PROCESS is something that everyone goes through, everyone takes part in.  Growth, change, pruning, beginning again.  Sometimes it’s personal; often it’s professional.

For the last year, I’ve served on my church’s pastor search committee.  When you’re in a process that will knowingly affect others, you have to wonder about the issue of transparency in process.  Confidentiality, of course, is key. But there’s also that strong sense of letting others know how things happen.

Transparency is something of an organizational buzzword.  It also pops up often in political or presidential discussions: transparency allows for a stronger sense of trust, a better sense of awareness.  And yet. . .

I really like what Seth Godin has to say about a middle way.  One need not be opaque and mysterious, but one also need not think that transparency is the ultimate goal.  He suggests the way of translucence.  He puts it in market terms this way:

The market, though, often seeks out the translucent.  Things that glow.  We’re drawn to the glow, to the illumination and warm feeling it brings.

He goes on to say:

The brands and experiences and legends that lead to stories and affection and connection — it would be better if they glowed instead.

I like this distinction.  There are times and things where transparency are required (he cites the bank and the radiologist).  Other things, though, deserve and maybe demand a glow, a sheen, an aura of sorts.  It’s one thing to present a project or idea that works in an obvious way; doing something that resonates, reaches and resounds deeply and truly is something else entirely.

You can check out more of Seth Godin’s always-interesting thoughts here.