It was in 2017 that it was decided to face with a new vision the process of normalization of the Basque Country, and it is fair to say that the process received a significant boost both in the quantitative aspect (use and presence) and in the qualitative aspect (illusion in the department, collaboration, involvement, solidity of the initiative…).

Therefore, aware of the success of the experiences, it was decided to analyze the steps taken, in order to identify the keys and areas of improvement to advance in this analysis, as well as to visualize where Lehendakaritza wants to be ten years from now. It is also intended if the model and the analysis of the path traveled could be useful, to make it available to similar institutions.

The first step in addressing systematization was the detailed description of the trajectory from 2017 to 2021. The overall vision of the itinerary helped identify the keys and visualize the next steps. Systematization is the critical interpretation of one or more experiences. In this case, the organization and reconstruction of these experiences helped to identify elements such as the logic of the process, its main factors and keys, the relationship between them and the reason for this action. In short, systematization is a tool to better understand our experiences, always in order to improve them and channel more far-reaching initiatives.

The main keys identified by the systematization work of Lehendakaritza were:

• The values shared in the process: caring for diversity, enabling active listening, taking steps in a progressive way, strengthening mutual trust, structuring shared leadership, acting flexibly, fostering empathy and assertiveness, placing people in the center…
• Take a clear political decision and channel cooperation between the political and technical levels.
• Agree on the direction and goal of the process with all the agents.
• Make the Basque need visible and felt to those responsible and working people.
• Appoint a person responsible for Euskera, with decision-making capacity, and create an effective motor team leading the process.
• Activate informal leaders and seek alliances and complicity.
• To look at the linguistic reality not from the point of view of the hegemonic language and to adopt the perspective of the minority language, providing training in sociolinguistics to the members of the organization for their empowerment in this matter.
• To highlight and make visible the importance of understanding Euskera.
• Continuously assess the process.

On
the other hand, looking to the future, and assuming the current situation, it is a good time to take the necessary steps to make the Basque in Lehendakaritza something natural, that is, for the presidency to be an arigune or space of use for the Basque. The systematization has helped define the north of this new phase, in which strategies and steps will have to be planned, such as the design of the new plan, the strengthening of the linguistic leadership of the directions, the involvement and the formation of the new generation of Basque technicians, among others.