Take the car's MOT. I've spent hundreds of pounds in the past so that my car can be counted as roadworthy for one day. As long as my car is good for that day, I'm good. I never stopped to think about the fact if my car needed new brakes, it's because I've been driving around in a death trap, a car with bad brakes. All I want is to have that certificate that says I'm good to go for another year.
The same applies to the driving test; how many people drive their cars with the care and attention with which they drove their cars on their driving test? Don't lie now!
As long as we can have the piece of paper or the 'trapping' that suggests we're good people doing good things in good ways for good reasons, we don't care if that's what we're actually doing.
I've worked for a company (not where I work now - in case by boss is reading this) where in order to earn an 'Investors in People' badge, everything had to be 'just so' for a couple of weeks. Once the award was given, everything went back to normal until the time to renew came along and we went through it all again.
Whether we're talking about tidy desk policies, appraisals, church efforts, big houses and posh cars or even politics, we all seem to want the gestures of greatness that show us in the best light possible.
But what about the little things?
If I made the effort to put my car through an MOT every week or month, it would cost time and money but I'd know that my car really was safe to drive. Ok, so that's a crazy illustration, but let's take it out a bit; A company that works for three weeks a year to get Investors In People isn't really an investor in people. A company that does daily everything that's needed for the certificate and therefore doesn't need the three weeks of frantic activity is a true investor in people.
So is it enough to do something every day? Not really, because if a company's idea of investing in people was to regularly put posters up to say that they're investing in people when in reality, they're just investing in the managers' golf fund, then they're not really investors in people. Are they?
What about 'churches' that want to be mega-churches and do it by playing rock music with bland lyrics, play DVDs recorded in churches half way across the world and invite self-help authors who also do shouty preaching (and every good Christian knows that the further a preacher has travelled, the better he is ;-)? After all, if you act like a mega-church, you'll become a mega-church. So if a whale acts like a cat, it will become a cat?
(I never did understand how these 'culturally relevant' churches can think they're addressing the culture needs of South Wales communities by becoming more American). Let's just say that ten people in a church that cares, loves, shares and worships from the heart is what I call a 'Mega-Church'.
Sure, go ahead and look like whatever you want, but the things that actually make you are the things that nobody sees. Pulling books out to make your mates think you're brainy won't make you brainy, reading them will.
Ok, sermon over ;-)
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