One Balangay, One Goal

by Klara Bilbao, Reynold Ferdinand Manegdeg, Danae Pantano, Romila Saguil, Robert Silleza, and Glennis Uyanguren

Navigate the seas, brave the storm together, inspire everyone towards greater heights and triumph.

Leadership trainings are always full of cliches. You will always hear the words, leader, supervise, teams and teamwork, challenges, unity, diversity. And this training is not an exemption. We all heard, read, even wrote these words in the MANY assignments and activities that we had to do. But this training is definitely unique because we are taking it in a remarkable time, during a pandemic and even done virtually. Unheard of during the days when we would stay at hotels and build teams.

As we said, leadership trainings are full of cliches. And what better way to end this training but with another—a project, make our own balangay. Again, a cliche, but an important one. You’d think it is a typical leadership exercise, like “the boat is sinking, who would you save, this person or that person?” But it is more than that. As we went through this journey, we will be sailing with our own balangay, the one we built.... together…. But how did we do it? Another cliche statement. haha.

Forecasting the Weather

As we are preparing to set sail, it is always, ALWAYS important to forecast the weather. Not forecast the weather like Ernie Baron in the old TV Patrol (ooohh say hello boomers), but knowing the situation, the existing circumstances before getting into it.

Just like the act of weather forecasting itself, it is difficult. There are lots of things that affect the weather—sudden changes of air from cold to humid, storms, wind directions, low pressure areas. It may sometimes be right or wrong but it is still a good idea to know what’s coming.

This goes the same with organizations. As the captain of our own balangay, we first need to look at our organization, its environment, the situation it's in, and the circumstances we may have to face.

What then is the first thing we will notice. WE ARE CURRENTLY IN A PANDEMIC. Making it significantly harder to interact with each other without accidentally spewing saliva to the one you are talking to. People need to study, feel, and sense every situation extra carefully to at least spare people from more trouble before going on the journey and trying to achieve common goals. We all are having a difficult time and who knows, someone from your team may be experiencing a more difficult time.

Members on the boat will probably be composed of a diverse set of members with various personalities, styles, ideas, and ego. This requires further assessment and evaluation to establish rapport.

There is no organization which has not been impacted by the current public health crisis. We have limited and overworked staff. Most of whom are forced to multi-task, possibly compromising their quality of work. Some organizations also went through transitions (DURING A PANDEMIC!). It may be inevitable that unorganized work systems will ensue. The shift to virtual work brought more challenges— access to the internet, difficulty in reaching people, low competency in the use of various technologies, monitoring of messages and responses, and even mental stress.

Aside from the pandemic-induced problems, our organizations have a more physical problem. The root cause: budget cuts (real talk! haha!) But to be more specific, we have limited access to the necessary facilities and equipment required to do our work. Our balangays have to brave through the sea of unstable internet problems, poorly maintained equipment, obsolete gadgets, and very limited space. Some office spaces were used for other purposes, others do not even have their own building.

As in history, the culture in a community is important in maintaining balance. Each member has its own roles and responsibilities. And as we are responsible for our own balangay, we know how important culture is in the organization. The transition to blended/virtual work has resulted to changing dynamics in the office—we have never known texts and IMs to cause stress, but now it does!, having varied levels of competency in using technology, recognizing diversity among unit members, or restructuring of functional-organizational systems. Collaboration was also quite a challenge due to differences in environment, access to resources, etc.

Building the Balangay

Now that we know the “weather” we will be dealing with, we had to build the balangay. It is important to know the resources and raw materials that you need, have, and can be developed.

For us, it was not easy. We saw it like a puzzle to solve because each member is unique, very different from each other. Although different from each other, each has their own strengths. The answer came to us, like the iceberg in Titanic—suddenly. Our Balangay in any shape or form represents unity in diversity. Because like the SEA culture where it came from, though we are all different, we are in the same balangay, the same community. And because of this diversity, our Balangay is as strong as our foundation as a team. That foundation was built and harnessed over the years—how we came, to this day, to fully understand who we are and how our strengths and talents can make an impact and difference.

That foundation is self-awareness. As captains of our balangay, understanding our own emotions and our triggers comes first before trying to understand others. This helps us regulate ourselves, our actions and behavior, and be able to adapt with our environment. If the captain of the Titanic panicked when the ship was sinking, do you think they would have been able to save as many people as they did?

Another is genuine (big word) empathy for our team members and sharing our time establishes camaraderie and rapport. This improves morale.

Most importantly, although work is important, taking care of our health is also important. It is key to control our emotions or moods. An example? Setting boundaries—restrict work to office hours only, eat your spinach (like popeye—so much for boat metaphors), and drink water.

While building the balangay, however, we should not just rely on the foundations. The balangay must be built also anticipating unexpected events—sharks? whirlpools? pirates?. And so as captains we must be ready to adapt to the inevitable.

First things first, we have to accept the fact that there are things and events that we just can’t control (no matter how hard we try). We must recognize the triggers, our triggers, our primary coping mechanisms that can help one adjust and control emotions and behaviors. Trying to focus on the situation helps in reducing tensions and emotional stress (or allow one to calm down). Building towards the success of the team, work and adjust to changes in processes and systems, be resourceful and strategically plan with a participatory approach. Remember, we are all on the same boat.

Thus, a captain who recognizes the differences and varied workstyles of his/her colleagues and adjusts his/her approach/leadership depending on the circumstance is helpful to navigate through a crisis. This situation also requires a leader to be flexible with timelines and adaptable to new work systems while trying to balance compassion and efficiency to drive the team to work on their tasks. Motivating the team will be a challenge but having the right style or coping mechanism can help. Using a participatory approach and promoting team collaboration is very significant in working through a crisis situation or a sinking boat.

Steering the Balangay

Now that we have built the balangay, where are we going? Do you know how far you’ll go? Are you going to where the line the sky meets the sea? Is it calling you? if you think about it a little bit, it is quite similar to Moana’s story. The direction and the performance of the balangay is going to depend on the ship captain and its passengers. One must learn to maneuver the ship, have a multi-skilled/multi disciplined crew to support the captain, and the right number of passengers and load to achieve the perfect ​​buoyancy of the boat. But how do you achieve the perfect balance to have a perfectly working balangay or organization?

You already know your crew and how you work, what matters now is how you deal with them. We must create a balanced environment where they can both enjoy and be serious at the same time, build a safe space that fosters a sense of independence and avoid micromanaging, allow team members to explore on their own while keeping doors open for consultation, and give opportunities to shine and lead learning sessions. And most importantly, we must learn to celebrate victories as little as finishing a report to as big as finishing a project and radiate positivity.

If you do not want someone to jump off the boat then work on it. You must know that dealing with your crew, however, is not the same as communicating with them. As ship captains of our organizations, we must effectively communicate our objectives and goals to our colleagues or in the workplace in general. How? First identify our communication situation—what kind of documents do we need to process, etc. Next is to establish the communication goal to communicate it well to the team—do you want your team to be persuaded, informed, asked. We also must know our audience, the message received and create a concise message for them. To effectively and efficiently delivering our message, we must recognize and be consistent with our communication channel/s.

Now that our balangay is ready, where are we going? Do we go somewhere beyond the sea? Only you and your crew know the answer. For our crew, well institutions, moving forward, our long term vision is to cultivate and continue to uphold the recognition as the premier and socially relevant institutions of learning and scholarship in the Philippines. We aim to increase the number of learners (students and enrollees) and produce highly equipped, skilled and competent graduates. We can and we will achieve this by intensifying marketing and promotions of offered programs through various platforms, expanding the institutions’ networks, establishing relationships with more stakeholders, developing new relevant and academically and socially responsive programs, and improving institutional buildings, facilities, and equipment.

HONK! HONK! HONK! We know, we know, there is no horn in the traditional balangay. But it’s time to set sail on your own. Overall, it was a great experience for us. Was it still full of cliches? Yes. But did we learn a lot? Yes, and those cliches, we do not get tired of hearing it (or reading it or writing it). Sometimes we already know this stuff, in the back of our minds, in our hearts. But sometimes it takes someone, or even an organization to take these skills out of you and make captain out of you. For us, it was the UP HRDO.

We have already been sailing on our balangay. Maybe you’d like to join us next time?