"Speaking
truth to power" is a euphemism for powerful people taking a stand contrary
to the one held by those more powerful.
In “Old
Tales and New of Leadership, Organizational Culture, and Ethics”, a Paper by James O'Toole, the author writes that “Speaking truth to power is perhaps the
oldest and, certainly, one of the most difficult of ethical challenges because
to do so entails personal danger.”
The popular
cliché "shooting the messenger" is recognizable for the risk of exercising
moral courage by one “unlucky enough” to have to speak, honestly, to a
superior; one able to demote and fire or, if you happen to be employed in the
government of North Korea, a fate far worse. Our senior public servants don't have to worry about that. Yet, as O’Toole states plainly, "nobody likes the bringer of bad
news."
When Dwight
Ball and Cathy Bennett delivered the “Fiscal Update” on December 23, 2015 the
utterance of “not a crisis” caused one to conclude the very first days of
the new Liberal Administration were not filled with warnings of the province’s accelerated
journey off a fiscal cliff. It seems no thoughtful analysis, from the most powerful
senior public servants, was delivered to the pair.
