The Prepared Mind of A Leader

catatan akhir pekan, 23 September 2007
by Tedy J. Sitepu

Seorang ilmuwan abad 18, Louis Pasteur, pernah mengatakan: “Chance favors the prepared mind.” Kalimat ini menjadi sangat abadi hingga kini. Bagi saya, ini menjadi salah satu kalimat motivasi pribadi yang sejak dulu mendasari setiap upaya saya selama ini.

Tak sengaja, saya menemukan sebuah buku yang sebagian besar isinya didasarkan pada spirit kalimat Louis Pasteur itu. ”The Prepared Mind of A Leader: Eight Skills Leaders Use to Innovate, Make Decision, and Solve Problems” judulnya. Buku yang sangat menarik menurut saya. Berikut sedikit ringkasan buku tersebut.

Good leadership, like so many other things in life, is seen through a combination of skills. And like so many other things in life, you don’t just “get better” at leadership; you improve your skills by regular practice. To use a sport metaphor, a good golfer has driving skills, putting skills, “rough skills, bunker skills, and others. He or she is good only because of practice. And as we looked at organisational successes and failure in their innovation, decision making, and problem solving, we looked for mental skills that were being used or were absent.

We see eight fundamental skills delineating a Prepared Mind leader.

Observing
The environment in which we live and operate is constantly changing. It’s natural for us to look for confirming information about our view of the world, but it’s often more important to look for disconfirming information. What have you been obeserving lately?


Reasoning
People will want to know why you are proposing a course of action and will not follow your lead untill they understand your explanation. What are your answer to the “why” question?

Imagining
The future is unknowable, but it can be visualized. Established industries, companies, policies, and practices are always challanged be new (imagined) ideas. What’s running through your mind these days?

Challenging
Any organisation’s business is built on assumptions. When is the last time you challanged your assumptions and tested their validity?

Deciding
Face it, you get paid to make or influence decisions because action is essential to progress. Are you progressing or paralyzed?

Learning
Past knowledge got you to where you are today. It may or may not be effective in continuing to move you forward. What don’t you know that you should know?

Enabling
You m ay be smart, but progress requires a concerted effort for any organisation. Do the people aroun you have the knowledge and the means and, most important, the opportunity to progress.

Reflecting
All decisions have trade-offs. We need to look at past decisions and understand the trade-offs we made and the consequences of those trade-offs. We also need to reflect forward (envision) and consider the trade-offs we are about to make. The problem is that we are time starved and never seem ti have the time to just think. Have you spent any quiet thinking time lately?

Corruption: Will It be Eradicated from Indonesia?

by Erny Murniasih

Corruption...

This word might be the most popular word that is discussed by about 200 million Indonesians.

We still memorize headline news of the non-budgeter corruption case in Ministry of Fishery. Later, such corruption case has brought about political wars among politicians. Not to mention the previous unsolved corruption cases relating with the BLBI fund or other cases relating with mark-up practices in government institutions.

Corruption practices in Indonesia are various in types (from small to large scale). However, they have been systematic and systemic. The corruption practices have been spread over the government institution, legislative body, and business level. Thus, the impacts have been seriously influenced economic and social lives. Such condition has made the process to eradicate corruption much more difficult.

‘Mark-up’ practices, for instance, have long been experienced in government institutions. Initially, such practice was aimed to cover non-budgeted costs and involved lower level officials. Thus, sometimes the phrase ‘invisible corruption’ can be named for this type of corruption practices. However, as time goes by, such type corruption has grown and has reached upper level officials as decision maker. That is why, later, the small-scale corruption then positioned to be systematic and systemic.

Having had this, establishment of eradication commission is not fully solved the problems. The already-exist eradication commission in Indonesia has so far investigated ‘big cheese’ cases which have high political constellation. However, how to treat the systematic and systemic corruption cases? Are there ways to eradicate these types of corruption?

Answers are varied. However, optimism should persist. There are ways to enable concrete condition to eradicate corruption. One of them is by constructing strong foundation for the nation.

A strong nation should have owned sustainable democracy as the foundation of its construction. The sustainable democracy can be delivered in four aspects which comprise of economic development, equality, political culture, and enhancement of civil society.

First is economic development. Economic development at national and regional level has influenced individual freedom to access public service delivery provided by the government. For this stand, Amartya Sen agrees that individual freedom for getting economic access would encourage development of freedom.

Access to economic and financial sector is crucial in order to encourage economic growth which in turn will open an equal opportunity for citizen and to gain welfare. Hence, economic development could be the main condition for reaching sustainable development.

Second is equality. The term of ‘equality’ which is best to describe for this occasion is how to allocate an equal public expenditures and equal opportunities for citizen. However, this should not only be seen as equal for all, but should concern with the characteristic of local needs and beyond jurisdictions. Therefore, the indicators to measure equality should reflect the potency of natural resources, human resources, geographical condition, and ethnic diversity. Equality for public expenditures should also consider accessibility to lower class people. In turn, citizens are having equal opportunities for gaining welfare and open a way for transparency.

Third is political culture which comprises political freedom and political attitude. Political freedom is the key to secure citizen rights, whilst political attitude is the transportation mode for experiencing democracy. Less commitment from politicians and lack of harmonization among politicians will un-secure political tensions. Strong support gained from political aspect is crucial to enable the eradication of corruption practices.

Fourth is enhancement of civil society. This last aspect will strengthen the nation building through trilingual communication between citizen, government, and politicians which has long been suggested as social contract by JJ Rousseau. If we reinforce the communication and if the governments (and politicians) have the courage to sign contract with citizen, the establishment of civil society might work optimally to supervise the performance of executive and legislative body. Citizen is able and is willing to voice their demand, including to voice corruption cases nearby.

It is not easy to eradicate systematic and systemic corruption practices in Indonesia. Perhaps there are no countries that are able to eradicate corruption completely, not to mention with Indonesia. Nevertheless, the fourth aspect to construct a sustainable democracy might work as a normative ways, at least, to alleviate corruption practices.

What is Hope?

In English language, the word ‘Hope’ refers to a feeling of desire and expectations that things will go well in the future. We need to have the ‘hope’ in our life. By having the ‘hope’ we will try our best to pursue our objectives in life.

This blog has an objective to overview my hopes, my family’s hope, my friends’ hopes, and probably your hopes.

My hopes in this year are nearly fulfilled. I got my master degree, I have obtained chances to improve my capacity building, and most of all, I have gained my love and my angels’ smile again.

One hope that has not fully filled.. I am hoping that I will be able to share my thoughts, my bright, and my smile to many people. But I am optimistic that the time will come for the chance… Therefore, I am still preparing another hope for the upcoming year.

So, what are your hopes? Please leave a comment so that we are able to share our own hopes…

Keep the spirit!