching and learning.

Each day we are afforded an opportunity to make a positive difference in the lives of our students through our role as education leaders. Our passion for helping all students learn and assisting staff in their growth should be the driving motivational force to make our schools the best they can be, regardless of the obstacles. Everything is changing -- the world, learners, job market, technology, access to information -- the sad reality though is that schools are not. We need to be catalysts to drive this change!

Tip: Meet with your administrative team and teacher leaders prior to the start of the school year to identify issues where excuses routinely arise. Begin to map out collective responses focusing on positive solutions to these problems.

Strategy Two: Model a Vision for Excellence

Begin by articulating a clear vision to your staff. The consensus has to be that every student can and should learn. Getting your entire staff to embrace this concept is at the heart of effective leadership. I prefer to use the word “embrace” rather than “buy-in" -- a more commonly used word synonymous with change efforts. We should not be trying to sell our staffs on pedagogical techniques and other initiatives that will better prepare our students for success once they graduate.

In order to promote the embracing of new ideas, strategies, and techniques we need to collaboratively work with staff to transform traditional classroom environments into vibrant learning communities where all students are authentically engaged.

Tip: Engage your staff in a brainstorming session during the first faculty meeting in order to develop a collective vision on how to transform the school for the betterment of all students.

Strategy Three: Embrace 21st Century Pedagogy and Curriculum

A vision begins with talk, but will only become reality with action. As society evolves due to advances in technology, we as principals must ensure that instruction follows suit or we run the risk of our schools becoming irrelevant. By irrelevant I am referring to our ability to prepare students with the skills to think critically, solve problems, demonstrate learning through creation, and compete in a global society.

As instructional leaders, it is our primary responsibility to observe and evaluate instruction. With this comes the responsibility to ensure that teachers are provided the freedom to take risks, knowledge of effective practices, resources to make it happen, and flexibility to incorporate innovative teaching strategies. With these parameters in place, principals must then be able to consistently identify, foster, support, and promote 21st century pedagogy.

Inherent within this shift is the need to re-evaluate the curriculum as the real-time web and information age present new challenges to instruction and student engagement. The time is now to lay the foundation to ensure that our students evolve into critical consumers of content, understand the importance of digital citizenship, as well as possess the ability to create, analyze, and interpret an array of media messages.

Tip: Start the year off by gathering key stakeholders to collaboratively revise your curriculum to emphasize essential skills necessary for today's learners to excel beyond your walls.

Strategy Four: Breathe Life Into Professional Development

Most teachers cringe when they hear the words “professional development” and rightfully so. The traditional model utilized by many schools forces educators into structured silos based solely on district and school goals while ignoring staff interests and passions. PD can be inspiring and fun when people are free to follow these interests and develop their own support communities.

Tip: If you thirst for an innovative culture focused on student achievement, begin the process of transitioning to Professional Learning Communities (PLC's). To take it a step further, model and encourage your staff to form their own Personal Learning Network (PLN). Then step back, give up some control, and watch your staff thrive as their passion fuels a transformation of the teaching and learning culture at your school.

Strategy Five: Stay Connected

Principals need support.  This should happen now in our country just like in other countries.

(THIS IS THE PRIMARY PURPOSE OF THIS BLOG.  TO CONNECT WITH OTHER SCHOOL LEADERS ALL OVER THE COUNTRY.  THAT'S WHY UNTIL NOW, WE WELCOME SCHOOL LEADERS TO BE OUR FOLLOWERS AND CONTRIBUTORS OF THEIR EXPERIENCES IN THE FIELD AND BE CONNECTED JUST LIKE THEIR COUNTERPARTS IN OTHER COUNTRIES.  IT IS SADDENING HOWEVER THAT WE ARE STILL WAITING TO MAKE IT HAPPEN.)

Change begins with a no-excuse mentality. Don't waste one more minute pondering what could be. There is a revolution going on right now in learning, and it is up to us to lead the way. Please share any leadership strategies that are making a difference in your building.

The writer of the article:  Eric Sheninger is principal of New Milford High School and the subject of a recentarticle in USAToday on social media in the classroom.  He is the author of Communicating Camp; Connecting With Social Media.  You can also follow him on Twitter at NMHS Principal.

(This article came to the knowledge of The Learning Captain through the post of Dr. Aniano Ogayon, SDS of the Division of Lucena City who posted it on his fb wall for the many to see and was reposted here for easy follow-up.) 

THE LEADERS WAY: Putting the best with the best

By: John C. Maxwell

The Philippine Daily Inquirer 

10:53 pm/Saturday July 16th 2011

 

(The Learning Captain's Note- Have you wondered why many good, intelligent, reform oriented and well educated educational leaders find it hard to transform their respective stations in the shortest possible way?  The article below will give us an idea.)

Imagine that you get a call from a nationally respected headhunter. She represents a company that wants to hire you. In fact, she’s offering a signing bonus and a 20-percent pay increase. Your authority would increase, and you would get an ownership stake in the company. It’s a job you know you could handle, with responsibilities you know you would enjoy.

The drawback? You would work on a team with a reputation for mediocre work. It is known in the industry for doing no more than what it takes to get by, and there’s no indication that the leadership at the company plans to change that. Mediocrity is so much the rule at that company, in fact, that you’re a little concerned that they would want you. Do they really think you’d fit into that culture?

Despite the material benefits, many of us would turn down such an opportunity, rightly recognizing that it fails to satisfy one of our most basic needs – the desire to work with people who share our commitment to excellence.

The best want to work with the best. In fact, just one weak link can dramatically influence an otherwise strong team – ultimately leading to turnover among the best producers. So if we want to recruit and keep the best people for our teams, we have to recognize the importance of a strong weakest link.

We can demonstrate the impact of the weakest link with some basic math. If you have a five-person team and all five people are “10s,” then you might add that up and say your team is a “50.” But what if one of those people goes into a funk and becomes a 5. Now your team is a 45, and its effectiveness drops by 10 percent.

That’s a pretty big impact, but it still falls short of reality. In the real world, synergy exists, so our impact on a team is more like multiplication than addition. One and two doesn’t equal three in teamwork; with synergy, one and two can equal 10.

Consider the previous example but with multiplication. 10 times 10 times 10 times 10 times 10 equal 100,000. But 10 times 10 times 10 times 10 times five equal only 50,000. One weak link reduces the team’s effectiveness by a whopping 50 percent.

Clearly, the way to keep good people is to keep them around other good people. When good people find themselves working with people who are not carrying their share of the load, dissatisfaction creeps in. Pretty soon, the productivity of the really good people begins to fall off too. They lose motivation for excellence or they just get worn out from carrying someone else’s share of the work. Eventually, the best leave for greener pastures.

Everyone on a team needs to add excellence, which means leaders first need to place people in roles that make the most of their gifts and talents. But a person with the right skills and the wrong attitude is still like the proverbial bad apple that spoils the whole batch. So if you want a team that experiences low turnover and high success, fill it with people who are both capable and committed to doing great work.

(This article is syndicated from the The Philippine Daily Inquirer which was granted with the permission from The John Maxwell Company and Inspire Leadership Consultancy. For your training needs on personal and organizational effectiveness please call us at 687-2614/706-4853. For more details visit us at www.inspireleaders.com.ph)