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Truth over harmony
HENLEY MORGAN
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Colleague columnist Jean Lowrie-Chin is a motivational writer. No, she is more than that. She is an inspirational writer. With a greater degree of consistency than any other local writer who shares their views with the public through this medium, she seeks and finds the best in Jamaica to expose through her weekly columns. Her first for the New Year, A season of hope, which appeared in the January 7, 2008 Daily Observer, characterises her calm and reasoned style.
Betty Ann Blaine is a different sort. Like a restless steed, she snorts and kicks up dust. Ever the one to defend a cause, Betty Ann disturbs the conscience even as she disturbs the atmosphere. Fearless and intemperate, she wields the pen as if it were a sword and she a revolutionary. Reading her is like undergoing much-needed surgery without the benefit of anaesthesia. But is she any less motivating or inspiring?
There is a mindset about what it means to be motivational or inspirational. Fashioned by a growing cult of positive thinkers, it promotes imagery over substance, wishful thinking over realism, acceptance over confrontation, denial over factualness and delay over action. Positive thinking is treated by some as if it were a religion; pandered through ever increasing sales of books and tapes, and through speeches to hordes of people needing to feel comfortable in their mediocrity, wanting to be relieved of responsibility for messing up their lives and the world, and desiring to be fed on a diet of false hope.
Some of the cute phrases the positive thinkers like to use have no basis in fact, and may even be dangerous in that they breed complacency in the face of great adversity. There are countless examples of these. One that we mouth, almost without thinking, relates to Jamaica, land we dearly love, which we continue to call paradise when there is mounting evidence to the contrary. Without truth telling, which admittedly will make some people feel uncomfortable - a country, a government, an organisation, a family and you the individual will continue down a path to destruction.
The following quotation is from Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan. It appears in their book entitled, Execution. "You cannot execute change without robust dialogue - one that brings reality to the surface through openness and candour. When people speak candidly, they express their real opinions, not those that will please the power players or maintain harmony. Indeed, harmony - sought by people who wish to offend no one - can be the enemy of truth. A good motto is: Truth over harmony."
Whether writing newspaper columns, governing a country, running a business, managing a department, shepherding a congregation, parenting a family, advising a friend or standing in front of an audience giving a speech - there needs to be greater honesty in our conversations. Addressing a bad situation requires one to start with the unvarnished truth, which may sound like criticism or a threat but without which there will not be a great enough sense of urgency to start moving in the direction of substantial and lasting change. Without truth there is the risk that a people will remain hostage to the mistakes of the past.
Those of us who believe Jamaica's situation to be precarious enough that it requires us to lead a quiet revolution against the status quo, are often brought under pressure by the purveyors of deception who think that saying something is good makes it so. Failing to tell the truth about how we came to be the murder capital of the world - out of fear of being called negative, unpatriotic or politically biased - could cause Jamaica to fall even lower economically and socially.
The nation should be more discerning and tolerant of the positive role played by people, who unlike those who have an axe to grind or are naturally malcontents and bellyachers, may paint a realistically ugly picture of what's happening in the country, but never without giving a glimpse of the masterpiece that's to come.
hmorgan@cwjamaica.com
HENLEY MORGAN
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Colleague columnist Jean Lowrie-Chin is a motivational writer. No, she is more than that. She is an inspirational writer. With a greater degree of consistency than any other local writer who shares their views with the public through this medium, she seeks and finds the best in Jamaica to expose through her weekly columns. Her first for the New Year, A season of hope, which appeared in the January 7, 2008 Daily Observer, characterises her calm and reasoned style.
Betty Ann Blaine is a different sort. Like a restless steed, she snorts and kicks up dust. Ever the one to defend a cause, Betty Ann disturbs the conscience even as she disturbs the atmosphere. Fearless and intemperate, she wields the pen as if it were a sword and she a revolutionary. Reading her is like undergoing much-needed surgery without the benefit of anaesthesia. But is she any less motivating or inspiring?
There is a mindset about what it means to be motivational or inspirational. Fashioned by a growing cult of positive thinkers, it promotes imagery over substance, wishful thinking over realism, acceptance over confrontation, denial over factualness and delay over action. Positive thinking is treated by some as if it were a religion; pandered through ever increasing sales of books and tapes, and through speeches to hordes of people needing to feel comfortable in their mediocrity, wanting to be relieved of responsibility for messing up their lives and the world, and desiring to be fed on a diet of false hope.
Some of the cute phrases the positive thinkers like to use have no basis in fact, and may even be dangerous in that they breed complacency in the face of great adversity. There are countless examples of these. One that we mouth, almost without thinking, relates to Jamaica, land we dearly love, which we continue to call paradise when there is mounting evidence to the contrary. Without truth telling, which admittedly will make some people feel uncomfortable - a country, a government, an organisation, a family and you the individual will continue down a path to destruction.
The following quotation is from Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan. It appears in their book entitled, Execution. "You cannot execute change without robust dialogue - one that brings reality to the surface through openness and candour. When people speak candidly, they express their real opinions, not those that will please the power players or maintain harmony. Indeed, harmony - sought by people who wish to offend no one - can be the enemy of truth. A good motto is: Truth over harmony."
Whether writing newspaper columns, governing a country, running a business, managing a department, shepherding a congregation, parenting a family, advising a friend or standing in front of an audience giving a speech - there needs to be greater honesty in our conversations. Addressing a bad situation requires one to start with the unvarnished truth, which may sound like criticism or a threat but without which there will not be a great enough sense of urgency to start moving in the direction of substantial and lasting change. Without truth there is the risk that a people will remain hostage to the mistakes of the past.
Those of us who believe Jamaica's situation to be precarious enough that it requires us to lead a quiet revolution against the status quo, are often brought under pressure by the purveyors of deception who think that saying something is good makes it so. Failing to tell the truth about how we came to be the murder capital of the world - out of fear of being called negative, unpatriotic or politically biased - could cause Jamaica to fall even lower economically and socially.
The nation should be more discerning and tolerant of the positive role played by people, who unlike those who have an axe to grind or are naturally malcontents and bellyachers, may paint a realistically ugly picture of what's happening in the country, but never without giving a glimpse of the masterpiece that's to come.
hmorgan@cwjamaica.com