“The book compiles the work of many people who happened to be part of the PAN-RB, and we wrote it to serve as a lesson learned for us. And I would like to express my gratitude because I had an opportunity to learn from ministers as my colleagues and heads of non-governmental ministries, civil servants, heads of agencies and friends at PAN-RB,” Anas said at the Indonesian Bureaucracy Reform Performance Discussion Forum in conjunction with the launch of the book, Anti Mainstream Bureaucracy in Jakarta on Oct. 10.

Minister Anas discusses ways of governance that are rich in paradox and radically change the old ways that have been hardened for many years and focus on how to provide solutions for the people as “consumers” and primary stakeholders that the government has to serve.  

Anas explains in the book that the anti-mainstream approach is not a mere “fight” against tradition but rather the creation of a new culture in governance.

Bureaucrats should not just follow the procedure but should become proactive and productive agents of change and focus on impact.

Anti-Mainstream Bureaucracy is a continuation of a series of books including Creative Collaboration, Inovasi Banyunwangi and Anti-Mainstream Marketing. Anti-Mainstream Bureaucracy offers notes from a journey and experience and offers diverse concrete steps in bureaucratic reform and government innovation.

The book also recounts minister Anas’ leadership from the beginning, when he received a mandate to lead the PAN-RB Ministry. Minister Anas discusses the agenda of impactful bureaucracy in an effort to translate points of direction from President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo in regard to impactful bureaucracy: that bureaucratic reform should not be a pile of paper and that bureaucracy must be agile and fast.

“Once we entered, we discussed what the scale of priorities would be, but it turned out there were many concerns. So we set seven scales of priority. Before we did so, we first gave a blank piece of paper to all staff to write down complaints about the PAN-RB Ministry office. Second, [they were asked to write] what they expected from me and from the ministry ahead so as to resolve the issues quickly,” Anas said.

In response to the direction given by President Joko Widodo, the PAN-RB Ministry set seven priority programs, which Anas explains in the book, and there are 12 methods of anti-mainstream divided into two big groups, which are abbreviated “2S”, namely STRATEGY: The 7 Anti-Mainstream Actionable STRATEGIES; and STYLE: The 5 Anti-Mainstream Leadership STYLES.

The first method, “STRATEGY”, constitutes the “hard aspect” of the bureaucratic reform that the government is focusing on. Why is it called the “hard aspect”? Because it contains objective-technical and specific strategy principles that can be formulated into “how to” steps, making it easier for anyone to replicate them.   

Then, the first seven methods are developed into 20 strategy derivatives. The methods are further explored and wisdom from the field is obtained. The seven action strategies are competencies, simplification, digitalization, performance, agility, culturation and orchestration.

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 Meanwhile, “STYLE” is a “soft aspect” because it is more personal-universal-situational in nature and more like art rather than science. Five methods of leadership were carried out to make the impactful bureaucracy reform a success, including Inspiration: “Inspiring with Evidence”; Speed: “Momentum for Accelerating Execution”; Execution: “This is About Detail”; Collaboration, “Superteam is More Super Than Superman”;  and Winning Mentality: “Every Human Is A Winner”.

Anas explained further that orchestration was partly implemented when he faced challenges in leading the PAN-RB Ministry. He said it was not easy to convince the stakeholders. His authority as PAN-RB Minister was insufficient to govern other ministries, according to Anas.  

To cope with the issue, minister Anas teamed up with other ministers to increase their combined strength.

“I mean […] we should not ask for additional authority while we can harness other authorities to speed up the attainment of a target that a leader gives us,” he added.

At the book’s launch, Coordinating Maritime Affairs and Investment Minister Luhut Pandjaitan expressed his appreciation for Anti-Mainstream Bureaucracy.

According to him, the book reflected the incredible achievement Minister Anas had made.

“I am proud. I once worked together with Pak Anas and I think a team in my office. I loved working with Pak Anas, and I am grateful to learn that you have written the book and have done a lot in bureaucratic reform, which will make [governance] easier, reduce corruption cases in the country, bring efficiency and bring a good name to Indonesia in the future,” Luhut said.

Luhut expressed hope that, moving ahead, minister Anas would continue with his work.

“Moving ahead, do it all with the heart because without heart, we will not be able to achieve it regardless of the profession that we have.”

Meanwhile, management issues specialist Yuswohady offered his insights into the leadership style that Pak Anas embraced.

He said that what was meant by anti-mainstream in the book was a reflection of a “paradox approach”.

“The paradox approach is an approach that [appears to be] running counter [to a particular goal], but can be connected and then produce an extraordinary thing. So I think Pak Anas is a maestro in paradox.”

Yuswohady added that Pak Anas started from the end, instead of from the beginning, when doing something.

“So where the end destination is, he’s already mapped it. And what’s more, the more you give, the more you get. Pak Anas is often engaged in giving and so he received many blessings,” he said.

He said further that minister Anas was skillful at setting a scale of priorities. If everything were made a priority, he said, there would be no priority at all.

“This is an art of leadership that Pak Anas promulgates. Often, if we expect quality, there are small quantities and vice-versa. But Pak Anas broke it into detail; he could [produce] high quantities but with good quality,” he added.

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