Yoda: Your focus is your world

However, “focus” is not one-dimensional, as in binary thinking. It is three-dimensional among those who excel especially great leaders. And they are inner, other, and outer.

In other words, in the case of Juan de la Cruz, inner means knowing himself as in self-awareness. But because “no man is an island,” he must also know his neighbors – i.e., other. Moreover, he can’t ignore that we are a subset of this universe – i.e., outer.

Some science comes in for those keen to read up on neuroscience. For example, inspiring leaders assessed on a brain measure of “coherence” – the degree to which circuits within a region interconnect and coordinate their activity – showed a high level of coherence in this vital inner and another awareness area. The specific “region” was in the prefrontal area of the right side of the brain. [Focus: The hidden driver of excellence, Daniel Goleman; Harper]

If it isn’t apparent yet, there is a reason why the blog keeps raising our caste system and our instincts: We are parochial and insular. We value hierarchy and paternalism and rely on political patronage and oligarchy; ours is a culture of impunity.

On the other hand, the dots connect amongst (a) freedom, democracy, and the free market; (b) the 3Cs of the hardy mindset: challenge, commitment, and control; (c) democracy is the mirror image of Christianity – the imperative of the personal responsibility in pursuing the common good; and (d) the elements of cognitive development – i.e., that beyond binary thinking are multiplicity and relativism – the imperative of context.

Let’s hold it right there and look at these two articles from the local media: (a) Half-empty or half-full? How does the Philippines fare in knowledge production? (b) Envy aliens who can avoid PH; pity Pinoys who are stuck here.

“We are at the bottom half of all countries surveyed; we have to catch up with the top half of those countries doing well in knowledge production.

“The United States topped the rankings with a score of 68.37, while Chad was at the bottom of the list with a score of 21.4.

“The Philippines’ ranking dropped 21 compared to last year’s 56th out of 123 countries and 60th out of 138 in 2020.

“The question that needs to be answered by our leaders is: What steps should our government now take to improve our knowledge-based development since our performance here leaves little for comfort?” [Editorial, Manila Standard, 27th Feb 2023]

“Envy foreigners who can avoid the Philippines. Pity Pinoys, stuck in a hellhole they call country.

“Pinoys aren’t going anywhere. Their futures blighted. Half the labor force is under or unemployed. Two in five of their children are undernourished, underweight, and stunted. Grade schoolers score lowest in international math, science, and reading comprehension tests—no skills for hi-tech tomorrows.

“The dynasts rush to put relatives and gofers in a constitutional convention. The Con-con’s primary aim is to extend elective terms – for a tighter economic stranglehold.

“Three hundred delegates will each receive P10,000 daily stipend – P3 million a day extra burden to Pinoys – on top of meals, hotel billeting, and transport. Yet economic managers vehemently oppose any wage increase because supposedly “inflationary and bad for the economy.” [Jarius Bondoc, GOTCHA, The Philippine Star, 3rd Mar 2023]

The bottom line: We are between a rock and a hard place, as in “learned helplessness.”

Consider: We are at the bottom half of all countries surveyed; we have to catch up with the top half of those countries doing well in knowledge production. The United States topped the rankings.

Recall that the blog repeatedly discussed that cognitive development is a function of experience. And given that our neighbors rapidly traversed the journey from poverty to prosperity, they have moved beyond binary thinking.

They have internalized the imperative of context and have a three-dimensional focus. Considering its superior GDP per capita, Singapore is crowding the US in the competitiveness ranking.

Wealthy nations are not necessarily perfect specimens, yet their bigger world stretches their “focus” beyond self (i.e., inner) to other and outer. In other words, development and knowledge production comes with wealth. Why?

In an earlier posting, the blog discussed not embarrassing UP, given its assertion that we must bridge the academic world with the real world.

Consider: “What this MIT-trained CEO wishes school taught her differently: There’s no ‘right way’ to succeed.” [Arcaea CEO Jasmina Aganovic: What I wish school taught me differently (cnbc.com), 28th Feb 2023]

“School taught her to always search for “the clear, best answer,” Aganovic says. But often, you won’t have the time or resources to find a perfect solution, which might not even exist in the first place.

“If you are very academically oriented, and you go to a school like MIT, it’s straightforward to be trained throughout your life to believe that there are correct and incorrect answers,” Aganovic says. “And then once you’re in the real world, it is not as clear, right?”

“Her solution: If following a success script doesn’t always work, stop trying to follow one.

“Instead, make “constant adjustments and judgment calls based on what you know about the business, and then iterating and iterating from there,” she says, adding: “There isn’t necessarily one singular way of doing things.”

But let’s get back to the Philippines.

“You know agriculture is in great trouble when so many op-ed columns abound on the sector, even from writers who don’t generally deal on the subject.

“It’s time for a new approach to managing the sector, and it hinges on provinces taking primary responsibility to make their farmers and fishers productive, competitive, and profitable.” [‘Provincializing’ agriculture, Cielito F. Habito, NO FREE LUNCH, The Philippine Daily Inquirer, 28th Feb 2023]

Let’s hold it right there.

We see the challenge as making the farmers and fishers productive, competitive, and profitable.

Those who read the blog may recall that the US education system was under fire when I moved to New York. And so my then Fortune 500 company, like its peers, took matters into its hands and developed an in-house education and training program consistent with the competencies demanded by the 21st century. For example, Japan Inc. exposed the weaknesses of the US manufacturing that Detroit almost went under.

America had to relearn productivity, competitiveness, and profitability. And note that my employer is a two-hundred-year-old company. Beyond participating in creating the curriculum, I led the upgrade of the company's planning and budgeting model. And in buying an outside technology to beat the competition, launching “the next generation” product for our most significant brand. Considering that we had over a thousand scientists, we hired from Ivies and the top audit firms in the West.

The question about the Philippines is, can the provincial governors make the farmers and fishers productive, competitive, and profitable?

Let’s digress a bit and picture the credentials of Wes Moore, the Governor of Maryland. “He is an American politician, investment banker, author, television producer, and nonprofit executive serving as the 63rd governor of Maryland since 2023.

“Born in Maryland and raised mainly in New York, Moore graduated from Johns Hopkins University and received a master’s degree from Wolfson College, Oxford, as a Rhodes Scholar. After several years in the US Army and Army Reserve, Moore became an investment banker in New York. Between 2010 and 2015, Moore published five books. 

“He served as CEO of the Robin Hood Foundation from 2017 to 2021. He was also the host of Beyond Belief on the Oprah Winfrey Network, the executive producer, and a writer for Coming Back with Wes Moore on PBS.” [Wikipedia]

The above profile of a governor would perhaps give the person better than even chances to make his constituents farmers and fishers productive, competitive, and profitable.

In a podcast interview, he narrated that while leading soldiers as a captain in Afghanistan, he focused them on the job at hand as a team and never asked if they were “conservative” or “progressive.” He lived out the three-dimensional focus of inner, other, and outer.

The challenge to the public sector is the absence of a profit motive. And in Singapore, they recognize this, i.e., no body of knowledge distinguishes “drivers” and “enablers.” 

In the case of agriculture, the hurdle is magnified, given the imperative to move beyond the farm and into the industry. And the best practice model the blog discussed is Axelum, a coconut-based manufacturer focused on the export market. Its ecosystem integrates backward to the farm via consolidation of small farms. 

And the full value chain benefits from its global competitiveness mantra. And that includes paying above market rates for farm products being outputs of a modern, productive, competitive, and sustainable ecosystem.

Yoda: Your focus is your world.

However, “focus” is not one-dimensional, as in binary thinking. It is three-dimensional among those who excel especially great leaders. And they are inner, other, and outer.

Gising bayan!