James O\u2019Toole wrote, \u201cSpeaking Truth to Power: A White Paper\u201d for the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics in October, 2015. The Markkula Center is located at Santa Clara University, a highly regarded Catholic, Jesuit University in California. Dr. O\u2019Toole has been a prolific author during his distinguished academic career, holding academic appointments at the University of Denver\u2019s Daniels College of Business and the University of Southern California\u2019s Marshall School of Business. As a Rhodes Scholar, he earned his Ph.D. in Social Anthropology from Oxford; his professional expertise focuses on ethical leadership in business and organizational culture.<\/p>\n
A white paper is a brief report that concisely informs an audience about a subject, product or issue. Its goal is to succinctly present the over-arching idea or philosophy behind the subject being presented. The idea of \u201cSpeaking Truth to Power,\u201d has a long and tangled history variously undertaken by philosophers, ethicists, politicians and business executives, so writing a White Paper on this concept is not an easy undertaking. Dr. O\u2019Toole successfully presents this labyrinthine subject as only an expert who has been studying this subject for years could do. Two books in my personal library that speak to this same issue were both New York Times Bestsellers: \u201cThe Road to Character\u201d by conservative pundit David Brooks and \u201cGood to Great\u201d by Jim Collins. Both authors endorse and advocate the themes Dr. O\u2019Toole presents in this paper. The subject never gets exhausted nor does it fall out of fashion. Indeed, just when the authoritarian regime grows too arrogant to listen\u2014whether it is in business, politics or the military\u2014the disenfranchised will reach their breaking point and speak their truth to those who need to hear it. This paper adroitly unveils the repercussions when this situation arises.<\/p>\n
Speaking truth to power involves risk by the one doing the speaking and if undertaken, the act should have strategy behind it. Each new generation that arises needs to learn this and to underscore this fact, O\u2019Toole introduces this subject by going back into ancient history, with the story of the fourth-century play by Sophocles, Antigone.<\/em> The King does not listen to the helpful truth being spoken to him and in the end he, \u201cstubbornly refuses to listen and brings death to his family, ruin to himself, and destruction to his country\u201d (p.2).<\/p>\n O\u2019Toole then leaps forward 2300 years and shares his experience in modern American business\u2014Cowles Media Corporation and Fed Ex. It is a study in contrast: the former had a toxic corporate culture and resulted in disgruntled employees and the company\u2019s failure; the later succeeded beyond every analyst\u2019s prediction. The reason for these disparate results is the difference in the corporate culture. One encouraged the employees to speak their mind and challenge assumptions and the other did not. As a result, \u201cFed Express could retain that rare ability to learn and to change\u201d (p. 3).<\/p>\n O\u2019Toole shows how this pattern plays itself out again and again in all varieties of business, politics and military settings. In all of the scenarios, the lesson from Antigone<\/em> is the same, namely, \u201cIt can be no dishonor to learn from others when they speak good sense\u201d (p. 2).<\/p>\n The second half of his paper deals with strategies on how to speak truth to power wisely. He provides guideposts, such as it has to be truthful, do no harm to innocents, must not be self-interested, and be a product of moral reflection (p.9). It is the practical side of his paper and his principles ring true. His premise is that human nature is stubborn, biased, arrogant, fearful and if one is going to speak truth to power, a price will have to be paid.<\/p>\n There are several books we have read as a cohort that speak to this subject. In Kathryn Schulz\u2019s book, \u201cBeing Wrong,\u201d we learn that humans love to be right, hate to look foolish in front of colleagues, and have biases that we are blind to. Yet, these are the very traits that keep leaders from listening to helpful advice from others. Leaders have to be self-aware enough to allow others to share opinions and insights and not feel threatened by it. When leaders are comfortable enough in their own skin to allow others to share contrary opinions or to challenge basic assumptions, the organization will have a much better chance of accomplishing its goals.<\/p>\n \u201cThinking, Fast and Slow\u201d by Daniel Kahneman can be used as a guidebook on how to allow others to speak truth to leaders. Instead of reacting quickly in anger, leaders should pause and think deeply about what is being said. Rashly defending oneself can cause more harm than good. Different parts of the brain are activated when we think fast and different parts of the brain are activated when we think slow\u2014and this book is helpful in teaching us how to regulate this and possess more self-control.<\/p>\n Lastly, even though Max Weber authored, \u201cThe Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism\u201d in 1905, this book provides insight into the work life found in America today. The book gives a clear historical explanation of the unique development of work and faith that arose in colonial America. We learned that the Puritans who came to the New World placed work and achievement at the center of their lives because that assured them that they were among the saved. The focus was success, profit, business growth, achievement\u2014and with an intensity that remains to this day. This culture of work has contributed to leaders not<\/em> accepting truth being spoken to them.<\/p>\n O\u2019Toole practices his own advice at the end of the paper by sharing a personal story he experienced. He makes himself vulnerable by describing a situation where he found himself unable to speak his truth to power and instead, resigned. He sates, \u201cI think I erred in not having had the moral courage to \u2018go public\u2019 and to call attention to what was happening.\u201d This type of honesty is the step in the right direction and will help others to have the courage to speak their truth to power.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" James O\u2019Toole wrote, \u201cSpeaking Truth to Power: A White Paper\u201d for the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics in October, 2015. The Markkula Center is located at Santa Clara University, a highly regarded Catholic, Jesuit University in California. Dr. O\u2019Toole has been a prolific author during his distinguished academic career, holding academic appointments at the University […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":150,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2460],"class_list":["post-29721","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-otoole","cohort-lgp11"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29721","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/150"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29721"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29721\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29722,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29721\/revisions\/29722"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}