The Advent of Mediocrity
The Advent of Mediocrity
Word count: 1337
(The first in a monthly series of articles from me…)
My father has a series of postcards with simple quotes on the front. I recall a particular one: “People see things as they are and ask ‘why?’ I see things that never were and ask ‘why not?’”
However, in many cases, I see things as they are meant to be, but aren’t, and ask myself, ‘why?’ I am tempted to say that we live in a mediocre society but this statement might be a bit too sensational rather than functional. I appreciate class, quality, real value. Not the run-of-the-mill masquerading as sophistication. Why?
In life there is a proportion of people who want to be the best they can, but not all actually fulfil that, or even come close to doing so, for various reasons. I would chalk most of that as laziness, but for some the defence of “lack of motivation” possibly holds. Mediocrity? Jack of all trades, master of none. Not everyone is equally talented in everything. It is a fact of life that the world is never fair, and therefore people will always come to differing levels of achievement, and also have different goals in life. That much is fair. But to achieve a low level through deliberate under-estimation of oneself, and then pass that off as a major achievement, or be pleased with that achievement of sorts is belittling oneself at best. At worst, it isn’t giving enough respect to the people who put faith in you, your supporters, your teacher, your boss, your parents. To name a few. It could also be the condoning of such low standards, the tacit approval that is given for inadequate performance, that mediocrity in response to mediocrity simply won’t do anything to improve the situation.
For far too long, people have been easily satisfied with low quality. Or have been too apathetic to care, too afraid to complain, consider this too minor to give it a second thought. This is ingrained in one’s own character – whether to pursue what he believes in, or whether it is worthwhile to stand up for that. I support the idea of encouragement. In man management, you need to provide the right kind of support to whoever you are involved with. When someone in your team accomplishes something, it is quite important to praise and encourage. However, the trouble comes when the work is not really worth praising. Sure, we need to encourage to promote satisfaction and progress, but encouragement only does so much as provide a necessary effect only when used correctly. Otherwise you may be in danger of fostering mediocrity, and I think a lot of people just do a blanket praise and allow things to pass without further thought.
A prime example is the mentality of an abundance of people to poor event organisation. Should one not come to expect great quality just because they don’t seem to happen back home? A case in point, but which I stress is not solely limited to this: our Malaysian Society has been rather active one year (out of three and a half that I have witnessed) and some people are saying, “oh give them some credit, they managed to pull off some events.” Yes, but please discern, and give credit only where it is due. If little credit is due, don’t give more than that. Critical analysis should be what it says on the tin: critical in both aspects of its meaning, and a proper breakdown of the processes and events in analysis. If the events have not been organised properly, the self-satisfying excuse of “at least it’s been done” is not enough. If the members were informed too late, they were informed too late. These are clear cut instances and in such circumstances there are no excuses. If the execution of the event was not professional enough, admit it. But the problem also lies with the apathy of the society’s members. They simply can’t be bothered if an event is carried out properly. They don’t expect much either, since they have been used to mediocrity back home, where local politicians get away too easily with gross mismanagement, misconduct and inappropriate use of influence.
My question is, why should one be satisfied with mediocrity just because he was born into/lived/lives in such a society? It is the wish for high standards that drives mutual respect and improvement, and this vision should never be compromised. Easier said than done, one may say, but I would ask, so what isn’t? One has to at least put his mind to an unwavering attitude, take a side, chart a direction, and get out to do it. And not be satisfied till he reaches that point.
The International Students Association holds an International Cultural Night every year, and last year’s was exceedingly poor. However the applause was still there, people still looked quite happy to walk off after forking out cash for the ticket. They should be refunded for the mediocre stuff that was dished out. I only hope that this year’s (and every one after that) can at least stand up to the light of day, and bring back a measure of respect to the organisers/performers. Or maybe they couldn’t care less?
My HR Department doesn’t seem very supportive of feedback. When I suggested that a certain document was not correctly and equally reflected in the employee handbook, they seemed to gloss over that and gave a feeble excuse of the handbook not being a complete guide. Well, they missed out only one major point, which would take one extra sentence. Passing off incompetence like this isn’t acceptable, but on my part I think I will have to leave this for now since I cannot show my dissatisfaction too overtly as I am still new to the job! They are paid to make sure policies are informed to the employees. It is not my job to read it and know it all, but it is your job to make sure I do! So who is failing in his job? I might pursue this matter later on because I don’t wish to allow apathy and low standards to show on my part. If you want to set rules, make sure you follow it.
The UK degrees are in a way mediocre too. Some courses are so easy to pass you could close both eyes and score in the exams. The way some exams are set, the questions just repeat every year, or go through the most minimal of changes. I’m sorry, but I only have one word for that – mediocre. They praise you for this job well done, they give you good marks, but at the end of the day, it is important to be aware (and not everyone is!) that it is not good enough to be a big fish in a small pond. This is a mediocre pond, so don’t expect to be anything but!
If you see things that aren’t what they should be, have the courage to courteously point it out, and have the resilience to see it through. I hope more leaders will stand up to be counted, and in future bring real contribution to their fields of work. Malaysians who go back home should take their experience of proper practices and high quality performance in foreign environments and apply it to our social, political and economic system, and seek to genuinely raise standards. While I have faith in the establishment, I must say that I don’t hold much expectation because of the way things have been done. Social justice, genuine equality, transparent processes are still very very distant. I am only hopeful that one day when I go back home I can help to push the entire system on its way towards professionalism and equality for all.
There is no substitute for quality, so let there be none.
And I am not satisfied with the quality of this article either.
12.45am Saturday 16th December 2006
Word count: 1337
(The first in a monthly series of articles from me…)
My father has a series of postcards with simple quotes on the front. I recall a particular one: “People see things as they are and ask ‘why?’ I see things that never were and ask ‘why not?’”
However, in many cases, I see things as they are meant to be, but aren’t, and ask myself, ‘why?’ I am tempted to say that we live in a mediocre society but this statement might be a bit too sensational rather than functional. I appreciate class, quality, real value. Not the run-of-the-mill masquerading as sophistication. Why?
In life there is a proportion of people who want to be the best they can, but not all actually fulfil that, or even come close to doing so, for various reasons. I would chalk most of that as laziness, but for some the defence of “lack of motivation” possibly holds. Mediocrity? Jack of all trades, master of none. Not everyone is equally talented in everything. It is a fact of life that the world is never fair, and therefore people will always come to differing levels of achievement, and also have different goals in life. That much is fair. But to achieve a low level through deliberate under-estimation of oneself, and then pass that off as a major achievement, or be pleased with that achievement of sorts is belittling oneself at best. At worst, it isn’t giving enough respect to the people who put faith in you, your supporters, your teacher, your boss, your parents. To name a few. It could also be the condoning of such low standards, the tacit approval that is given for inadequate performance, that mediocrity in response to mediocrity simply won’t do anything to improve the situation.
For far too long, people have been easily satisfied with low quality. Or have been too apathetic to care, too afraid to complain, consider this too minor to give it a second thought. This is ingrained in one’s own character – whether to pursue what he believes in, or whether it is worthwhile to stand up for that. I support the idea of encouragement. In man management, you need to provide the right kind of support to whoever you are involved with. When someone in your team accomplishes something, it is quite important to praise and encourage. However, the trouble comes when the work is not really worth praising. Sure, we need to encourage to promote satisfaction and progress, but encouragement only does so much as provide a necessary effect only when used correctly. Otherwise you may be in danger of fostering mediocrity, and I think a lot of people just do a blanket praise and allow things to pass without further thought.
A prime example is the mentality of an abundance of people to poor event organisation. Should one not come to expect great quality just because they don’t seem to happen back home? A case in point, but which I stress is not solely limited to this: our Malaysian Society has been rather active one year (out of three and a half that I have witnessed) and some people are saying, “oh give them some credit, they managed to pull off some events.” Yes, but please discern, and give credit only where it is due. If little credit is due, don’t give more than that. Critical analysis should be what it says on the tin: critical in both aspects of its meaning, and a proper breakdown of the processes and events in analysis. If the events have not been organised properly, the self-satisfying excuse of “at least it’s been done” is not enough. If the members were informed too late, they were informed too late. These are clear cut instances and in such circumstances there are no excuses. If the execution of the event was not professional enough, admit it. But the problem also lies with the apathy of the society’s members. They simply can’t be bothered if an event is carried out properly. They don’t expect much either, since they have been used to mediocrity back home, where local politicians get away too easily with gross mismanagement, misconduct and inappropriate use of influence.
My question is, why should one be satisfied with mediocrity just because he was born into/lived/lives in such a society? It is the wish for high standards that drives mutual respect and improvement, and this vision should never be compromised. Easier said than done, one may say, but I would ask, so what isn’t? One has to at least put his mind to an unwavering attitude, take a side, chart a direction, and get out to do it. And not be satisfied till he reaches that point.
The International Students Association holds an International Cultural Night every year, and last year’s was exceedingly poor. However the applause was still there, people still looked quite happy to walk off after forking out cash for the ticket. They should be refunded for the mediocre stuff that was dished out. I only hope that this year’s (and every one after that) can at least stand up to the light of day, and bring back a measure of respect to the organisers/performers. Or maybe they couldn’t care less?
My HR Department doesn’t seem very supportive of feedback. When I suggested that a certain document was not correctly and equally reflected in the employee handbook, they seemed to gloss over that and gave a feeble excuse of the handbook not being a complete guide. Well, they missed out only one major point, which would take one extra sentence. Passing off incompetence like this isn’t acceptable, but on my part I think I will have to leave this for now since I cannot show my dissatisfaction too overtly as I am still new to the job! They are paid to make sure policies are informed to the employees. It is not my job to read it and know it all, but it is your job to make sure I do! So who is failing in his job? I might pursue this matter later on because I don’t wish to allow apathy and low standards to show on my part. If you want to set rules, make sure you follow it.
The UK degrees are in a way mediocre too. Some courses are so easy to pass you could close both eyes and score in the exams. The way some exams are set, the questions just repeat every year, or go through the most minimal of changes. I’m sorry, but I only have one word for that – mediocre. They praise you for this job well done, they give you good marks, but at the end of the day, it is important to be aware (and not everyone is!) that it is not good enough to be a big fish in a small pond. This is a mediocre pond, so don’t expect to be anything but!
If you see things that aren’t what they should be, have the courage to courteously point it out, and have the resilience to see it through. I hope more leaders will stand up to be counted, and in future bring real contribution to their fields of work. Malaysians who go back home should take their experience of proper practices and high quality performance in foreign environments and apply it to our social, political and economic system, and seek to genuinely raise standards. While I have faith in the establishment, I must say that I don’t hold much expectation because of the way things have been done. Social justice, genuine equality, transparent processes are still very very distant. I am only hopeful that one day when I go back home I can help to push the entire system on its way towards professionalism and equality for all.
There is no substitute for quality, so let there be none.
And I am not satisfied with the quality of this article either.
12.45am Saturday 16th December 2006
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6:23 pm
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