Northern Marianas College President Galvin Deleon Guerrero, EdD, delivers his remarks during the Pacific Risk Management Ohana conference at Crowne Plaza Resort Saipan on Friday.
IN his keynote address at the Pacific Risk Management Ohana or PRiMO conference on Friday, Northern Marianas College President Galvin Deleon Guerrero, EdD, urged participants not to let “compliance” get in the way of action.
Deleon Guerrero also praised the way different government agencies can use opportunities like the conference to collaborate, network, and share ideas.
“A conference like this is really cool because we’re connecting with each other to see how we can help each other recover,” he said. He likened agency collaboration to the “interconnected” roots of red wood trees.
But he also highlighted the “drawbacks” of dealing with bureaucracies.
“If you’ve ever tried to get payment from a federal entity for something that happened just last year, you can maybe expect it four years from now,” he said.
He said bureaucracies can ensure compliance to rules and regulations, but their complexity can sometimes make them “too slow to respond to urgent needs.”
“Bureaucracies exist because they serve a public purpose…but they have evolved over time to serve themselves,” he added.
He said institutions of higher education can also become interconnected systems marred by inaction.
He said academia can fall victim to “analysis paralysis,” which occurs when academics become “paralyzed” by “overwhelming” amounts of data or research.
“We do a lot of studies…there’s a lot of good stuff out there but then when you try to translate that research or insight into action we academics end up debating each other,” Deleon Guerrero said. “Sometimes you do conduct a feasibility study and then you’re like ‘oh we need to conduct a planning study’ and then you put the planning study together and you’re like ‘oh we need to develop a strategic plan…’ and before you know we’ve got students still taking classes in tents and they don’t have a new facility five years later after super Typhoon Yutu.”
Delon Guerrero said even at the individual level, the “ties that bind” can be a source of inaction.
He said he when Millennials and Gen Z members enter the workforce, they have many ideas of how to change the “status quo,” but they also have “aunties and uncles” they don’t want to “embarrass” or “disrespect” by publicly critiquing or challenging them.
At each level of inaction, Deleon Guerrero said compliance is not supposed to “supersede the need to serve the community.”
He urged those in authority at the regulatory level to “exercise more administrative discretion.”
“I can guarantee that every single one of us can get creative about finding some work arounds, finding some exception…so that we can better serve our communities and not get so hung up on compliance,” he said.
At NMC, Deleon Guerrero said they are working to “cultivate stewardship through scholarship.”
“We need to take all the best that higher ed has to offer in research training and outreach and translate that into action,” Deleon Guerrero said. “Our mission is to…take the best that higher ed has to offer and use that information, that insight to help us all become better stewards of our planet.”
He said its mission is the reason NMC partnered with the Office of the Governor to launch the Green Growth Initiative and become a Sea Grant institution.
For locals who want to change the “status quo” but still be respectful of each other, Deleon Guerrero said they should practice “inafa’maolek,” which he defined as “working with each other through harmony to lift our community up.”
“Yes, there may be some tension, but sometimes even the greatest symphonies have disharmonious, tense sounds as part of a broader harmony,” Deleon Guerrero said. “We need to embrace the spirit in our local communities and not use it as an excuse to weigh us down. How much would you want to bet that [you could] approach your uncle to say ‘hey man I think we can do great things — what can we do together?’ ”
He said inafa’maolek could bridge generational gaps.
“Instead of demonizing each other, instead of my generation saying these Millennials have too many ideas or the Millennials saying the manamko’ are too settled, let’s move beyond that and let’s work together.”
About PRiMO
The Pacific Risk Management Ohana conference gathers together participants from across the Pacific. Usually held in Honolulu, this year’s conference took place in the CNMI for the first time and was conducted by the Division of Coastal Resources Management in collaboration with the National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration from Feb. 21 to 23 at the Crowne Plaza Resort Saipan.
DCRM Director Rich Salas said many of the 200 participants came from DCRM, the Office of Planning and Development, and other CNMI regulatory and risk management agencies.
