CULTURE will dictate how far an organization will progress or digress as former Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew said, “Culture is destiny”. Changing a culture seems a daunting task since mindsets of those within the organization have been likely set, fixed and established by factors outside the organization, such as family, religion and school. Of the many core beliefs that Filipinos need to do to make the Philippines great again as suggested by lawyer and author Alexander Lacson, I think the most important belief is that we Filipinos should consider that “unity is higher and more important than individuality, without choking anyone’s creativity”. We should stand united, for, in the words of former United States President John F. Kennedy, “united, there is little we cannot do; divided, there is little we can do”.
World observers said our leaders and our people ought to have started and sustained the gradual change process after People Power in 1986 toppled a dictatorship. However, a year after that event, American writer James Fallows called the Filipinos as a people with a damaged culture, because, according to him, we do not have a sense of community as a people. We do not care for one another.
In American slang, the phrase “chump change” means a small or trivial amount of money. Someone surmised that “chump” in English was probably a combination of the two words “chunk” and “lump”, as chump originally meant a “lump of wood” in the 18th century. Chump eventually took a second meaning, such as a fool or gullible person. Thus, the phrase “chump change” can technically mean an amount of money only a fool would think as many.
While kings, presidents and leaders can change things instantly by a stroke of a pen or by a strike of a sword, ordinary people can sustain such changes by way of chump change, or better yet, with “little things”. However, whether an act is chump change is a matter of perspective. For instance, during a visit to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration space center in 1962, then-US President John F. Kennedy noticed a janitor carrying a broom. He walked over to the man and asked what he was doing. “Well, Mr. President,” the janitor responded, “I’m helping put a man on the moon.”
Day in and day out , Rey or “Toto” happily performed his job of sending and receiving mail in the Bureau of Immigration. For some people, Toto’s job as a messenger is as menial as delivering documents to our internal offices. But for me, Toto’s role is as critical as any other job, as he insures that everyone in the Bureau is equipped with all relevant information, myself in particular. Without all the relevant information, a leader will likely make mistakes. Perhaps Toto was not consciously aware that his acts served a higher purpose, but the little things he did, the chump change so to speak, helped me, in my capacity as the leader of that agency, to make fewer mistakes.
Every time I report to our office in Philippine Airlines (PAL), I meet Ely and Leni, two people who never fail to greet me, help me, make me smile, or otherwise make my workday as comfortable as possible. Ely makes sure no unauthorized persons enter our office, and even helps me in and out of the door, especially when my hands are full. Leni, meanwhile, gives me enough water, coffee or snacks to keep me nourished all throughout the day. For some, the roles of Ely and Leni may be insignificant in relation to roles of the executives in PAL. But for me, the simple gestures of Ely and Leni of insuring that PAL executives are secure and comfortable is as important as any other worker’s function in PAL. In an online article on May 2016, Sarah Griffiths said people should not make any important decisions while feeling hungry. Produced by the stomach in anticipation of a meal, too much ghrelin has a negative effect on decision-making. As cited by Griffiths in her article, Karolina Skibicka of the University of Gothenburg said that increasing ghrelin levels due to hunger, “causes the brain to act impulsively and also affects the ability to make rational decisions”. Perhaps Ely and Leni are not consciously aware that their small acts of service serve a higher purpose, but the little things they have been doing have helped PAL executives make rational decisions. Simply put, Ely and Leni are there to make sure ghrelin hormones of key decision makers in PAL are kept in check!
The little things courier Toto, guard Ely and utility worker Leni perform, when taken together, contribute to a better culture in their organization. The messengers, the guards, the janitors and the clerks, all help out in the spirit of bayanihan. And that culture, contrary to what Fallows says, is the Filipino culture of caring for one another. In our country, our gestures of caring, while chump change for some, define who we are as a people. In the words of Margaret Mead, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”
So I say to Mr. Wallace and other disbelievers, we Filipinos have a caring culture—it is just a matter of perspective.
For questions and comments, please e-mail me at sbmison@gmail.com.