Improving professionalism

In the Gospel of Mark, chapter 4, verse 22, Jesus says For whatever is hidden is meant to be disclosed, and whatever is concealed is meant to be brought out into the open. (NIV translation).

It's interesting to read Seth Godin's most recent blog post (Why you might choose to be in favour of transparency) in the light of this, and how he views what happens from a marketing angle when things that are normally hidden (things that should be out in the light) are revealed to the public.

I haven't found some of Seth's recent stuff very interesting, for some reason - he's had a bit too much of a marketing angle on things and he's more interesting when he states his creative opinions - so it's pleasing to see him onto something with a bit more substance here this morning.

Basically he's pointing out that when companies, or practitioners (pig farmers and doctors, in this case) hide stuff and then someone reveals it, the professionalism improves, and even though we sometimes have to pay more for the 'product', we can be more sure that the product is actually up to standard.

There are some connections here with the Peter Jansen (a sensitive claims clinician with ACC) situation where he was going to sue a sexual abuse victim who'd written about him on her blog. Thankfully, he's backed down (perhaps under pressure from the ACC Minister), since even though this was a private legal action on his behalf, it surely had some ethical gray areas because the situation related to his position with the ACC, rather than to something outside his profession. But the outcome, hopefully, is that the ACC professionalism will improve as a result of this brouhaha (haven't been able to use that word for a while).