Developing courage and conviction in a world of appearances

Both the personal and professional world incentivizes the management of perceptions and appearances. We filter our social media profiles to hide our blemishes, curate our highlight reels (are they even “real”?), and bloat our resumes and CVs. The Enron scandal showed how the company abused mark-to-market accounting and the use of shell companies to appear very strong in terms of its financial standing. Even in religious practices, we represent hypocrisy through the Pharisees who appear to be praying, but are just putting on a show.

Done with carelessness and malice, this breeds inauthenticity, or dare I say, bullshit. In a way, a person who does not want to play this game would choose to be silent. It feels too risky to voice out opinions and face judgement, or feel like imposters, with the sense that one is no different from others willing and deliberately performing BS.

The gospel provides some hints: we need to take courage. And this emanates from our authentic journey, self-examination, and discernment of what we know as good, and we’re willing to take accountability for our words and actions.

I vividly remember my grade school years – I was a very shy, awkward, and introverted chubby boy. I felt insecure when I am selected to compete in debates or in declamation contests – I could only imagine the ridicule I would receive if I fail. But… what’s the big deal with failure?

I recall in high school, I was supposed to recite our school creed, and I experienced mental block – I choked in front of the whole campus, and our principal then helped me by reciting loudly what I forgot.

I recall a moment where I had to perform basketball dribbling moves in a contest (and I’m not great at it!) and fumbled the ball on stage.

At those moments, I felt like the end of the world. Nakakahiya! But fast forward now, did it really mean anything? Was I less of a man for failing to perform or choking in those moments?

I recall asking one of my mentors why he would always speak up and contribute to any forum he is in. What he mentioned struck me. It was something along the lines of: if we claim to be educators or intellectuals, it is our responsibility to make sure that the group is better off with our presence and ideas than it would be without us. So we have to speak up.

And extending that insight, the courage to speak up without BS can only come from preparation and paying attention to what we read or what others say. It’s not about being perfect but painstakingly going through that process of experiencing, insighting, judging, and decision-making.

If the Primary Insight or the Wisdom Incarnate has conquered the world, then we, His followers, are empowered to take courage, to courageously lean into authentic reflections and actions. If we fail, there is an infinite number of times we can iterate and try again, as long as what we’re aiming for is something we have discerned to be a truly good goal.

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John 16:29-33. In the world you will have trouble, but take courage, I have conquered the world

[DAILY GOSPEL INSIGHTS AND REFLECTION FOR MANAGEMENT AND ORGANIZATION 150: MAY 30, 2022]

Finding authenticity in figures of speech

What made me first fall in love with creative writing or reading creative works is the beautiful and meaningful use of figures of speech. A masterful use of figures of speech can evoke a heightened feeling of insight and surplus of meaning that simply cannot be conveyed by plain language sometimes.

When I do my own qualitative research, I try to search for analogies that can parallel or fit the phenomenon I am trying to explain. Analogies can also allow us to appreciate the limits of our explanations at the moments where the analogies break or do not parallel the phenomenon being explained anymore. When I tried to explain the viability of HEI-based social enterprise incubators in my dissertation, drawing parallels between literal egg incubators and SE incubators revealed an important contextual difference. Egg incubators strive to and can control the external environment of the incubatee (temperature of the environment) while SE incubators can only help mitigate risks (can market conditions really be controlled by startups?).

Relating it to the gospel today, Jesus acknowledged that He had to rely on parables and figures of speech to convey principles he wanted us to gain insight to. If the realm of the supernatural are indeed beyond us, we may not possess language or the intellect to understand the Divine without Jesus as a Mediator.

When will that hour come when we would no longer need figures of speech to understand the Divine? Is it in death? Maybe.

But for now, the parables and other figures of speech can help us extract more meaning and beauty. At that moment of insight and subsequent action, we can find and manifest authenticity that allows us to flourish even at our own lifetime.

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John 16:23b-28. The hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figures (of speech) but I will tell you clearly about the Father

[DAILY GOSPEL INSIGHTS AND REFLECTION FOR MANAGEMENT AND ORGANIZATION 148: MAY 28, 2022]

Grief and joy, suffering and pleasure: two sides of the same coin?

Is it correct that we understand and appreciate joy when we know what it means to grieve? Is it correct that we understand and appreciate pleasure when we know what it means to suffer?

In a way, pain is unavoidable for a person who seeks growth and to flourish.

Maybe the calling of organizations is not necessarily to eliminate grief and suffering, but to manage these, like how incubators manage risk for startups. We can do this through authenticity, empathy, and dialogue. Pakikipagkapwa-tao at bayanihan.

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John 16:16-20. Your grief will become joy

[DAILY GOSPEL INSIGHTS AND REFLECTION FOR MANAGEMENT AND ORGANIZATION 146: MAY 26, 2022]

Businesses can touch the spirit

What I loved about Kotler et al.’s Marketing 3.0 concept is that it called for brands to touch the human spirit. I wonder why they positioned Marketing 4.0 as more into the digital space, when it seemed to me that “touching the human spirit” is a greater and more noble endeavor that cuts across the physical or digital space.

It sounds idealistic, but it seems so heartwarming that businesses and brands can be authentic advocates (that may even be spiritually aligned with the Advocate). In a way, there is that “alchemy” where business, commercial, and functional value can be “transmuted” into something that flourishes one’s well-being.

However, can this kind of “touching of spirits” be feasible in a “post-truth” world, where we disregard logical truths and settle for convenient emotional truths? From a Catholic and Christian perspective, I do not think this is coherent. God (Jesus, Advocate, Love, Truth) serves as our anchor and reference; a sort of “objective truth” despite our subjective perceptions.

Yes, positioning happens in the mind of consumers. But the process of developing brands may be best perceived as a co-creative activity, where managers are “architects” and consumers are “users”, together with various communities and stakeholders that enable a brand to take life. Maybe the vocation of businesses and brands is to stimulate culture and society to seek truly good goods in the spirit of flourishing, not merely just a convenient pursuit of pleasure.

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John 16:5-11. I will send (the Advocate) to you

[DAILY GOSPEL INSIGHTS AND REFLECTION FOR MANAGEMENT AND ORGANIZATION 144: MAY 24, 2022]