Why We Should Look For Truth

 

Where can we look for truth and why should we? – What place does truth play in our lives?

The things that just are, for example in nature, the sun shines, it rains, day becomes night, night becomes day; these are things that happen that we take for granted. We do not feel we should attribute a meaning to them happening. These facts/truths are neutral and for most people this level of truth can be agreed upon without dispute. Natural truth doesn’t carry the filters of personal emotion, advertisement, hype or spin.

Whereas the mass of product and services that have been created to sell to people, were created from the requirement to make money and these are injected with a mass of emotion to persuade and influence people to buy.

In many places of work, truth as a quality is not often sought – organisations create filters or stories about itself and its place in the world – that builds a layer of information and filters through which it appears. Often these filters are creations of half-truths and sometimes outright lies. These representations appear on our TV screens and newspapers as adverts or promotions, creating images and stories that present companies’ products and services in the best way. Some companies appear interested to create layers of filters around themselves so they can appear to be better than they are. These layers of information are formed by its branding, advertisements, its sales and marketing strategies, its promotions, internet websites, its webinars, its TV adverts.

These media utilities are used to promote an image of what the organisation would like you to believe was true about itself. Whether they are a true representation of who it is and how it operates, depends upon whether it values Truth and Integrity and practises them in its representations to the world. Or if it is practicing outright manipulation (and ignoring truth) to sell its products or services to the world.

Seeking for the truth is important in our world so we can see a deeper reality than the face value representations that people make to us about themselves, their products or their services.

Here are six reasons why is truth important at work:

1. Truth is important if an organisation wants to be fair in its dealings with its employees, its customers, its suppliers, and its interactions with the world. Fairness can only be correctly assessed, if the truth of a situation is known. Lies or various kinds of untruth, bias the case to one side or another.
2. Truth is important if an organisation wants to meet its contracts and obligations in a just way.  If misrepresentations of what is true is held by one side or another then a just or fair contract cannot be come to, as one side is weighting their side of the negotiation.
3. Truth is important if an organisation doesn’t want to be a hypocrite in the world i.e. to represent itself in one way and yet to behave in ways that are contrary to what it asserts to be true. Organisations with ‘values’ can do this; if they say they value their customers, but use all opportunities to exploit them. Considering what the Truth is avoids behaving this way.
4. Truth is important when it can act as a mirror to reflect the real/deeper motivations, meanings and reasons why some things are done and why others are not done. Including being able to acknowledge the truth where greed or some lesser impulse has been the motivator of actions taken or not taken.
5. Truth is important as the touchstone of reality when spin, advertisement and hype have made everyone lost inside the fictions that have been created by an organisation and its media machine.
6. Truth is important if a business wants itself and its employees to act in integrity with how they say people should behave, including its leaders, managers and staff and have established ways for holding them to account.

Finally, we should look at whether in our work environment truth is actively sought, can be spoken and heard, without defensiveness or attack resulting upon the person who speaks it. Do your business leaders positively encourage or discourage the speaking of truth? What is the truth of this matter in your organisation?

Penny Sophocleous

6 June 2017