Member Care and Moral Courage

Your task is to be true not popular.

Popularity contests are not truth contests.
Your true being brims over into true words and deeds.
Luke 6, The Message

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Transparency is understood to be a key part of good governance. The ideal seems to be that the more a company discloses about what is happening within it, the less chance there will be for misconduct, and the greater chance there will be for effective performance. Yet companies can and still be deceptive and commit fraud even if they disclose what they are required to do so legally. Two recent examples are Enron and Parmalat. They disclosed all kinds of of data per statutory requirments in the United States and Europe. However both companies deceived the public about what was really going on in their businesses. The issue was certainly not transpparency. Rather it was honesty--telling the truth.
paraphrased from The Myth of Transparency, Zachary Karabell, Newsweek July 14, 2008, page 47

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Reflection and Discussion
**Think of a time when telling the truth was very costly for you personally.
**Think of a time in the near future when telling the truth may also be very costly.
**Do you have the moral courage to be more true than popular?