When we pretend that we don’t know

More than a decade in the university (counting my years since being a student) made me realize that academic performance is less about IQ or intellectual intelligence but more about stamina. Though working smart and having booksmarts would help a lot, the capstone projects (final internship, thesis, dissertation) is more about the attitude, discipline, and the stamina to grit through constructive critiques.

As a teacher, it is easy to extend extra effort for those who have demonstrated commitment and proactiveness. It is most difficult to be nurturing when sometimes, we sense that students would feign ignorance and pretend that they don’t know the right thing to do because knowing the right thing often means knowing that doing the right thing is hard and filled with effort.

What stunts our growth the most are the times when we feign ignorance to avoid doing hard work. A tricky path to traverse is when students do the bare minimum for the highest grade instead of going above and beyond for the sake of pursuing insights and deep understanding.

Being better (or even the best) is indeed about authenticity too – knowing our weakness, daring to improve, and drawing from our well of stamina to go over the other side, where a better version of us is always waiting.

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Mark 11:27-33. So their answer to Jesus was, “We don’t know.”

[DAILY GOSPEL INSIGHTS AND REFLECTION FOR MANAGEMENT AND ORGANIZATION 2023-154: JUNE 3, 2023]

When the crowd exerts its power

In trying to explain norms and culture as well as their powers, a critical realist perspective is very powerful and useful. Margaret Archer provides the Structure-Culture-Agency (SCA) framework, while Dave Elder-Vass proposed the idea of “norm circles” which can exert power to influence the behavior of a group’s members. These concepts of norms and culture are hard to operationalize and analyze for they include intangibles and levels of abstractions that are not easily describable.

Since what I’m writing now is less of a research paper (though, maybe this could be a seed?) and more of a reflection, my mind wanders to how strong different “crowds” are, whether in the physical or digital spaces. Harnessed effectively, this can lead to international movements that have social justice issues in mind even if not perfect (e.g., #MeToo, #BLM). However, these forces can also be dangerous – cancel culture and hustle culture quickly come to mind.

For now, my insight is this: no structure or culture should be absolutely powerful such that it prevents the individual human in exerting their agency to pursue how they can best flourish. We should embrace the healthy tension between a culture trying to maintain itself and the individual trying to better themselves. Magic happens when the group and the individual are openly and not blindly aligned.

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Mark 10:46-52. Many of the people scolded him and told him to be quiet. But he shouted even more loudly, “Son of David, take pity on me!”

[DAILY GOSPEL INSIGHTS AND REFLECTION FOR MANAGEMENT AND ORGANIZATION 2023-152: JUNE 1, 2023]

Finding peace in sacrifice

Trade-offs and sacrifices are painful. There are struggles to overcome. However, there is peace to be found in our sacrifices.

Finding peace means learning to dance in the rain, embracing the discomfort, and discovering the strength within. It is about realizing that our lives is filled with threads of sacrifice – each one a testament to our courage, guiding us towards a peace that is profound, authentic, and ours.

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Mark 10:28-31. “Look, we have left everything and followed you.”

[DAILY GOSPEL INSIGHTS AND REFLECTION FOR MANAGEMENT AND ORGANIZATION 2023-150: MAY 30, 2023]

On mentoring and giving peace

I’ve been very fortunate to be in a continuing opportunity of mentoring and being mentored. This makes my personal and professional life very meaningful.

In mentoring sessions where I am the mentor or the mentee, I appreciate and crave for the moments when we enter a state of both flow and peace. These circumstances are indeed psychologically safe spaces where insights are corrected and developed on top of each other. There is great fulfillment in both understanding something deeper than before or imparting wisdom that may enable another to flourish.

Society needs more of these kinds of authentic spaces. I sometimes lament how extremely consumerist we tend to act – always competing for attention to sell something, or always craving entertainment that delights the senses even if they do not necessarily deepen our understanding of each other and the world.

Schools can and should be these spaces of peace and flow.

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John 20:19-23. “Peace be with you. As the Father sent me, so I send you.”

[DAILY GOSPEL INSIGHTS AND REFLECTION FOR MANAGEMENT AND ORGANIZATION 2023-148: MAY 28, 2023]

Repetition, indeed, legitimizes

Sometimes (or oftentimes?), we grow tired of hearing the same principles and reminders over and over and over and over again (see what I did there?).

But maybe there is truth in the saying that a person who has practiced something a thousand times is more formidable than a person who once barely scratched the surface of a thousand things.

There are things in life that are indeed worth the grind. The key is for us to discern which is that thing that we are willing to pour repetitive hours over and over and over and over again. Pessimistically, it might seem an absurd Sisyphean task; but optimistically, in faith, the grind can accumulate into opportunities for us to grow and flourish.

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John 21:15-19. Peter was distressed that he had said to him a third time, “Do you love me?”

[DAILY GOSPEL INSIGHTS AND REFLECTION FOR MANAGEMENT AND ORGANIZATION 2023-146: MAY 26, 2023]