Chairman Alicia dela Rosa-Bala of the Civil Service Commission opened the third batch of the Phronetic Leadership Class (PLC) by challenging the scholars to translate Phronetic Leadership to public service excellence during a keynote message last Monday, February 27. The class is composed of twenty undersecretaries, assistant secretaries and senior directors representing thirteen national line agencies including the CCC, DA, DBM, DepEd, DOF, DICT, DOJ, DND, DPWH, DSWD, DENR, DILG, and NEDA. The participating agencies also comprise the government’s Climate Change Adaptation, Mitigation and Disaster Risk Reduction cluster.

“One of the strategies [Philippine Development Plan] involves strengthened civil service”, Bala emphasized as she talked about investing in human resources as a central mandate of the current PDP. The plan according to her gives impetus to civil servants in the national development framework. “The civil service is not the commission but […] the entire bureaucracy”, she said.

Chair Bala also made mention that amendments to current civil service guidelines on top leader appointments are pending finalization. It is her belief that officials appointed by the administration, especially those from the private sector, should be provided the necessary orientation right away for them to understand how government works. “We want to embrace [new appointees and incumbents] regardless if you are CESO or non-CESO because all of you perform third-level functions.”

The PLC offered by the Public Management Development Program of the Development Academy of the Philippines in partnership with Tokyo’s National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS) aims to strengthen the capacity of both top leaders and their organizations by operationalizing the concept of Phronetic Leadership in identified priority areas.

The scholars are presently immersed in a five-day residential training at the First Pacific Leadership Academy in Antipolo City that include knowledge exercises, workshops, case discussions and lectures on Knowledge Creation Theory, Nonaka and Takeuchi’s Socialization-Externalization-Combination-Internalization (SECI) Model, Ba, and Mono-Koto by Professor Hideki Kawada, SVP Magdalena L. Mendoza and PLC alumni. Kawada is the chief executive officer of Phronetic Co., Ltd. and a leading expert in corporate training and team building. He received his BS in Astrophysics from the University of California and his MBA and DBA from ICS.

The four-day Foreign Study Mission with lectures and learning journeys organized by GRIPS in Tokyo, Japan set to proceed the in-house training was re-scheduled due to potential risks currently involved with global travel amidst the outbreak of the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). The PLC 3 residential training concluded today, 28 February 2020. A co-creation project conceived by the whole class is expected as the major output at the end of the program.

The Public Management Development Program (PMDP), the revival of the National Government’s Career Executive Service Development Program, aims to produce a network of peak-performing, development-oriented, ethical, and committed government executives and middle managers in the Philippine bureaucracy.

 

Admission to the Middle Managers Class Batch 23 is ongoing. Classes are set to open on March 2020. For nominations, send your email to pmdp.admissions@dap.edu.ph or call (02) 8631-2128 / 8631-0921 loc. 125. Follow the PMDP’s Facebook page at facebook.com/dap.pmdp to know more about the program and its activities.