"TRUTH-TELLERS" - their value to us all
Posted by: prophetic <prophetic@...>
-by Dr. Roger W. Sapp.
Prior to 1993, I was an active duty Army Chaplain. During that
season in my life, I taught leadership skills to officers and non
commissioned officers in leadership retreats as a part of my
ministry. I often used management games to teach these
leaders about leadership. In one management game called
"Powerplay", a scenario is created where these leaders were
arbitrarily divided into groups by virtue of winning in a trading
scenario. The winning group is then given authority over the
other groups. The winning group is given the right to make
the rules for future trading and to dictate these rules to the
other groups. Without exception, the group that has the
authority always begins to make rules to keep its authority
and to benefit it as a group in trading. Given enough time
the winning group will begin to clearly abuse the other groups.
This group will justify its behavior on the basis of winning the
earlier portion of the game and by virtue of having the authority.
Reactions of Different Abused Groups:
In those retreats where non-commissioned officers (sergeants)
were involved, the sergeants would allow themselves to be
abused. Their overriding value was loyalty to the authority no
matter what transpired or how unfairly they were treated. They
were unhappy and grumbled among themselves during the
abuse but did not do anything productive to deal with it. They
offered no feedback, no confrontation, and no truth from their
perspective to the abusive group of sergeants. This was
characteristic of nearly all the sergeants that I played this
game with. This revealed that their values were highly loyal
but truthfulness was weak as a value. (Of course, there were
a few exceptional sergeants that would have been better
officers by nature.)
The reactions of the officers in the officer leadership retreats
were entirely different. As the group of officers who abused
them became more abusive, the officers became increasingly
active and alert to their responsibility to deal with the unfair
situation. They offered feedback that was largely ignored.
They devised strikes; in other words, they withdrew and would
not cooperate with the abusive authority. They often tried to
continue to confront the abusive group. They tried to negotiate
a more just situation.
In nearly all cases, the group in authority would become
increasingly authoritarian and created more rules strictly for
their own benefit and to keep the rebels in line. The abusive
group would often say that the other officer groups were not
playing fair when they rebelled, withdrew or failed to cooperate.
In other words, the group with the authority became blind to
their abuse and blamed the abused groups for withdrawing
and not wanting to play the game anymore.
Not Valuing Truth Results in Blindness:
Blindness is characteristic of organizations and leaders that
do not value truthfulness in their relationships. This is because
truth telling has been stifled in a loyalty-based organizations or
individuals. Because there is no honest feedback, they will
often be blind to their abusive behavior and honestly wonder
why others are reacting. There will be no-one to tell them that
it is wrong to shift the blame for difficulties in the relationships
to the victims of their abusive behavior.
The value of truth is what keeps a local church or any
organization from becoming like a cult. Honoring the truth-teller
is a characteristic of godly relationships. Dishonoring the truth-
teller is a characteristic of cults. Cultic behavior, which always
includes blindness, will result from an overemphasis of loyalty
above the truth. Leaders must understand that their own desire
for loyalty may overcome truthfulness in their subordinates.
They must actively cultivate truthfulness along with loyalty.
This game also revealed that different kinds of people have
different values and expectations. Commissioned Officers are
taught in the military that proper submission means that they
will speak to the superior officer with courage and candor
(truthfulness) about organizational problems. Officers who will
not confront their commander when necessary are poor excuses
for leaders. Commanders who will not hear the honest, truthful
input of their subordinates without penalty are poor commanders.
The officer type of leader expects to be treated well by other
leaders. He expects his input to be valued and genuinely
considered. The officer type of leader will want to fix the
organization's larger problems and will not ordinarily be silent
about them. If the organizational values lean too far to loyalty
and not enough on truthfulness, this type of leader will often
be seen as not being a team player and be penalized by being
privately labeled as such. As a result the organization may
lose this valuable leader.
The sergeant type of leader will remain loyal to a fault. He will
adjust to the problems and not necessarily ever speak
truthfully to the organization. There is nothing wrong with this
type of person; in fact, they are greatly needed in all
organizations. However, in unhealthy organizations, the
sergeant type of leader is valued above the officer type of leader.
The officer type of person can help an organization to deal with
its problems and therefore grow. If an organization creates an
atmosphere for genuine honesty and truthfulness, it will attract
many of the officer types of persons and will be able to keep
them. It will not lose its sergeant types either. In fact, the
sergeant type of leader will be much happier since problems
will be dealt with.
When Loyalty Overcomes Truthfulness:
Loyalty and truthfulness are two covenant values that must be
held in tension against one another. Loyalty binds us together.
The truth sets us free. If one value is emphasized over the
other, then serious problems develop and both values will
become distorted. If loyalty is overemphasized, then only
affirmation will be given and heard as feedback. If truth telling
is practiced without love and without loyalty, it does not build
but tears down. If truthfulness is considered a fundamental
component of loyalty, then the organization will be built on
integrity. If loyalty is considered a fundamental component of
truthfulness, then the organization will have true unity.
Often in an organization, whether it is the local church, a
business, a denomination, or a fellowship of churches, loyalty
becomes the overriding value and begins to overcome
truthfulness. This is often revealed in private words, actions
and attitudes rather than the official position of the organization.
The leaders of an organization may say that they value
truthfulness but reveal in their actions that this is not really so.
There are several predictable results when this happens:
Truth-Tellers are Unappreciated.
Individuals who strongly value honesty and truthfulness are
unappreciated, and often rejected as disloyal. Some people are
particularly oriented to truthfulness and may be seen as not
being team players by those who highly value loyalty. This may
create a value conflict in the organization between the truth-
tellers and those who highly prize loyalty. The loyalty value
normally wins over truthfulness in these kinds of situations
because those in authority will often value loyalty over truthfulness.
When the loyalty value wins over truth, it often takes the form of
a suppression of free expression, particularly dissent. This does
not make the elements of truth in dissent go away; truth will
surface again and again in different, even more destructive forms,
until it is dealt with properly. This is precisely why political tyrants
are unable to completely silence free expression and why they
feel the need to silence it. The truth will find a way to express
itself simply because it is the truth and God stands behind it.
Every time loyalty wins over truthfulness, loyal individuals are
unintentionally trained by the leadership to hide the truth or to
put an organizational spin on it. Truthful individuals are trained
that they are not really welcome. Perceptions are created that
success and promotion in the organization comes by telling the
leadership what they want to hear rather than the truth. Loyal
yes men can seem to become valued over those who have
strong individual integrity and truthfulness.
Sincere Relationships in the Church:
The concept of sincerity may be the best blend of the values of
loyalty and truthfulness. A sincere person is a person who out
of loyalty to God and others speaks the truth without mixture.
The word sincere comes from the Latin word sincerus. It literally
means without wax. This word comes from the time when the
Romans were building great buildings using marble columns
to support the weight of these monumental buildings. The
builders would go to the marble cutters in the quarries and
inspect the columns. The cutters would put wax in the cracks
of columns to make them deceptively appear to be solid in
order to sell them. The builders could only use the sincere
columns to build with. The columns that were what they
appeared to be, that were actually solid, without wax hiding
cracks, were the only thing that would sustain the weight of
the building. If a builder built a building using a column that
lacked sincerity, the entire building could fall down. The
parallels are evident. The Spirit of Truth needs sincere people
to build the Church; people that value loyalty and truthfulness
in harmony with each other.