[Featured photo: The panel members commencing discussion during the forum]

Organised by Singapore Management University’s (SMU) School of Social Sciences, the fifth Tri-Sector Forum held on 25 April 2019 is part of its Tri-Sector Initiative, which provides thought leadership on the burgeoning phenomenon of cross-sector partnerships, creating the hub for cutting-edge thinking on collaborative governance.

The Forum themed – Collaborating Amidst Complexity: What Leadership Looks Like in an Uncertain World – showcased perspectives from the highest levels of leadership in industry, government and civil society on the existential need for not only addressing escalating uncertainties and societal challenges, but also our stewardship in building the capacity to meet them.

About 150 participants, comprising faculty and staff, alumni, industry partners, guests from various sectors and the public, attended the event held at the Ngee Ann Kongsi Auditorium.

Welcome Remarks

In his welcome remarks, Interim Dean of SMU School of Social Sciences (SOSS), Associate Professor of Philosophy Tan Yoo Guan said, “To build businesses and societies that are able to flourish and thrive in this volatile and uncertain environment, all players from business, government and civil society, will need to work together far more closely than ever before.”

He added that equally important is the collaboration between practitioners and academic researchers. Social Science research can uncover patterns and regularities that underlie social phenomena. Knowing these regularities will help us better understand how society works, it will also enable urban planners to better direct social changes through more informed and hence more effective policies.

He shared that the SOSS has developed researched strengths in the areas of Contemporary Asian societies, development and sustainability, well-being and ageing, family relationships, social inclusion and exclusion and group and organisational dynamics. He added that the School is looking forward to working more closely with practitioners from all sectors to identify and develop research programmes that are of high social significance.

Keynote Address

In his keynote address, Education Minister Ong Ye Kung congratulated the 15 graduating students of the MTSC. He also commended SMU for staying at the forefront of innovation, always anticipating new demands for knowledge and skills. He said that this Tri Sector programme reflected SMU’s belief in multidisciplinary teaching and the importance of having different people and talents coming together to solve problems. He complimented SMU on being a trailblazer with its signature SMU-X initiative and being the first university to make global exposure a compulsory requirement for graduation.

Minister then gave his take on the theme of the forum. He shared two examples of multi-disciplinary collaborations – the “High Line” project in New York City and Tripartism in Singapore.

The High Line is a 2.33km elevated park which was converted from a former a railroad track. The idea to covert the track into a park was mooted by two residents of the neighbourhood – David and Hammond – where they advocated for the preservation of the area and gained the support of the local government and businesses in the area.

He shared that while the advocates were determined, there were other factors that made the project a success. The community embraced the project as they yearned for rejuvenation of their neighbourhood, the architects had a free hand in designing the area, the artists had a lot of leeway in populating every nook and corner with their creations, the landscaping team had their imprints on the plants. Surrounding the High Line, businesses in the area flourished with hotels, restaurants and shops sprouting up. Others donated to the projects and the park is now maintained by a non-profit organisation – Friends of the High Line.

Closer to home, Min Ong said that Tripartism in Singapore is the model where business, workers/unions and government, work together to make the economy competitive, job market vibrant, and workers are employed. He added that this took years of effort for each partner to fulfil their part of the bargain. The Government formulates and implements good policies to attract foreign business to Singapore so as to create jobs, and also protects the welfare of workers. Businesses that operate here will on the other hand, aim to make profit, train their workers well, and if they do well, share the fruits with workers through bonuses, staff welfare, promotions and good career prospects. Workers from unions will support pro-business policies of the Government and contribute to the successes of the business.

Each one has their own roles to play, and this becomes more challenging especially in economic downturns and times of crisis.

More often than not, we see these partners “fighting” for their own share of the pie. But in Singapore, over the years, we have reframed this problem such that all three partners work together to “enlarge the share of the pie”. All parties came together because of a shared mission, the right cooperative mindset, and work together.

But what are the pre-requisites for a harmonious and successful partnership? According to Minister Ong, the first, and most critical pre-requisite, is leadership. Leaders have the power and authority to make things happen. High Line succeeded because someone – maybe the Mayor of New York City - bought into David and Hammond’s idea, and recognised the desire of the community. So he created a special zone for the project, suspended or created rules that helped others work together to produce results. The credit goes to all the contributors, but the leader made it possible to contribute.

For Tripartism in Singapore, our first Prime Minister, Mr Lee Kuan Yew, and his team fought difficult political battles, risked their lives, and showed people and businesses a new way of working together. It took many years of painstaking hard work to build up the working relationship and trust we have today between the three parties. So it is not just leaders, but leaders with long-term vision and the conviction to overcome obstacles to carry out their plans.

On the flipside, the second basic ingredient, is the people who follow the leaders. To bring about change, we need both leaders and followers. An organisation or a country is not made up of its leaders, but its people. If they somehow cannot work together, even the best leaders will find it impossible to motivate them. He cited the example of a football team where even the best football manager would not be able to turn a team around if the players decide to play for themselves rather than for the team.

It is even more important when we are talking about a country. Once the people lose sight of their history and identity, start to navel gaze and turn inwards, or are overtaken by complacency and hubris, the downfall starts. Singapore has done well so far because we have a few generations of stout-hearted Singaporeans. We now give them accolades called Pioneer Generation and now Merdeka Generation.

Minister Ong concluded by saying that we needed to get the two important basic ingredients in order – leaders with vision and capability and people with spirit and verve - to have the chance to have an active, collaborative ecosystem of teamwork and mutual help across sectors, across disciplines. Nonetheless, he cautioned that we live in a complex society with many different factors at play and that leaders and people have to build a cohesive relationship amidst significant and distortive noise of the social media.

Panel discussion

Moderated by Mr Teymoor Nabili, Journalist and Broadcaster as well as a graduate of the SMU’s Master of Tri Sector Collaboration, the forum’s panel discussion covered issues such as how complexity was changing the way we address global problems, how we needed to look at problems in a more integrated and synergistic approach and the opportunities for collaboration.

We are living in a time of great paradoxes – we are more connected but yet we are drifting apart; technology has driven us well in terms of productivity but the fourth industrial revolution is creating great insecurities. Besides leadership, we need relationships amongst the different stakeholders, where there is mutual accountability and common values, in order to work together to build a better future.

The panelists included:

• Mr Ong Ye Kung, Minister for Education, Republic of Singapore
• Ms Tan Su Shan, Group Head, Institutional Banking Group, DBS Bank
• Dr Noeleen Heyzer, Lee Kong Chian Distinguished Fellow, School of Social Sciences, SMU
• Mr Eddie Teo, Distinguished Fellow, School of Social Sciences, SMU

Concluding Remarks

The event ended with Ijlal Naqvi, Assistant Professor of Sociology, School of Social Sciences giving his concluding remarks. He shared how the three capstone projects presented earlier in the afternoon by the graduating cohort of the Master of Tri Sector Collaboration (MTSC) showcased the benefits of partnership and the challenges that came with it. The projects were: (i) Collaborative design effort in reimagining public space in Manila, (ii) Sustainable smallholder cacao farming in Batangas Province, Manila, and (iii) Reducing food waste in Singapore (from wholesale distributers to community kitchens/void decks). All projects also demonstrated the skills they have gained through the MTSC for navigating complexity to develop solutions for more sustainable societies.

Minister Ong's speech at the Tri-Sector Forum on 25 April 2019: