by: Joel Marcaida

On June 5, 2009 the participants of  OEWF Bayanihan Youth Camp in Calamba, Laguna met again for the second time after the camp. The first meeting was held on May 29, 2009 during which the youth leaders planned to conduct a number of BSV workshops in their respective spheres of influence. The output of the workshop are the following:

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By: Ptr. Jake Flores

The concept of Learning Organization is suitable for the current condition of our country. A Learning Organization is one that is continually expanding its capacity to create its future. This is one of the key factors that help make our dreams for our motherland come to pass. It contributes to the realization of a positive change for the benefit of our countrymen. I consider this concept this as an “Eye Opener” to every organization. It is essential to every individual who has extreme passion to change this nation for the better. Each person needs to be responsible for his or her action, since everyone is part of the whole.  

We have roles to perform in supporting the development of our country or organization. Each of us has the freedom to speak, listen, write, read, think, and reason out and we can do all these depending on our skills and mastery. At the same time, we have to give others a chance to speak while we are in the position to listen.  Many of us lack the patience to listen but very quick to speak. Many of our leaders are like this.  They are afflicted with what is called  Learning Disability.

One of the Learning Disabilities is the fixation on events.  We tend to fix our attention on short term events while we fail to see the longer-term patterns of change behind these events.  We fail to understand the causes of the patterns that create the events. A person who does not see the entire pattern is not capable of seeing the more fundamental  change that is needed.  Such a person sees everything as being contained within a limited visibility.  He or she can’t see the relevance of other ideas that are not included within this immediate pattern.

To overcome Learning Disability, we need to identify our strengths and weaknesses. We have to accept who we are in the sight of others and learn to adopt new ideas from others that will give us a better solution for our problems. We need to learn how to accept our failures. As Peter Senge reminds us, “You can never say, ‘We are a learning organization,’ any more than you can say, ‘I am an enlightened person.’ The more you learn, the more acutely aware you become of your ignorance”

There are those among us who could be classified as ”Natural Leaders”. The natural leader will use primarily his charisma or his intuitive and inborn aptitudes, skills and personal characteristics in leading people.  But this kind of leader has no organized knowledge and skills for managing an organization. They don’t want to innovate and experiment. As a result,  the development of their organization is stunted. 

Allen says “The leader who does not change will be outmoded and become incapable of effective leadership as surely as the brontosaurus that failed to adapt became extinct.” This statement is undeniably true.  One can ignore it only to his own harm. The remedy is to evolve from being a Natural Leader to a Managerial Leader.  A Managerial Leader is one who have disciplined himself and learned to temper his intuitive tendencies with the professional skills of management.  The Managerial Leader sets a goal that he seeks to achieve. Whatever procedure he uses,  he sees to it that he arrives at the desired results.

Every organization needs to become a results-oriented organization.  We have to overcome shortsightedness to achieve this.  We need to overcome the fear of change. If you want your organization to be a Learning Organization everyone in the organization need to take risks whatever it takes.  Learning is a lifetime journey. This kind of organization has a visionary leader, they see beyond what others see. 

Experience the ‘Kairos” stage of faith to overcome these disabilities in your life. Life is so beautiful. Your life is 10% of what happens to you and 90% of how you make things happen. If you want to grow, get out of the prison walls which the system of your own thinking has created.  Accept change and and learn to adapt to your environment while holding steadfast to the eternal principles you have set for your life.

Mary Rose Rontal is working as an Assisting Professional in a USAID-funded project that focus on implementing strategic actions for environmental management while observing the principles of transparency, accountability and participatory decision-making in the local government units…

Feeding the piggy bank is what I and my husband taught Amyrrh, our one-year old son. We save every ten-peso coin we collect during the day from buying something or paying a fare.  We save it in my baby’s piggy bank ever since he was still in my tummy. Now, he’s already enjoying the feeding time of his “piggy”.

However, I can personally say that my or my family’s saving habit is poor because we only save every time we got a ten-peso coin, otherwise, no savings happened.

As an economist, I know that savings should come first before spending your money. Yet, I am not practicing it. The idea to save comes across my mind every time I can think of something I want to have in the future like house and lot, car, clothes and Amyr’s education. Bad thing is, the moment I received my salary, no thought of saving. All I can think of are the payments for my debts, my baby’s milk, the showing on the cinema, the food I craved to eat prior to my payday, groceries for the week, transportation expenses, board and lodging expenses, latest gadgets, everything except the thing called Savings.

I tend to ask how, when and where to save my money. How to start? When to start? And where is the most secured place to save? I already heard several financial institutions that did not succeed, got the money of their investors and become thief of the night, or they just simply bankrupted because of bad management. The uncertainty of financial institutions makes me anxious to save and invest in any particular financial institution.

It was then during the BSV workshop that I appreciated more the importance of Saving. I was enlightened with the idea of saving not just for myself but for the economy, more importantly for the small and medium enterprises, which I know is the “backbone” of the Philippine economy.

As an individual, I am not quite aware of the specific things I can do to help achieve a better state of nation, but thanks to my dear friend Jerick who invited me to join the BSV Workshop. It is very interesting to know that I am sharing the same vision with my groupmates and with other groups. As a Christian, as an economist and as an environmentalist, I was delighted to know that all of us hope for a “God-fearing” nation, a stable economy and a sustainable environment. These three aspects are underscored and for me, these characterized a perfect country. Though we are different individuals, yet we found out that we have common hopes for our country and that we are not just driven by our selfish desires but of what is good for the Filipinos a whole. That was indeed a “shared vision”.

I was also awakened on the topic “Learning Organization”, which made me realize my learning disabilities that I am not quite aware of for a long time. No wonder we hardly reach our goals in life. Now, I’m excited to share it with my colleagues.

As a whole, the one-day workshop on “Building Shared Vision” was indeed very informative. In fact, I would like to know more about the technical side of the cooperative, its management and operation, how to become a member, what are the logistical requirements to become an official member of the cooperative and the sustainable mechanisms of the organization. I think this should be discussed more during the Pre-Membership Education Seminar (PMES) which I believe is one of the requirements prior to being a member of any cooperative.

Further, I am glad that this concept was introduced to Filipinos. Though savings, credit and investments are not new to me but combining the three, with emphasis to “savings” in order to achieve a “Solidarity Economy” is relatively a new and fascinating concept. It is a good news that I find it very interesting to share with my networks of family, friends and colleagues. Indeed, I myself even want to conduct the same workshop to groups of people I know. Aside from that, I also want to see myself as part of the “think tank” of the CSRSMEAsia and be able to contribute in the development of concepts and designs that are worth implementing for the development of our community.

By Yzabel Lesa M. Quinones, VisionQ Team, 1st year, Philippine Science High School, Davao city

The Bayanihan Youth Camp was absolutely great. It provided fun activities so that we would not get bored. Even our co-participants were fun to be with. But best of all were the lessons that we learned.

The camp, we learned from our mentors, was sponsored by On Eagle’s Wings Foundation (OEWF) in Seattle, Washington, U.S.A. It  taught us many lessons about surviving this world of business. And one of the great ways to do so is social enterpreneurship. To create wealth and know what to do with it for the benefit of our community was what we talked about. Everyone, even the youth, could be social enterpreneurs, as long as one possessed the passion and effort.

The next great thing that we learned was about the learning organization. Learning organizations are important because each member may learn from each other. You may develop new skills, and even unlearn learning disabilities.

Learning disabilities, what are they? These are the obstacles that hinder us from learning new knowledge and skills. There are seven of them, which are:

• I am my position
• The enemy is out there
• Illusion of taking charge
• Fixation on events
• The parable of the boiled frog
• Delusion of learning from experience
• The myth of the management team

Yes, everyone has learning disabilities. However, do not fret, as these problems have solutions:

• Practice whole-system thinking
• Use a longer lever
• Out-of-the-box thinking
• Create paradigm shift in mental models
• Learn to see slow gradual processes

I learned many more. I know these lessons will be very useful in my life and surely I will be able to use them. This experience changed my life and I am glad that I joined this camp.