Ailments of Curia, Our Ailments...

Ailments of Curia, according to Pope Francis

Pope Francis listed 15 “ailments” of the Vatican Curia during his annual Christmas greetings to the cardinals, bishops and priests who run the central administration of the 1.2-billion strong Catholic Church. [Philippine Daily Inquirer, December 24, 2014 at 4:13 am]

The Ailments of Curia are most probably the same ailments we have in our team or organization. We see the Pope's message in this context. It is not only for the Vatican, it is actually for all of us.

This 2015, we can probably take a look this list and learn something from it.

Feeling immortal, immune or indispensable. “A Curia that doesn’t criticize itself, that doesn’t update itself, that doesn’t seek to improve itself is a sick body.”

• "Feeling immortal" - the feeling of having an eternal life or the ability to live forever.
• "Feeling immune" - the feeling of having sufficient biological defenses to avoid infection, disease, or other unwanted biological invasion.
• "Feeling indispensable" - the feeling of being extremely important and necessary that the organization can't do without him/her.

These feelings are definitely feelings and nothing more than feelings. They are products of wild imagination. And therefore they are not real.

Madalas ang mga "feeling immortal" ay siyang may "karamdamang mortal". They actually do not have the ability to live with the organization because they float in "eternity" and feel that they can live forever and ever. 
Ang mga "feeling immune" ay siyang madalas dapuan ng "sakit na nakaka-awa". They are always defensive because they are both infected and infectious. They are actually the unwanted "buy-you-logical" invaders. 
Ang mga "feeling indispensable" are those who are "extremely believe sa self" always thinking that only he/she is the best, that only he/she can do the right things in the organization and that the organization can't do without him/her.

My goodness!
We have to be real. We need to be true.
No one is immortal, immune or indispensable.
We have to embrace both the good news and the bad news.
We cannot pretend that everything is good in us and the organization.
We have to criticize ourselves and allow our team mates to criticize us.
We have to appreciate comments from within and outside the organization.
We have to know more and be prepared at all times.
We have to work with the good, the bad and the ugly and adopt and adapt to change to update and improve our team.
If we refuse to improve ourselves and our capacity to work together, then we are indeed "feeling immortal, immune and indispensable." And therefore, we are sick. [To be continued at the end of the next day]

Working too hard. “Rest for those who have done their work is necessary, good and should be taken seriously.”

Rest should be included in your strategic plan.
If you really love your work and you really love working hard, then you should love yourself.
If you love yourself, you will ensure that rest is included among your precious activities to be a more effective and productive human being.
If you don't love yourself, then you really don't love your work and you really can't work hard because you don't know what rest means.
If you understand the value of work, then you should understand the value of rest.
You don't understand the value of work and working hard if you don't understand the value of rest.

According to Wikipedia, a workaholic is a person who is addicted to work. While the term generally implies that the person enjoys their work it can also imply that they simply feel compelled to do it. There is no generally accepted medical definition of such a condition, although some forms of stress, impulse control disorder, obsessive-compulsive personality disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder can be work-related. Workaholism is not the same as working hard.

Workaholism in Japan is considered a serious social problem leading to early death, often on the job, a phenomenon dubbed karōshi. Overwork was popularly blamed for the fatal stroke of Prime Minister of Japan Keizō Obuchi, in the year 2000.

Workaholics feel the urge of being busy all the time, to the point that they often perform tasks that aren't required or necessary for project completion. As a result, they tend to be inefficient workers, since they focus on being busy, instead of focusing on being productive.

In addition, workaholics tend to be less effective than other workers because they have difficulty working as part of a team, trouble delegating or entrusting co-workers, or organizational problems due to taking on too much work at once.Furthermore, workaholics often suffer sleep deprivation which results in impaired brain and cognitive function.

As with other psychological addictions, workaholics often cannot see that they have a problem. Confronting the workaholic will generally be met with denial. Co-workers, family members and friends may need to engage in some type of an intervention to communicate the effects of the workaholic’s behavior on them.Indeed, mental treatment to cure a workaholic can successfully reduce the hours spent on the job, while increasing the person's productivity. Studies show that fully recovered former workaholics can accomplish in 50 hours what they previously couldn't do in 80. [Wikipedia]

Tignan mo nga. Baka ikaw ay lagi lang busy pero hindi naman productive. 
Kung seryoso ka sa trabaho, maging seryoso ka rin sa pahinga dahil parehas itong mahalaga.
Kung alam mo ang kahalagahan ng trabaho dapat alam mo rin ang kahalagahan ng pahinga. Kung hindi, baka bigla ka na lang mamahinga.

Becoming spiritually and mentally hardened. “It’s dangerous to lose that human sensibility that lets you cry with those who are crying, and celebrate those who are joyful.”

Emotional intelligence (EI) is the ability to monitor one's own and other people's emotions, to discriminate between different emotions and label them appropriately, and to use emotional information to guide thinking and behavior. (Wikipedia)

Many claim that they are intelligent but fail to understand and distinguish people's emotions and his own. As such, they fail to think and behave appropriately to situations.

Some "leaders" are unable to "manage" themselves and some "managers" are unable to "lead" themselves due to their inability to perceive and respond to their emotions and those of other people.

Similarly, some followers are unable to "follow" and some team members are unable to "make the team work" because they lack the human sensibility to "work with the team."

Mahirap ang matalino pero walang emosyon. May utak pero walang pakiramdam. Hindi ito tao at hindi ito bagay... sa mga tunay na tao.

Planning too much. “Preparing things well is necessary, but do not fall into the temptation of trying to close or direct the freedom of the Holy Spirit, which is bigger and more generous than any human plan.”

"God made the master plan. We cannot master His plan."

When things don't happen the way we want them to, we blame others and we question God. And we say, "Oh no, things did not happen the way we planned them", never realizing that God made them happen the way he planned them to.
When things happen the way we want them to, we don't remember others and we forget God. And we say, "Yes, we did it, things happened the way we planned them", never realizing that God made them happen the way we want them to.


"Mahirap kung sa sobrang pag-paplano, pati ang plano ng Diyos ay gusto na nating baguhin.

Working without coordination, like an orchestra that produces noise. “When the foot tells the hand, ‘I don’t need you’ or the hand tells the head ‘I’m in charge.”’

Coordination is the act of organizing, making different people or things work together for a goal or effect to fulfill desired goals in an organization. Coordination is a managerial function in which different activities of the business are properly adjusted and interlinked.

"Ang tunay na pagkakaisa ay nagsisimula sa tunay na pagsasama."

"Communicate, Coordinate, and Collaborate" - sounds good. we talk about it but are we able to communicate and use it effectively?

"Communicate" 

• We talk but we don't listen. We always want people to listen to us. The moment they attempt to speak, we continue to talk. The tounge is more active than the ears. The problem is the tounge can't listen and the ears can't talk.
• Others listen but refuse to talk. Because they are not given the chance to speak, they just listen and remain quiet. They probably will tell somebody else the things they want to tell us, but can't.
• Still others refuse to listen and refuse to talk. Not given the opportunity to talk, they choose not to listen.
• Some are informed, some are not, but we expect a well coordinated action.
• We talk to someone about someone and we never talk to that someone whom we talked about, with someone. 

"Coordinate" 

• We ask others to tell us what they are doing or what they are going to do, but we refuse to inform them about what we are doing or what we are going to do.
• We decide on things without informing or involving everyone but we require everybody to own the decision.
• We invite others to attend our meetings and events, but we don't attend their meetings and events when invited. 
• They know when we need them, we don't know when they need us.
• We want to establish their "coordinates" but we don't want them to find our "coordinates."

"Collaborate"

• We want everyone to work hand-in-hand but we refuse to give them a hand.
• We want everyone to work with us but we don't want to be with them when something goes wrong.
• We want others to do somethings in our behalf as we want them to take the blame in our behalf.

"Convergence"

• We developed the convergence framework but we hardly work on the frame of the principles we formulated.
• The "Executives" are different from the "Committee"as the "Management" is different from the "Committee."
• We want convergence downstairs but we don't have convergence upstairs.
• Our territory has a lot of boundaries...inside.

Workplace Politics? It depends on how we use it.

According to Wikipedia, Workplace politics, (office politics or organizational politics) is the use of power and social networking within an organization to achieve changes that benefit the organization or individuals within it.
Influence by individuals may serve personal interests without regard to their effect on the organization itself.
Some of the personal advantages may include access to tangible assets, or intangible benefits such as status or pseudo-authority that influences the behavior of others.
On the other hand, organizational politics can increase efficiency, form interpersonal relationships, expedite change, and profit the organization and its members simultaneously.
Both individuals and groups may engage in office politics which can be highly destructive, as people focus on personal gains at the expense of the organization.
"Self-serving political actions can negatively influence our social groupings, cooperation, information sharing, and many other organizational functions."
Thus, it is vital to pay attention to organizational politics and create the right political landscape.

Again: "Ang tunay na pagkakaisa ay nagsisimula sa tunay na pagsasama."

Glorifying one’s bosses. “It’s the sickness of those who court their superiors, hoping for their benevolence. They are victims of careerism and opportunism, they honor people who aren’t God.”
Being indifferent to others. “When, out of jealousy or cunning, one finds joy in seeing another fall rather than helping him up and encouraging him.”

According to Bratton and Kacmar's article, The "Dark Side of Impression Management", extreme careerism is the propensity to pursue career advancement, power, and prestige through any positive or negative non-performance based activity that is deemed necessary. These "non-performance" based activities are activities in which an employee can easily manipulate the people whom he is trying to impress.

Opportunism is the conscious policy and practice of taking selfish advantage of circumstances – with little regard for principles, or with what the consequences are for others. Opportunist actions are expedient actions guided primarily by self-interested motives. (Wikipedia)

These are the certified "sipsips." The group of "praisefully" who are capable of praising just anything about their Boss. Their Boss is their God. They believe that by glorifying their Boss, they will be able to gain favor and realize their whims and caprices in the organization. As they glorify their Boss, they also discredit others to eliminate competition and satisfy their selfish motives.

"Ang mga Oportunista ay magagaling na Artista. Sanay sa arte at anumang drama para sa Boss na sinasamba."