{"id":29731,"date":"2022-12-01T16:55:41","date_gmt":"2022-12-02T00:55:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=29731"},"modified":"2022-12-01T16:55:41","modified_gmt":"2022-12-02T00:55:41","slug":"protection-and-preservation-of-truth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/protection-and-preservation-of-truth\/","title":{"rendered":"Protection and Preservation of Truth"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>James O\u2019Toole is a distinguished professor of business ethics, and his research and writings have focused on the areas of leadership, ethics, corporate culture, and philosophy. In his discussion, <em>Speaking Truth to Power: A White Paper<\/em>, Dr. O\u2019Toole drew a couple of key insights into the ethical practice of speaking truth to power in the context of leadership in modern corporate organizations. James wrote, \u201cSpeaking truth to power is perhaps the oldest and, certainly, one of the most difficult of ethical challenges because to do so entails personal danger.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn1\" name=\"_ftnref1\">[1]<\/a> He explores further how the dynamics of speaking truth to power can determine the success and failures of leadership and organizations. He gave many illustrations of speaking truth to power from modern corporate examples to introduce three important ethical leadership principles highlighted as responsibilities of messengers, responsibilities of listeners, and organizational responsibilities.<\/p>\n<p>The emperors and leaders bear the responsibility to make things work out and make more profit year after year. If one thinks about how volatile and unpredictable the future is in our world, that is one heck of a responsibility on the shoulders of the powerful. Most of the powerful climbed and rose to that exact throne of power because they were right in the past in predicting the future. But, as James points out, \u201cIn both the public and private sectors, the very strengths of leaders are often also their weaknesses\u2026that supreme self-confidence found among most great leaders, a belief that they not only are right but that they cannot fail,\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn2\" name=\"_ftnref2\">[2]<\/a> they can\u2019t always be right time after time, ultimately all leadership will fail if it isn\u2019t evolving to be more alive and grow beyond the status quo.<\/p>\n<p>I personally found these principles to be a helpful personal reflection and in applying to my ministry contexts:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Responsibilities of Messengers &#8211; \u201cStephen Carter lays out three requisite steps for the exercise of integrity: (1) <em>discerning<\/em> what is right and what is wrong; (2) <em>acting<\/em> on what you have discerned, even at personal cost; (3) <em>saying openly<\/em> that you are acting on your understanding of right and wrong.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn3\" name=\"_ftnref3\">[3]<\/a>\n<ul>\n<li>As the leadership teams grow in size, how can I create a culture where it is safe to openly share personal opinions and perspectives with one another? Being in a more dominant Asian culture, I see that people are afraid of sharing what they really are thinking inside.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Responsibilities of Listeners &#8211; \u201cThat is why I believe the mantle of true greatness should be reserved only for those leaders who possess the \u201cfeminine\u201d virtues of humility, inclusion, vulnerability, service to others, and respect for people.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn4\" name=\"_ftnref4\">[4]<\/a>\n<ul>\n<li>What does it mean to reflect \u201cfeminine\u201d virtues of humility, inclusion, vulnerability, service to others, and respect for people in top leadership meetings? The make-up leadership composition is changing fast these days to include diversity and minorities.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Organizational Responsibilities \u2013 \u201cThis is the definition of transparency, of a company with no secrets, one in which every employee is empowered to speak the truth\u2026He (Jack Stack) had to learn to trust his employees with managerial and financial information typically hoarded by executives in most companies.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn5\" name=\"_ftnref5\">[5]<\/a>\n<ul>\n<li>The church and Christian mission organizations have to strive to be more transparent both within the organization and to the outside for those who are giving donations. Transparency will ultimately build lasting trust that will protect the organization and top leadership. The corporate management style of limited information builds doubts and division over the years.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>As Christian leaders, it isn\u2019t easy to do the right thing and live up to the right thing because of spiritual battles and wickedness that act out in times of chaos. Many Godly leaders face failures of mentors and bosses who place personal gains and profits over Christian values and ethics. Sometimes one has to leave the organization and wash their hands clean from bad blood, but sometimes one is called to fight to protect the organization\u2019s future faith. May God bring protection and guidance to those speaking the truth to power~<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref1\" name=\"_ftn1\">[1]<\/a> O\u2019Toole, James. 2015. \u201cSpeaking Truth to Power: A White Paper \u2013 Markkula Center for Applied Ethics.\u201d October 15, 2015.\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.scu.edu\/ethics\/focus-areas\/business-ethics\/resources\/speaking-truth-to-power-a-white-paper\/\">https:\/\/www.scu.edu\/ethics\/focus-areas\/business-ethics\/resources\/speaking-truth-to-power-a-white-paper\/<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref2\" name=\"_ftn2\">[2]<\/a> Ibid.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref3\" name=\"_ftn3\">[3]<\/a> Ibid.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref4\" name=\"_ftn4\">[4]<\/a> Ibid.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref5\" name=\"_ftn5\">[5]<\/a> Ibid.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>James O\u2019Toole is a distinguished professor of business ethics, and his research and writings have focused on the areas of leadership, ethics, corporate culture, and philosophy. In his discussion, Speaking Truth to Power: A White Paper, Dr. O\u2019Toole drew a couple of key insights into the ethical practice of speaking truth to power in the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":145,"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":[2469],"class_list":["post-29731","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-james-otoole","cohort-lgp11"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29731","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\/145"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29731"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29731\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29732,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29731\/revisions\/29732"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}