I’d agree with this, and there’s obviously a tension in a lot of situations. But it’s not a zero-sum game either: some people care about both and sometimes have to sacrifice one. Some don’t really care about either that much: either because they just don’t care or because they have some value they regard as more important.
I think I personally have moved from “care only about truth and don’t care a whit about harmony” to “trying really hard to keep harmony and yet not compromise on the truth”…
Yep: especially because it’s all to easy to approach one in an artificial way: we can easily create a cargo cult of either, trying to look ‘truthy’ or doing the sort of things that harmonious people do but in a massively counter-productive way.
One HR person I know springs to mind: she tries very hard to follow all the rules on how to make people feel valued and work together, but it doesn’t come at all naturally, and the results feels like you’re being turned into a box to be ticked. Much worse in practice than someone just not caring about harmony at all.
I’d agree with this, and there’s obviously a tension in a lot of situations. But it’s not a zero-sum game either: some people care about both and sometimes have to sacrifice one. Some don’t really care about either that much: either because they just don’t care or because they have some value they regard as more important.
oh definitely agreed.
I think I personally have moved from “care only about truth and don’t care a whit about harmony” to “trying really hard to keep harmony and yet not compromise on the truth”…
it’s a much tougher line to walk.
Yep: especially because it’s all to easy to approach one in an artificial way: we can easily create a cargo cult of either, trying to look ‘truthy’ or doing the sort of things that harmonious people do but in a massively counter-productive way.
One HR person I know springs to mind: she tries very hard to follow all the rules on how to make people feel valued and work together, but it doesn’t come at all naturally, and the results feels like you’re being turned into a box to be ticked. Much worse in practice than someone just not caring about harmony at all.