resultsthroughintegrity

WRONG DOING, INTEGRITY AND NON-VIOLENCE

The world is a strange place with unwritten rules.

Some are rewarded for wrong doing. Others are not punished when they turn a blind eye. 

I broke that covenant at work.  I called the wrong doing. The consequence was termination.   

The details don’t matter.  It is the same everywhere. The people with power see themselves as right and those that oppose them are wrong.  

KNOW YOURSELF

In 432 BC Socrates said, “Know yourself.”

Easier said than done.

The word “Know” means to regard as true beyond any doubt. The word “Yourself” means your unique, usual, and normal self.  So to “know yourself” means regarding that which is unique, usual, and normal about you as true beyond doubt.

Integrity is wholeness and completeness, unfolding and becoming, purity and objectivity. Integrity is rooted in your self. If you don’t know yourself, you don’t know integrity.

Do you know yourself as true beyond doubt?   

Let’s see...

What is Right?

“What is right with the world is the world. In fact, nearly everything else is wrong with it.”
G. K. Chesterton.

People want to do the right thing. It is something we all regard as worthy and desirable. It is a belief, and a standard that is the heart of everything we do.

Organizations want to do the right thing. It is a fundamental principle that shows up in people, processes and products. 

Integrity is doing the right thing, doing the next right thing and doing things right.

But, what is right?

INTEGRITY AND TRUST ARE FREE

Integrity and trust are free and the ultimate in “what is in this for me”.

It is realizing all that you can be.

Integrity and trust are the cornerstones of journey from possibility to actualization. They take you from separateness, stagnation and perception to completeness, growth and reality.  

The potential for integrity and trust exist in the here and now of ordinary existence. Every day choices about small things like eating and or big things like work offer us the opportunity to pursue integrity and build trust.

Every choice has a consequence that either adds or subtracts from your integrity and trust.   

Integrity is the optimal experience. The process of its realization is the path way to an authentic individuated life. It is the ultimate journey into the mysteries of one’s life.  

IS SUCCESS AN ACCIDENT?

How many people do you know who accidently became a success?  

When this happens, a friend of mine quipped, “It is like Miracle-Gro spread on the seeds of faults.” 

When accidental money, power and fame come our way, we have to be careful not to be the old saying:  

“You can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig.”

Accidents happen to you. Success happens because of you.   

Buckminster Fuller said “Integrity is the essence of everything successful.”

SYNERGY IS AN OUTCOME OF INTEGRITY

It can’t be but it is!

Think about it, the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.

This is like saying 2+2 is not four but more.

Synergy means that things work together.

Words can’t explain the essence of this. We know it and want it but what and how do we get it?  

For a long time, the known world had no thought of synergy. The second law of thermodynamics dominated. It stated that everything will increase in entropy.

In other words, disintegration is the way of the world and chaos is destiny.  

And since we are of the world, well then ….the way and end are clear.

INTEGRITY DRIVEN PERFORMANCE

Does integrity drive performance? Apparently it does.

Novartis, a leading healthcare company, has adopted a philosophy that places integrity at the center of their strategy for success.

“Leading Companies, see integrity not as obstacle to competitiveness but as a driver of differentiation.”
Dan Ostergaard, Head of Corporate integrity, Novartis 

PricewaterhouseCoopers developed an integrity driven performance model that centers on governance, transparency and accountability reform. 

“This strategy suggests that business integrity, ethics and values do not detract from performance but, in fact, add to business performance when appropriately integrated throughout an organization.” PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Both approaches demonstrate practical ways to realize results through integrity.   

WORKPLACE MISCONDUCT

Albert Camus said that integrity has no need of rules.

KPMG in their 2008-09 integrity survey conclude that there is a real need for integrity in the workplace.

The survey reports that 3700 out of 5000 employees say they have seen or know of wrong doing or misconduct in the workplace.

 

THE ROLE OF ETHICS AND INTEGRITY IN ORGANIZATIONS

When employees act unethically and/or without integrity, customers lose trust and confidence in organizational products and services.

When leaders act unethically and/or without integrity, employees lose trust and confidence in organizational processes, systems and products.

Both directly impact the bottom line and the return on investment. 

What is the correlation between return on investment and unethical behavior and/or a lack of integrity?

Organizations are built on the principle that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.

Working together creates results and outcomes for the whole that outweigh the results and outcomes of everyone working for themselves.

The secret to success is not the principle but the way synergy is created. 

WHAT IS INTEGRITY IN PRACTICE?

 “Integrity is the cornerstone, if not the bedrock, upon which all financial markets are based.”

(Hank Paulson, Chairman and CEO, Goldman Sachs Group June 2002)

 Whilst we have described a number of values and vices, this list is not exhaustive and should not imply that integrity can be learned by heart like the “The Ten Commandments”.

We do not propose that it is right that people should merely read a code of ethics or a list of values and then sign a declaration to that effect.

 In the early 1970s, Harvard Professor Lawrence Kohlberg proposed a model of Moral Development which demonstrated that people shaped their sense of morality through the following stages9:

 1. “Obedience and Punishment” – We are children and we behave acceptably because we are told what to do by an authority figure such as a parent or teacher. This obedience is enforced by the threat or application of punishment.

 2. “Individualism, Instrumentalism and Exchange” – This is when we recognize that it is in our best interests to be moral.

 3. “Good boy/girl” – We do the right thing because it will gain the approval of others.

 4. “Law and order” – We abide by the law and have a sense of duty.

5. “Social contract” – We have a strong sense of social responsibility and the welfare of others.

 6. “Principled Conscience” – We accept universal principles of morality and the demands of individual conscience.