What is More Disrespectful than Not Telling Someone the Truth?

This was a comment in the most recent Case Study in Associations Now about a senior manager who is dealing with a long-time employee who isn't performing well (but no one is telling her that). And the CEO is turning a blind eye, but no one is telling him that. And the senior managers keep shipping the problem employee off to other departments, even though they know she can't perform, but no one is telling any of them that.

Seeing the trend here? This feels like a follow up from the Jester article I read recently in Associations Now (and blogged about), but this notion of truth (and not telling it) keeps coming back. I think this has been around for a while, of course. I wrote an article about truth a couple of years ago. But I wonder if it's gotten worse. I look around at failing industries, and politics, and bailouts, and wonder...maybe our avoidance of the truth is reaching crisis proportions?

Comments

[Elizabeth]

This post needs to be cross-linked to the comments on the case study, I think, which I'm about to do.

[Jamie Notter]

Elizabeth, you TOTALLY ROCK! I completely forgot about that comment stream. Thanks for mentioning it. (Note: why doesn't the online case study link to that blog post? Or does it?)

Click here to read the comments others had about the case study:

http://tinyurl.com/8mbesd

[Lisa Junker]

Jamie, thanks for pointing that out! The case study online does link to the blog but not to the blog post directly--because I didn't engage the neuron required to realize that I should provide the direct link as part of our web-posting process. Thank you for giving that neuron the kick it needed!

Comments like yours (and the ones in the Acronym comments) are why I enjoy the case study series so much. I want the case studies to be messy scenarios--since real life is, if nothing else, messy--and see the many different perspectives readers bring to the discussion ...