Pain and difficulty equals growth

As the “Ghost Month” comes to an end, I find myself resting and recovering after two exhausting weeks, mentoring, dishing out tough love and guiding several groups particularly a batch of OIC and Acting Schools Division Superintendent as well as officials of the SIDC organization, perhaps the largest agriculture-based cooperative in the CALABARZON.

My time with the DepEd OICs and ASDS started out as a three-day intensive training on strategic communications, media engagement skills and developing strategic engagements particularly with politicians, media and decision makers in government and the private sector. It did not surprise me however that the training eventually led to self discovery for the participants, coming to terms with what they lacked professionally, what they needed to improve on but more importantly to realize that if the system has to change it has to start with them initiating the change.

You don’t stop simply because it did not work your way the first time. You don’t stop simply because it takes so long for change to really take place. As I pointed out to the DepEd mentors, remember what your parents taught you: “Try and try until you die!” Because of too many sensitivity sessions, we’ve become too politically correct to realize that our parents or grandparents were simply teaching us not to be quitters. On the other hand, I also told a handful that if they really did not want the promotion and wanted to remain as teachers or principals, then “Be” the best teacher or principal on site! Don’t let the world or the system pressure you to becoming something or someone you don’t want to be.

There was a time when I might have said “What a waste” or “Sayang.” But I’ve now lived longer than my father ever did and I’ve come to learn that progress and living the life do not always mean having a post graduate diploma, an executive title, the multi-million home or being a “public figure.” If you are happy living the provincial life; Bravo! If you want to focus on raising kids; BLESS You. The west told us we need titles and diplomas, then decades later we found out that many of the Best and Brightest, as well as the Richest they have came from broken families, poverty, unimpressive school records or were dropouts. I believe in education, I just don’t believe in people telling us how to live our lives and making titles and certificates the determinants of our future.

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While my time with the DepEd mentors was emotionally charged and physically draining, the time spent with the SIDC officers and staff began like a ballet over eggshells and ended as a pep rally. After decades of going and growing along, the group fell victim to something like a “wild cat strike” where a very small group of laborers barricaded the cooperative’s main gate, placed their children who were all minors with placards to give a local TV Network enough material to work on. The irony was that those people turned out to be non-SIDC employees but were employees of a sub-contractor or manpower agency. In other words they were picketing the clients instead of the employer.

Nonetheless the wild cat action clearly affected the officials and members of SIDC who felt that the rally was a “betrayal,” a stab in the back by the very people the cooperative has been working for towards creating jobs, income opportunities, as well as new businesses for communities and their members. The whole thing became very personal for the officials even for those who were familiar with local politics and relations. They were also at a loss that the local TV station where they were advertisers placed them in such a bad light in terms of reporting.

The only way to snap them out of their funk was to lead them through an impersonal critical analysis of their situation focusing particularly on their journey from an 11-person organization in the late ’60s to a cooperative that has 23,000 members with multiple business interests ranging from banking, large scale livestock farming and dispersal, a resort with great potential, mineral water factory, to other agriculture related investments. When your nose is too close to the oven, all you feel is the heat and you fail to smell the wonderful aroma of what you are cooking. When all you do is look at the books and the numbers chances are you don’t realize how big you have become.

By mid-morning they came to realize that their real problem was how fast they had grown and just like a tree full of fruits, many people want a taste of the fruit by throwing stones at it. Yes everybody wants to grow as an organization but it becomes a problem when you’ve focused too much at growing but failed to prepare how to manage your growth at every juncture and direction. The problem with meteoric rise or overgrowth is that many relationships are taken for granted or overlooked. We lose sight of the need for communication, feedback and monitoring sentiments and reaction to growth and expansion.

If enough people or if a system were in place, the people would have sensed something wrong down on the company floor. The problem is that everybody assumed someone had it covered and that any important concern would rise to the top. Sorry, it never does because nobody in the Philippines likes to be the bearer of bad news and everybody assumes it’s not their job or responsibility.

Aside from internal relations being overlooked or poorly managed, overgrowth tends to focus too much on the business and not enough on stakeholders such as members, investors, as well as partners in the community especially the political leaders and concerns. Bosses and executives focus too much on profitability, expansion and investments and forget to realize that members and investors need to be reassured not only about the stability and profit but also the importance of members and investors as stakeholders. If people don’t have a real relationship with you, don’t expect their trust to be solid 100 percent. It’s all about relationships, not mere transactions.

Many executives put little value to strategic communications and strategic engagements. But my students from DepEd and SIDC learned that when people know and feel your concern and commitment, you have their trust and their support.

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