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Foundation One: Truthfulness

"Truthfulness is the foundation of all human virtues" - Bahá'u'lláh

We are all familiar with what the lack of truthful behaviour does to us or our environment. The good news is that truthfulness is a basic human capacity, and everyone can develop their capability to be truthful. Truthfulness has many aspects including transparency and visibility, speaking honestly and being honest with ourselves, harmony of our deeds and words, and seeking the underlying truth in any given situation.

Truthfulness is more than an ethical standard: it implies not lying, stealing, cheating, cutting corners or hiding the truth in any way. In order to develop the capability of truthfulness, individuals must be dedicated to the following:

• expanding their conceptual framework of truthfulness,

• continually deepening their knowledge of truthfulness, and

• developing qualities, skills and habits necessary for conducting their affairs according to the standards of truthfulness.

OpenAgile relies on people developing the capability to be more truthful. Truthfulness is necessary to learn from mistakes, be creative, and to find an effective approach to doing work. Ultimately, truthfulness builds trust and leads to reducing excessive bureaucracy and chaos.

Perception and Prejudice

You may know the story of the six blind men and the elephant. Each blind man is touching a different part of the elephant. One is touching the tusk and thinks that it is a spear. Another is touching the leg and thinks it is a tree trunk. If you tell them that they are all touching the same thing, it is very likely that they will argue about what it is. Unless they are also truthful about their own limitations, it will be difficult for them to come to a unified vision about what they are touching. This is the deepest kind of truthfulness: knowing your own limits.

The filters we have as we perceive the world are important: they reflect our beliefs and help us sort the world efficiently. However, these filters can also hinder us and become blind spots or prejudices that prevent us from being open to the truth. In an OpenAgile environment, we strive to be open to the way other people perceive the world so that we can learn from them.