Imperfect is the new perfect. Transparency builds trust.

When I read about Jet Blue poking fun at themselves over the flight attendant incident, I remembered a place in Making Ideas Happen where Scott Belsky references two stories about the topic of transparency.

• Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos, has spoken extensively about how Twitter has helped his company build stronger relationships both externally (with customers) and internally (among employees). He explained in a post on his company blog: ’Because radical transparency was part of the culture of tweeting, I decided to give it a try and be as transparent as possible, both for myself personally and for Zappos. What I found was that people really appreciated the openness and honesty, and that led people to feel more of a personal connection with Zappos and me.’
  
• Andrew Zolli, leader of Pop!Tech, spoke about how transparency has made him more organized. ‘I give up privacy. I’ve learned that no problem I might find embarrassing is unusual. If you’re willing to let people access your life, they’ll find what they need. I’ve open-sourced my life. My calendar, email and contacts are all shared with the organization. I’m highly transparent. You can see what I’m doing as a partner.’

I wholeheartedly agree and advocate that, using a mature filter, transparency in social media can be a powerful source of accountability for individuals and organizations. Over the past couple of years, I’ve talked about the benefits over and over.

• It simplifies my life.
• I share my life.
• There’s good Samaritans out there.
• Our parking lot is getting bigger.
• Charm school (testimonials).

Then, this morning on my walk, it came to me that—sometimes—it just might even be a spiritual practice.

• Rather than struggling to disguise or deny your weakness, allow Me to bless you richly through it. (via Jesus Calling.) ‘Now I take limitations in stride, and with good cheer, these limitations that cut me down to size—abuse, accidents, opposition, bad breaks. I just let Christ take over! And so the weaker I get, the stronger I become.’ 2 Corinthians 12:9

Comments

[Culturalawakening.wordpress.com]

Great post. Love how you make your case for this with Scripture as well. One question; is there a balance in the church world between transparency and the sounds of desperation? For instance, transparency in needing more volunteers without sounding like the church is falling apart.

[Stephen Denny]

"... the only way you can describe a human being truly is by describing his imperfections. The perfect human being is uninteresting… it is the imperfections of life that are lovable.”

This, from mythologist Joseph Campbell.

Imperfect means we're all in this together, that we're trying just as hard as you guys are. It builds trust because it admits the nature of the struggle and reminds us that "we" are part of "us."

Posted on this exact point earlier this week!

Hope you're well, Kem!

[Krister]

John Hope Bryant talks a LOT about transparency in his book on leadership: Love Leadership. Well worth the read...

[DC Curry]

I was primed and ready "COMPLETELY DISAGREE" with this post based on the title but yet again you have made a great case! ...not to mention the title made me to read the post (which is clearly it's purpose).

I still don't believe that "imperfect" is the new "perfect" but I totally believe everything in this post is RIGHT ON!!!!

Well done homie! Well done!