Development Entrepreneurs

  Before the pandemic, a friend said he didn’t feel inspired by any particular area of reform; he would support other people’s reform because he liked them, but did not have his own agenda.  “I feel like I’m carrying a spear in another person’s opera”, was the colorful way he put it.  Recently we met online and he bewailed the same thing; he was desperate to find a reform area that he could spend the rest of his life on.  I told him about two other friends: Nagiel Banacia and Ed Karlon Rama.   Nagiel Banacia can’t drive down a street without noting things that need to be fixed: uncollected garbage, a broken street lamp, a pothole, etc.  He is focused on local governance and public service, through and through. Thankfully he works for a local government unit, and he holds a position that allows him to address many of these things.  Personally, I find it amazing that some friends have focused on something early and then honed their competence and experti...

“In the beginner’s mind there are many choices, but in the expert’s there are few” - Shunryu Suzuki E xperienced reform leaders are, in a way, like physicians - some are General Practitioners, some are Specialists. Specialists Specialists are reforms who have become experts on a certain specific area.  They pursue reforms in these areas.  They hardly venture outside of this area.   They have few, specific, and highly developed reform ideas.  They work on their technical papers until these are bulletproof.  And because they move within his specialized area, he tends to know the social and political milieu of his reform.  Chances are, he holds a high and respected position in his field. His knowledge of how reform works is shaped by his experience in this area.  Since each sector tends to have its own culture and norms, change dynamics in a specialist’s environment can differ from the way things work in other environments.   Taken from hi...