In Praise of Imperfection

In corporate responsibility we encourage full transparency in reporting. By sharing what went wrong and the lessons learned, the argument goes, one earns greater trust. It is not that we are voyeurs, seeking to peek at things that might be embarrassing. Like a teacher that asks a student to ‘show all work’ the logic goes, the lessons learned by one organization or company are transferable to others, and hopefully allow others to avoid having to learn the lesson for themselves.

A company that seeks to maintain zero accidents can — and often they do — focus on the ‘near misses’ as a way to keep people attuned to the issue of safety, lest complacency set in. Companies that seek to reduce environmental impacts must focus on their actual releases/emissions rather than be compelled by the goal to show steady progress toward their target; especially as material things may change over time. After all, the goal is to get better, not just be able to say you are getting better.

The same can be said about our heroes, who are likewise often imperfect human beings. People make mistakes. People sometimes do things that we (and often they in retrospect) wonder about. At the same time, by their flaws they become more human, more multi-dimensional and more approachable.

Lessons to be learned that are more easily reached when the example is not so far out of reach as to be seen as an impossible standard.

A person, like a company, that is held out as a shining example is an intimidating rather than inspiring. Lessons to be learned that are more easily reached when the example is not so far out of reach as to be seen as an impossible standard.

This brings us to the statues of some of our nation’s heroes — those who spoke in lofty terms of ‘all’ being equal and yet did not include women in their thinking (much less the slaves that they owned). There is no lesson to be learnt from glossing over the contradictions. We must instead focus on the times that they lived in, and their efforts to set what we would call ‘stretch goals’ in performance evaluations. The context for these people; just like an organization; matters. The true lesson to be learned is not from those who were perfect, but those who sought a loftier and higher standard — whether it be carbon neutrality, zero accidents or a just and fair society.

The temptation to point fingers at them for their flaws also prevents us from addressing the fact that 244 years later we are still not meeting up to the ideals

That is why our standard-bearers like George Washington and Thomas Jefferson are venerated and praised; not because they were perfect (they were not) but because the inspire millions to be better by setting out to meet a standard that they were not able to achieve in their own lifetimes. The temptation to point fingers at them for their flaws also prevents us from addressing the face that 244 years later we are still not meeting up to the ideals that would be demonstrated by equal pay for equal work, the same access to education, financial opportunities and health care.