MANILA, Philippines — The first steps on the Performance Governance System (PGS) pathway look daunting and mechanical. At first glance, they look like impossibly big strides towards a tall, almost insurmountable mountain. Moreover, unless there is an attempt at getting the logic behind the required steps, they begin to look like a checklist of “things to do” just for the sake of getting the required exercise done.

It is time to remove the “mystery” out of the key steps that need to be taken for initiation into the PGS.

The PGS journey asks for a clear appreciation of the distance the journey must cover over a clearly agreed time frame. That distance is huge because a transformation is being sought; and transformation entails going from where we are to where we can be (and this depends on where we aspire to be by a certain target date in the rather distant future). Since we are talking about transforming ourselves, then it is essential that we first know who we are (as shaped by our values), and what we do (our mission), before dreaming of what we wish to accomplish within a given time frame (our vision). This is what the governance charter clarifies for us: it gives us a deep sense of direction, which has to be clear and well defined.

The PGS journey then asks for a clear determination of how we intend to get to our destination, given the direction that had been set. “How?” is always a complicated question to answer; and in order to give a workable answer, we need to be systematic in breaking and chipping it down into its components, and then address these one by one. The first of these components is: What are the objectives we really need to pursue? In other words, to get to our destination, we have to be very discerning about the priorities we need to pursue. We have to recognize that some objectives are more important than others; furthermore, some of the more important objectives are even more critical (than others) towards our getting to the end of our journey efficiently and effectively. In choosing among many possible objectives to pursue, we need to have a strategy. We need to prioritize. Thus, the priorities or objectives we choose must be tested against one criterion: they have to be strategic in character (i.e. they are of critical importance to achieving our desired transformation). Those that meet this criterion can be laid out to draw a strategy map, and since this gives us a clear guide for our journey towards our destination, we often refer to it also as a road map.

There are other components to the question, “how.” These include the specification of the following: (a) how would we know if what we are doing will lead us to our destination; (b) what milestones must we reach as we move towards our destination; (c) what concrete steps must we take to get to our different milestones? Having to specify and identify (a) measures, (b) targets, and (c) initiatives is a demand of the PGS journey we need to meet. They do represent clear commitments to undertake concrete actions (initiatives), which will enable us to make progress, which can be quantified and measured (measures) to tell us whether we are getting past the milestones (targets) we need to reach. Commitments to perform at certain pre-set and pre-agreed levels are involved: they have to be clear and formal. Thus, this demand of the PGS journey refers to a set of performance scorecards, which are critical to proper strategy execution.

We have given the rationale for these three requirements of the PGS – governance charter, strategy map, and performance scorecards – and how they apply to all key drivers of change in society: The individual, the family, the school, and the socio-economic enterprise (business). We have also given a few illustrations of cases where these three requirements are met at the different levels of governance. We have shown that there is no “mystery” behind them; moreover, meeting these “initiation” requirements of the PGS is possible: they have actually been met in many cases, where commitment to good governance is genuine and strong.