SWIMMING AGAINST THE CURRENT
By JESUS P. ESTANISLAO
Dr. Jesus P. Estanislao
The main question we have to answer, as we advocate for the use of personal governance scorecards as tools for personal transformation, is: Who would do it? Who do we count upon to get this vital task done?
Four institutions easily come to mind:
- The first, the family. This is where values are taught, formed, and nurtured. It should be where the use of personal scorecards can be taught, fostered, and embedded into the habit of every Filipino child and adolescent. This is also where experiences can be more freely shared, and where good example can have its deep impact. Thus, under Dream PH, we should count on the families to give due importance to family governance. And coming on the heels of family governance is the use of personal scorecards, even on the part of children who can be taught at a young age how to use it as a tool for personal development.
- The second, the school. This is where values are reinforced and further strengthened within a broader social context than what the home provides. Many more “others” are involved: and many of these others have purely social bonds with each other: these bonds are way beyond family bonds. Moreover, every Filipino now goes to school (at least in theory). and for as long as we use schools from the primary to the tertiary levels as institutions that insist on personal formation, aided by the effective use of personal scorecards, we can reach virtually all Filipinos, and from here on possibly all generations of Filipinos.
- The third, the enterprises where most Filipinos, after schooling, find some employment. It would help if each enterprise would have an enterprise road map, and if sustained progress in pursuit of the priorities included in that road map can include the use of personal governance scorecards. Their use by everyone employed and working within the enterprise should aim to make the individual as the ultimate governance asset of the enterprise. Their going up the ladder within the enterprise should be facilitated by the effective use of a personal scorecard; and the enterprise’s promotion and merit system should be configured in a way that recognizes and rewards progress in personal transformation through the effective use of the personal scorecard.
- The fourth, and it should be added that although it is mentioned last it should not be regarded as the least important, is the government, i.e., national government agency, local government unit, and government-owned and controlled corporation (GOCC). Some government agencies have started testing the use of the personal scorecard, as have a number of local government units. The GOCC law actually mandates and demands the use of a personal scorecard. These initial steps are very promising: they need to be pursued. Moreover, the legal mandate for GOCCs to use the scorecard as a tool for personal transformation needs to be more faithfully observed. In any case, the way is now open for this fourth and last institution—-the government—-to be in the forefront of adopting the personal scorecard.