The Road to Good Governance Day 3 Skills

The Road to Good Governance Day 3: Skills to command good governance Step up to Saxion. Aruba Symposium 12 -14 September 2017 Saxion University of Applied Sciences Willeke Slingerland

Step up to Saxion. Governance and Integrity System Paper ≠ Reality Ø Execution is poor Ø Dominated by political parties and politicians Ø People in it: unaware, ignorant or indifferent Skills are needed to develop a moral compass.

Step up to Saxion. Skills to develop a moral compass Learned: - At home - In school - At the job

Step up to Saxion. Bildung ≠ Knowledge • Develop moral judgment • Develop critical thinking Needed to be done from very early age and requires practice and engaging with others.

Step up to Saxion. Skill 1: recognize your own biases • Pause and take time to reflect • Recognize your own cognitive bias • Quick and intuitive reasoning is ok in emergency situations, but otherwise > logical and rational reasoning

Step up to Saxion. Skill 2: Be aware of decisive moments • Time pressure, stress and feeling insecure, limit our capacity to think critically • Prepare and make a list • or pause or ask for extra time Recognize the importance of the event and its context

Step up to Saxion. Skill 3: Distinguish facts from assumptions • Our brain is full of assumptions • What is real proof which supports your reasoning and what are assumptions? • Look for hard evidence

Step up to Saxion. Skill 4: Understanding causal links Too often we think in terms of causal links, while many phenomena can only be explained when recognizing it was caused by various factors

Step up to Saxion. Skill 5: Multiple perspectives • Prevent tunnel vision • Approach an issue in various ways and with various perspectives • Invite others

Step up to Saxion. Skill 6: Think long term and short term • Impact of acting, non -acting long term and short term • Expect unexpected events

Step up to Saxion. Skills 7: distinguish specific from general interests Look for the specific, individual and selfinterests and what are the collective or general interests.

Step up to Saxion. Skill 8: Ask questions • Be that 4 -year-old again and ask: Why, why? • Practice various ways of asking questions (tone and wording)

Step up to Saxion. The Road to Good Governance Only when you are aware of how you think, voice and act, you can make the most out of it and help to build Good Governance

Step up to Saxion. Civil Society in the EU demanding Good Governance