Cabinet attends seminar on ethics, integrity, transition management

The Northern Marianas College responded to a request from Gov. Benigno R. Fitial to provide a two-part training for newly appointed members of the Cabinet on the topics of “Ethics and Accountability” and “Change and Transition Management.”

The training was held in the Governor’s Conference Room Wednesday morning from 8am to 12pm and there were 26 participants.

NMC president, Antonio V. Deleon Guerrero and acting dean of COMPASS Eric Plinske opened the event by reaffirming NMC’s commitment to provide outstanding education, training and development opportunities for the administration and the entire government workforce.

The first seminar was presented by CNMI Public Auditor Michael S. Sablan on the topic of “Ethics and Accountability.”

Sablan explained that the CNMI Ethics Code is known to be among the strictest in the entire country. To assist public officials and employees understand the “do’s and don’ts” in government, the Office of the Public Auditor has conducted over 150 presentations to over 3,000 CNMI government employees over the last four years.

Sablan’s presentation was well-received by the Cabinet members and it covered topics such as key Ethics Act provisions, gifts and gratuities, political activities, financial disclosures, and conflicts of interest. Restrictions relating to the use of government vehicles and new requirements relating to political campaign activities were also discussed.

Sablan provided several scenarios to Cabinet members and asked what they thought was legal and illegal before giving them the correct answers.

After a short break, the second presentation on “Change and Transition Management” got underway around 10am and was presented by the director of the Pacific Business Center Program from the University of Hawaii at Manoa, Dr. Failautusi Avegalio, better known as “Dr. Tusi.”

Dr. Tusi explained that most organizations say their most important assets are their people, but few behave as if this were true. According to Dr. Tusi, change projects typically devote the lion’s share of budgets to structural issues such as technology and processes, not staff issues.

“There is still a whole notion of focusing on tangible assets and their impact on the bottom line, rather than the intangible assets, which are people. Organizations don’t adapt to change; their people do,” Dr. Tusi said. There are three basic transition phases associated with change in organizations: (a) Transition resistance (tacit hostility to change and deliberate dragging of feet), (b) Transition compliance (Fear of termination causes resistance to go underground with work productivity at an absolute minimal to assure a paycheck), (c) Transition inspired (Employees inspired by vision, trusts leadership and commits support). The key to overcoming transition resistance and compliance is demonstrated integrity at the leadership level in all things. Integrity inspires trust, communications and commitment when demonstrated by leadership behavior inspired by a clear and compelling vision supported by core values that emphasize transparency, accountability, respect for the law and respect for each other.

Upon completion of the training, many of the Cabinet members requested meetings with NMC to discuss further training opportunities for themselves and their respective agencies. (PR)