MANAGING FOR SOCIETY

SUPPOSE there are 1,000 political monkeys who decide to cross party lines and change their old, nothing-doing style. “Enough is enough,” they chorus, “Let’s improve this country for our grandchildren, at least to achieve its second world status in ten years, no matter how dif They sign a uniform New Year’s Resolution, as if they’ve passed a bill into a new law. They vow to revisit it every January of each year and sign it again as an af towards a meaningful and dramatic change.

Question: What are the chances that at least 80 per cent of them will move mountains to implement the letter and spirit of their New Year’s Resolution? What can make this happen? Perhaps the an enabling law against political dynasty. Maybe they will truly implement the rules of the antired tape act, or sell their stocks in interest issues

The list of possible changes is endless.

Fast forward. Things have become promising. On its fourth year, economic growth peaked at nine percent! The manufacturing sector attracted recordhigh foreign investment, mainly from Japan, South Korea and the United States. The historically slacker agricultural sector grew by logged in six percent growth with the restaurant business’ gains almost double that of the call center industry.

considerably with completion of a skyway connecting SLEx and NLEx. The rapid bus system, which can accommodate at least 100 passengers per double decker, is up and operational alongside MRT and LRT lines that run on time without a hint of any mechanical breakdown. In train lines are being constructed simultaneously to cover all major routes out of the metropolis.

A new jeepney model is now being driven by law- abiding drivers in immaculate uniforms. The old king of the road is gone and instead relegated to the rural areas to help farmers move their produce. Sea ports and airports have become models of international standards. The subway system is 60 percent complete and the national railway system modern trains and time-focused arrival and departures.

Over a span of eight years, meanwhile, many of the political monkeys failed to be re-elected or re- appointed, if not assassinated or incarcerated for graft. The original 1,000 signatories are reduced to only about 293, a died of natural causes. Still, the survivors vow to continue with their annual pledge. On the ninth year, only 98 remained and still the annual resolution. And on the tenth year, just 63 made it out of the pioneering 1,000.

Now, they’re trying to look back at what they’ve accomplished.

Do you think our political monkeys succeeded in making the Philippines reach even the doorsteps of a Second World economy?

This theoretical story illustrates how “predictive- validity bias” can tweak the result of a test, in this context the New Year’s Resolution by political monkeys. According to the Glossary of Education Reform, “predictive-validity bias (or bias in criterion-related validity) refers to a test’s accuracy in predicting how well a certain student group will perform in the future. For example, a test would be considered ‘unbiased’ if it predicted future academic and test performance equally well for all groups of students.”

You may be raising the following questions: One, why are we using “predictive-validity bias” known to test student groups to a group of political monkeys? My answer is simple and succinct. That’s because the current crop is acting like an inexperienced student council subservient only to an academic administrator.

Two, why use the New Year’s Resolution to test the determination of political monkeys when everyone has signed and pledged for their respective oath a good question. That’s because the New Year’s resolution is one document that tells everyone how to proceed with a practical target, unlike an oath that carries motherhood statements that are implement by the majority of government “servants.”

In other words, a New Year’s Resolution may appear to have a better chance of execution a 2007 study by Richard Wiseman of the University of Bristol involving 3,000 respondents showing “[t]he most common reason for participants failing their New Years’ Resolutions was setting themselves unrealistic goals (35%), while 33% didn’t keep track of their progress and a further 23% forgot about it.”

For one, solving daily vehicu an unrealistic goal as it offers many low- hanging fruits that are easy to implement, if only our government leaders have the political will. For instance, there are many obstructions, like illegal parking and sidewalk vending in our roads and streets that can be easily solved by our barangay

In conclusion: Never judge imprudent people by their adherence to a plain New Year’s Resolution. It may not hold legal water, but who cares? As long as they can do their job well enough, then let’s give them ample space. Rey Elbo is a business consultant specializing on human resources and total quality management as a fused interest. Send feedback to elbonomics@gmail.com or follow him on Facebook, Linked In, or Twitter for his random management thoughts on El bonomics.