Realisation: Are You Randomly Managing Your Life?
A friend complained to me about suffering under a manager
who "practises" random management. It
is not even a genuine "practice" - in the sense that there is no real
skill, mindfulness or diligence involved. In fact, it is not even proper
management - which is why it is called "random". But what exactly is
"random management"? Well, his boss "manages"
workplace personnel matters based on random hearsay and spotchecks. If, for
instance, she hears someone badmouth an employee convincingly, she
assumes the slander is true. It works vice versa too - if someone
sings her praises convincingly, she assumes it is true. It is
random because this is the only feedback she gets - other
than the inaccurate perspectives from her personally biased and
superficial impressions of staff.
The cunning who are aware of her random
management can thus unrandomly manipulate her according to their
whims and fancies - by feeding her what they want her to know -
which need not be true. Because the manager never investigates what she is
told, she is often misled into thinking she has the exclusive whole truth. In
the mean time, the honest workers who are unable to keep up with the cunning
are sidelined. In the mean time, the workplace starts to rot inside-out
without the manager knowing - especially when the worthy are letdown and leave.
This manager is really no manager. She is instead managed by the
unworthy ones around her to their advantage, and ultimately
to her own disadvantage in time - when the company collapses due to being
overrun by the incompetent.
This is really not an article entirely about office
politics. It is about the general danger of managing your life in a random
manner both in and out of the workplace. For instance, in the realm of
friendship, if you blindly believe in unchecked rumours, you could easily lose
a misunderstood friend. Likewise, if you judge a person's
worth by a single moment of observation, you are likely to
miss his character in full, and lose the opportunity of making a
true friend. The opposite of random
management is active inquiry for the complete truth with its multiple facets.
This is exactly the same attitude to have
when investigating for spiritual truth in study and meditation - where the mind
trains to discern and realise reality in its totality. Enlightenment
is never attained by managing your mind randomly! -
Yizhen
Nice words are not
always true; true words are not always nice. – stonepeace
