What can we learn about power and influence from watching de Mello in East Timor? Really, we can learn everything about the course. This is a man who was good at everything. But three things in particular I want to point out, flexibility, intentionality, and relationships. Number one, be multiple. There are examples throughout the case, the chapters from power but a few. Here de Mello was muscular with Indonesians, but he was participative with the East Timorese. In other words, he forced the Indonesians out and was strong with those guys, while pulled the East Timorese in and gave away his power to those guys. That whole notion of Timorization, which was this building of a co-government, was his being coercive with the UN, basically breaking their rules in order to cede power to local officials. Other examples: he was able to use direct pressure. He negotiated directly with the UN in order to pay some families some reparations, but he's also able to negotiate in a very challenging way. But indirectly, when he was negotiating with the Australian government about oil rights off the shore. These are all examples of his being multiple, being flexible, being able to exert power and influence in very different ways. Samantha Power refers to this as a ruthless pragmatism. He would do whatever was necessary in order to accomplish his goals. A second takeaway, recognizing the need for trade-offs. So this example of his prioritizing security over human rights was so against his nature, was so against his career. Ramos-Horta quoted in the chapter saying, human rights? Human rights? That is Alice in Wonderland. We have to deal with reality here. de Mello agreed with that assessment. de Mello traded away, essentially, the priority on human rights in order to emphasize security. Samantha Power puts it this way, Sergio started out as a humanitarian but by 2003 he had become a diplomat and politician, comfortable weighing lesser evils. Such a powerful phrase, what does that phrase mean to you? Comfortable weighing lesser evils. This is going to be an important theme in all of our work on power and influence. The ability to do that and, the down sides of doing that, and being honest with ourselves about when we are doing that. And then the intentionality that this captures. You're not really committed to a goal, if you're not making trade-offs. This is something we see in de Mello. His commitment to the goal meant that he had to sacrifice some of his lesser trade-offs. This is a good illustration of what true intentionality is. Takeaway #3, investing in relationships. So de Mello put symbolism over convenience, consistently. He was quoted after not letting his driver use his siren when he was stuck in traffic, I'd rather be late than act like a king. He prioritized the dignity of the citizens. Samantha Power says that local staff members were unaccustomed to being treated with such respect by foreigners. And then he in one famous case quote went to the jungle. On his second day in country, he'd spent 24 hours flying into East Timor, on the second day in the country he made a visit to the leader of the guerillas, the long time leader of the resistance. A man who had been In prison by the Indonesians from 1992 until the election in 1999, Xanana Gusmao. He was in the headquartered two hours away, steep mountain roads, unpaved roads. And on the very second day he was there, de Mello got in a jeep, went out there. He didn't wait for Gusmao to come to him. Many people would've thought, I'm the king now. I'm the dictator. Let the local leaders come to me. He realized the importance of that relationship, a relationship that was going to be vital for the next two years. He took the step. The non obvious step, the indirect step of going to the jungle, going to Gusmao. So those are three examples. As I said, we could illustrate the entire course that way. But we also see examples that illustrate a very important construct for us, French and Raven's sources of power. So in the next section we'll unpack French and Raven.
