"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the uneasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man." - George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman (1903)

IN TODAY'S parlance, most of us "go with the flow"; we accept the perceived wisdom, even though in our heart of hearts we know that the perceived wisdom is not always wise.

For updates from around the country, follow Sun.Star on Twitter

In our society, we accept its norms and mores. This is our contribution to civilization. If nobody obeyed society's written and unwritten rules, we would descend into anarchy. Civilization would be destroyed.

A key microcosm of society is the corporation. Those who climb the ladder of success are not, and never have been, the best and the brightest. Those who are promoted are those reasonable men who know the rules, especially the unwritten rules, of the organization. Technology plays its part.

Already a disproportionate amount of time is spent by aspiring managers on "email wars"- a new form of unarmed combat in which the protagonists jockey for position to become the preferred ones in the eyes of their superiors. It would help those who are engaged in email wars to know the criteria by which their success or failure will be judged. In roughly descending order of importance, we have the following:

(1) Be a team player. No matter how brittle the relationship between executives, any overt displays of disharmony are to be eschewed. The one who shows disharmony will be penalized heavily. It should not need to be said that you never resist instructions from your superiors. But apparently it does.

Jesli Lapus, DepEd Secretary bowing under pressure from the churlish ones who ridiculed his proposed decision to buy noodles, albeit fortified, at P200/kg, ordered the cancellation of the P427-million contract. Case closed? Not so. Apparently, an "official" review found no irregularity in the bidding process. Does this mean that DepEd can find nobody who could supply 2,135 tonnes of noodles for less than P427 million? Undersecretary Franklin Sunga said the DepEd would like to know whether it can now sign the contract with Jeverps Manufacturing, the company which proposes to supply the gold-plated noodles.

Sunga noted that Jeverps had filed a motion for Lapus to reconsider his order cancelling the product.

In serious organizations, we know who the boss is. Insubordination results in dismissal. DepEd, where apparently the subordinate can resist the order of his superior, is clearly not a serious organization. Since DepEd's budget for next year is P172 billion of public money, we regard this as a major cause for concern.

(2) CYA. Cover Your Ass. Whatever the consequences of your email, you are not the one to be blamed. Couch your missives with obvious conditionalities such as: if X, then Y. Then. if Y does not occur, you can always say that this was because X, preferably an assumption that can be attributed to your enemy, did not occur.

For example, approximately 12 months ago, conscientious civil servants were preparing the 2009-2010 budgets. Their calculation shows the budget deficit would be P67 billion. Of course that was always going to be nonsense, but who cares? Now Sec Teves is talking about a budget deficit of P260 billion. We predict, conservatively, that the deficit will be at least P300 billion. Do the civil servants who prepared the original budget get flak? Of course not. They can cite that the original budget was dependent, and that they said so, on the absence of unforeseen events such as Ondoy. But there always unforeseen events.

(3) Understand the current corporate fashions and show that you support them wholeheartedly. (Even if you think they are nonsense). Call centers love "performance statistics' which have little or no relationship with how the organization is really performing. These performance statistics give superiors a facile weapon with which to keep subordinates under pressure. Up and coming executives, as well as having to show that they are 'bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, 24/7", must embrace, uncritically, the bases on which they are being assessed.

(4) The veracity of what you are saying. This does not mean that you should lie. It just means you should be economical with the truth. Omit salient features if they are to your disadvantage. If the recipient makes inferences from your missives, which you can later claim, if necessary, to be erroneous, that is his problem. Composing emails from which plausible deniability is always possible, however horrendous the outcome of the event you have engendered, is an art form that those wishing to climb the corporate ladder had better learn in a hurry.
***

In August, there was a Presidential election in Afghanistan. The incumbent Dr Hamid Karzai "won". There were the usual allegations of vote rigging but they were not taken seriously. There was an international watchdog body, which stated that although there were some anomalies, the results should stand.

Until the unreasonable man appeared.

He was a member of the international watchdog group and he said "nonsense". There was massive fraud. He did not go with the flow. He did not accept the perceived wisdom. He was fired!

But he could prove his case. The decision to inaugurate Dr Karzai has been deferred. There will be a run off election in November. Karzai vs Abdullah Abdullah.
We salute the unreasonable man.
He made a difference.
Because of him, progress is being made.
Shaw was right.