City of Bayawan: Leadership in action (… and LDN’s part of it!)

In the southwest of Negros Oriental lies a coastal city – Bayawan. The 28 barangays that comprise this agricultural basket is one of the most progressive 2nd class cities in the region. And this is not surprising when you have Mayor Pryde Henry Teves leading the Bayawanons.

Mayor Teves is a visionary, a man of purpose, and highly supportive not only with city projects but also the growth and development of its people.

“Let’s do in 3 years what others have waited to do in 15...” was the Mayor Teves’ battle cry. So setting aside politics, Mayor Teves set his eyes in ensuring that his people aim for higher standards of leadership and governance. His drive for implementation of excellent government services, building effective and functioning mid-managers had him search for a partner who can provide developmental intervention. The good mayor didn’t have to look far.

 

The Partnership

LDN’s founder and Senior Consultant Rhoda Avanzado Phillips firmly believes that transformation through nurturing is essential to any organisation so it can reach its optimum level. Rhoda’s extensive background working with the grassroots as well as corporate landscapes has given her the passion and the necessary tools to provide coaching and enhancement intervention to organisations.
Thus started the partnership between Bayawan’s LGU and LDN Consultancy. Both have the same level of fervor in seeing organisations succeed. Both are committed to empowering people and teams. Both see the value in nurturing potentials.

I was very happy to have had the opportunity to work with the City of Bayawan LGU. It was a very rewarding and positive experience. The vision and the strong political will of Mayor Teves and the enthusiasm and adaptability of the staff to see the transformation in their services and workplace provided a great platform for us to deliver a successful and sustainable service excellence programme. LDN Consultancy was there to facilitate and engage but it was really the Bayawan LGU who came up with their own innovative solutions. LDN Consultancy helped everyone to come together and say, ‘Alright, this is how we’re going to do it.’ Bayawan is a great showcase on how Kaizen or a continuous improvement culture can be embedded in a public sector or Local Government Unit successfully.

LEAN program capacitate and empower people in our organization towards improving and transforming services to be more efficient and effective in the procurement process.  The procurement through bidding started with 83 days it was reduced to 40. For small value procurement, from 30 days down to 21 days, or a 140% increase in efficiency. These improvements would translate to higher utilization of resources and timely completion of projects. Three days to two hours maximum.

  • Corazon P Lirazan, City Accountant

Business One-Stop Shop

Customer delight rather than satisfaction; giving more than what is expected. More projects were implemented in a shorter amount of time.

“Nalipay mi karon nga ang ubay-ubay sa nadawat namon na feedback na paspas na ang Business One-Stop Shop.”
"We are happy that we have received a lot of feedback from the Business One-Stop Shop."

-Atilano Jude Silorio Cabangal

Baby Steps, Big Hurdles

Rhoda designed a bespoke training program for Bayawan – LDN’s LEAN Service Excellence Program. This is keeping abreast with Mayor Teves’ approach to employ big cities as a benchmark and create processes and outcomes that will be at par. LEAN Management is an approach where organizations seek to transform processes and make it efficient and value for money for customers. It is designed to involve the people who are delivering the processes to identify the bottlenecks, gaps and improvement steps themselves by equipping them with the necessary tools and techniques.

Bayawan’s HRMO - IV Veronica “Nicka” Grace Miraflor plays a crucial role. She brought her team together and raised awareness on what needs to be done to put Bayawan LGU at the forefront of innovation and progress. She prepared her team for the journey ahead. Nicka’s desire was to exceed the status quo so her and her team can ‘Provide Excellent Service with a Heart’ to the Bayawanons.

"LDN has raised the sense of empowerment and ownership in us and in our roles in the workplace"

Leadership Strategy

LDN’s Management Programs are all about leadership, the kind that is TRANSFORMATIONAL.

LDN’s version of leadership is not limited to only being the vanguard of his or her team; a leader should also be able to LEAD through the change that is inevitable. A leader should be equipped to coach and build the morale of the team. Managing a team means providing feedback and at the same time receiving it.

How does a team achieve its vision and live its values? Our LDN Program will guide the managers through all of these. What is your organisation’s Pyramid of Purpose? Our LDN Team will recommend how you will be able to achieve this.

The training encourages awareness not only of the work landscape but also of the self. It also emphasises that as a professional working for an organisation, it’s not just only about skills but that EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE also plays a critical role. And so does MOTIVATION and EMPOWERMENT.

It is channeling the team’s vision and focus to be able to tackle identified gaps in the system. LEAN Management training guided the Bayawan team in pinpointing processes that acted as bottlenecks to progress.

When these were identified, modifications were immediately made; enhanced systems were put in place of old ones. Unnecessary procedures were taken out. Trimmed and simple monitoring tools were employed. As a result, blockages that only served to slow down services were decongested; the process flow improved resulting in more efficient service to the Bayawanons. Some of the tweaks may be minor, but the effects were major changes in the overall system.

Next Step of the Journey

The Bayawan Team understands that the transformation has only just begun. There is still more work to be done. The Bayawan Team is prepared to meet the demands; better equipped to rise to the challenges and DELIVER. And DELIVER it shall.

IBAYAW BAYAWAN! Your LDN family is here to support you!

Images sources: Bayawan City Media Bureau, Dumaguete.com, https://www.facebook.com/experience.bayawan/