The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) is encouraging higher learning and professional training programs for all personnel as part of efforts towards organizational transformation. The DENR is in the process of expanding its relationships with institutions of higher learning in order to enhance the skills and competencies of officials, prepare them for higher responsibility, and improve public service delivery.

DENR Undersecretary for Organizational Transformation and Human Resources Augusto Dela Peña confirmed that the agency is set to roll-out its partnership with the Asian Institute of Management with a training module on Critical Thinking, Decision-Making and Transformational Leadership developed by one of the leading management and research institutions in Asia.

“The quality of human resource that we have in the DENR—from baby boomers to millennials manning of our department, provides for a very dynamic and capable human resource that can be transformed into a very potent tool to accomplish our mandate,” explained Usec Dela Peña.

Dela Peña explained that the DENR envisions an organization that is agile, responsive, and innovative in addressing the needs of its stakeholders and fulfilling its role of preserving, protecting, and sustainably developing our nation’s environment and natural resources. Shortly after assuming office last year, the DENR leadership began assessing the organizational structure of the agency using the McKinsey 7S Model which looks at leadership style, staffing, skills, strategy, structure, systems, and shared values. He added that the DENR is set to launch competency development programs under the Environment and Natural Resources Academy, on top of the existing supervisory courses and environmental law enforcement courses.

In addition to higher learning programs made available within the department and co-funded by external partners, the DENR is also integrating “design thinking” within the organization, initially through workshops facilitated by IBM Philippines to equip supervisors, middle managers and other officials with the necessary tools to create feasible and user-focused solutions to complex problems related to environmental protection and natural resources conservation.

DENR Secretary Maria Antonia Yulo Loyzaga noted that “design thinking” will enable officials to understand the people and the services the agency is mandated to serve, adding that it will foster working cross-functionally, rather than in silos— an idea she has been pushing in the agency since she first assumed office, to ensure that the capacities and initiatives of the different offices and bureaus are aligned and complement each other.

“This particular exercise will hopefully lead to what I want to establish in the organization as far as ideation is concerned, and how we are supposed to deliver our services and our products that are fit for purpose for the organization to deliver the public service that it needs to deliver,” Loyzaga said.

Meanwhile, the continuous engagement of the department in institutions for higher learning programs has yielded three DENR officials emerging as top graduates of Class 58 of the Master in National Security Administration program of the National Defense College of the Philippines.

Atty. Cleo Sabado-Andrada of the DENR Cordillera Administrative Region won the Gold Academic Award, while Atty. Teodoro Jose Matta from the Palawan Council for Sustainable Development garnered the Gold Leadership Award, while Aaron Andro Ching of the National Mapping and Resource Information Authority received the Gold Thesis Award.

“We want to have people with a very good appreciation of the connection between the national security as a whole and what we do here in terms of protecting, managing, and sustainably developing the environment and natural resources,” explained Dela Peña.###