Meetings work

WHAT need to be encouraged in any meeting of any kind are three things:

One, a mental frame that everyone is equal to the leader—and that includes the president in a Cabinet meeting, who should be no more than a moderator to keep the discussion on track and within the allotted time.

Two, an openness to disagreements, arguments and wild ideas, while avoiding their being taken “personally” (a cultural tendency or weakness of Filipinos). Arguments lead to the best conclusions.

Three, the willingness to listen to all sides. You may not agree with the others in the meeting, but you need to take their views into account; this way you don’t unnecessarily alienate anybody. You may decide that you have no choice but to go against their wishes. But at least you know what their position is and can keep the “impact of dislocation” to a minimum.

From 84 to 4—that’s how the number of Ledac (Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council) meetings dwindled from the time of President Fidel Ramos to the present administration. And Ramos did not only have a lot of Ledac meetings; he also convened “small” problem-solving sessions with Cabinet clusters to resolve important or urgent matters. Not only that, he had those large multistakeholders “summits” to get the “buy-in” of business, academe and civil service organizations.

They worked. There were more radical improvements in the the economy under Ramos than under any other president in recent times.

I particularly liked that Ramos formed Cabinet clusters. President Aquino followed suit by setting up an economic development cluster, a good governance and anticorruption cluster and many others. Changes would have come rapidly and more would have been accomplished if Mr. Aquino had met more often with legislators, and he would not have suffered the embarrassment of seeing his Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) slapped down by the Supreme Court for being unconstitutional. Because the unconstitutional part of DAP was not the act of moving funds around, but its failure to secure Congress approval. Had he gone to Congress, Mr. Aquino would have had the quite necessary legal authority to move funds to where they’re most needed.

I don’t like meetings any more than Aquino, but they are necessary. They are necessary in order to develop the best ideas and solutions. Indeed, two (or more) brains are better than one and really do come up with better solutions or conclusions. Meetings are absolutely essential if you’re going to lead a country.

So I’m glad that already Duterte has not only formed much of his Cabinet, but he has met with them, too. And not just once but thrice in a few short weeks. A good start. A Cabinet needs to meet, not only to work out the best ideas, but also to get everybody on the same page. Cabinet members need to be aware of what each of them is doing so there will be coordination and cooperation among them.

Meetings are held so Cabinet members could work together or with each other—and with their counterparts in Congress when, for example, a law was being proposed—to agree on a common stand. Whatever is decided, hopefully after frequent meetings, can then be brought to the full Cabinet and/or Congress for their imprimatur.

The ideal is to arrive at a consensus on what should be prioritized and what would be the best form to make them workable, and then to put them into action. A consensus would give the matters agreed on a far better chance of being done  more rapidly. One of the great weaknesses we saw in the past has been the interminable time it’s taken for bills of importance to get through because no one’s talking to anyone.

The freedom of information bill that we are all clamoring for has been stuck in Congress for more than two decades now. Mr. Aquino, in his campaign, promised to pass it. But he never really seriously brought it up in the few discussions he had with Congress leaders—or in Ledac meetings. So it just didn’t get enacted.

Duterte has said it’s a priority under his presidency, that he’d get it rolling soonest, first as an executive order, then institutionalize it as a law. I believe him. He’ll meet and persuade Ledac and achieve the desired result.

Another type of meeting that a leader—or for that matter, any one—must initiate is the informal one, with friends and confidants, just to “shoot the breeze,” but toward a desired objective. Duterte needs a “kitchen Cabinet,” a small group of individuals with independent minds, with whom he should meet regularly to bounce off very radical ideas, for their reactions.

The most crucial meetings for Duterte in his first months are those between him and the Muslim communities, and between him and the National Democratic Front. Add to those meetings on the issue of reviewing the present Constitution in its totality. If he succeeds in these three thrusts he almost needs to do nothing else. His position in history is assured.

I believe he’ll succeed in achieving peace with the various Muslim factions and bring the communists back into the fold because of just one thing: trust. They know him, and trust him. So they’ll believe him and his sincerity. Look at it, already he’s got a team in Oslo negotiating with the communist leader. Two of the team are in his Cabinet. You can expect the Muslim separatists going into a similar dialogue as fast. But it won’t be easy; the MILF will have to accept a lesser degree of autonomy than the one they’re currently demanding.

A meeting I attended this week was “Sulong Pilipinas!” (Forward Philippines!) in Davao. It was a great success, and I’ll tell you about it next week. It proved the value of meetings—340 minds do get results. Meetings work.

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E-mail: wallace_likeitis@wbf.ph; Read my previous columns: www.wallacebusinessforum.com.