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I have learned a long time ago how to learn. And when I was given the opportunity to attend the Kennedy School of Government’s Program for Senior Executives in State and Local Government in 2002 at the Harvard University in Massachusets, I was committed to making the most out of it; in learning as much as I could and taking in all the lessons of this new experience.

A Harvard University schooling is not an opportunity given to everyone. Besides being very expensive, a chance to study in the university represents the pinnacle of career learning and development for any management professional. This I owe to my province. I believe it was my responsibility to make sure that the money spent by the provincial government to send me to school will be worth its investment and would directly translate into benefit for the people it serves. This realization never fails to enliven and sustain my drive to be very studious, staying up to 1.30 in the morning to finish the required readings for the following day’s class.

As I received my acceptance letter 26 April 2002, I was informed that “The 2002 class promises to be a strong one, with excellent representation from state, local, legislative and non-profit sectors” and that the committee “has selected the most outstanding candidates from a large and varied pool”.

There were 73 of us in the class, 8 of them were elected officials. The others were city managers, chiefs of fire departments, directors and chiefs of police and executives of various agencies across the United States. There were only 9 executives from other countries. The only other Asian with me was Ying Jing, Deputy Secretary General Of Shanghai Trade Commission.

We stayed at the Soldier’s Park Dormitory, near the Harvard Business School. There were three rooms in a unit. I was housed with Rose Ceja-Aragon who is the Director of the Denver’s Public Safety Review Commission in Colorado and Marcia Beth Youngman, City Mayor of Bozeman, Montana.

The program challenged all of us in class to discover new ways of learning from each other, exchanging and exploring new ways of thinking. It inspired us to test and stretch the limits of our abilities. This is particularly true and many say, especially of classes facilitated by Dr. Marty Linsky from whom I owe and have drawn much inspiration from his teachings.

The Harvard experience is also about self-confidence, being candid and humorous. It is discovering that despite our diversity, the human race is bound by our ability to laugh, sing and dance. Despite our differences, we hear and feel the same universal harmony that sings of our oneness as residents of a blessed planet.

I remember during our last night together as a class, a short program was held and some volunteers to perform including me. I stood in front and delivered a “stand up comedy speech” which I prepared minutes before I was able to muster the courage to do it. Imagine my surprise when I brought the house down and cracked everyone up. When it was time to do the ‘train’ dance, I was even in front, leading the pack! Stand-up comedy and leading a train dance are two things I have never done in my life and swear will never ever do in my province. But come to think of it, why not?

As the program neared its end I was so excited to get back home and immediately put into practice many of the things I have learned in the school.

I am very happy with the results of the training because I believe I gained new skills to effectively respond to the multifaceted demands of my job as administrator. With these new capabilities came a new, personal perspective of the world, and a renewed ability for self-reflection.

Looking back, and as Running a Bureaucracy was being written I realized that the KSG-Harvard program was not just about learning in the classroom. Though I could not deny how important these learnings have been to me as a professional, the program had a more profound impact in shifting my old personal constructions to new paradigms that attest to its contribution to my identity as a person. It is about this whole new experience of living in a bigger, wider world, mingling with different executives of other races, various religious and political beliefs, morals and ideas of the purpose of service and life.

The following chapter is a dedication to the men and women of the Kennedy School of Government in Harvard University—the professors, lecturers and facilitators and the nameless multitude of learners and teachers of the fine art of public service.


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The John F. Kennedy School of Government,
      Harvard University: Lessons Learned

• Leadership: World Perspective Lessons from Linsky and Heifetz
• Against All Odds: The Power of Effective Persuasion
• Professor Dan Fenn: Keeper of the Flame
• Strategies of Negotiation
• Creating Public Value
• Ecumenism and Transcendence : Spirituality at the Workplace
• The Outward Bound Experience