Spot on as usual Luke! Here in South Africa businesses are taking short cuts, discarding stated values, to try and survive in an economy that was 'junk status' prior to an ongoing, harsh lock-down now approaching 100 days - and where 'inalienable' human rights are being trampled on. Trust is being hammered and one longs for some good old-fashioned values like honesty, open-ness, respect, compassion .....
I agree totally with your sentiments Shakil. We need also to take account of DGC - globally destructive competition and the deeply entrenched beliefs, behaviours that perpetuate it, and limit the extent to which our people and planet efforts can succeed. Check out Simpol (Bunzl & Duffell) endorsed by the likes of Ken Wilbur, Noam Chomsky ...) for a superb explanation of this phenomenon and possible ways forward .... and a necessary context for our people over profit quest
In a recent conversation someone used a phrase I had not heard before: "bounded ethicality". She explained it to mean that when we are wearing our 'cognitive blinkers' and making business decisions or carrying out activities we may be quite unaware of deeper considerations such as the environment, social and just economy issues ... so we need to develop 'larger minds', ways of discerning, seeing that enable us to widen our business frames. This article by Luke eloquently covers this concept.
Luke is really opening up the width and depth of ethics. In my opinion, this article also belongs in a discussion of diversity-equity-inclusion-belonging. What each brings is an array of diverse physical/intellectual/emotional/social/"spiritual" attributes that make us unique, and which should serve to widen the scope of many of our diversity discussions ....
One area of especial interest and importance, when one looks at many of the disconnects that have happened between stated values and actual behaviours, is (for me), "What potential do performance management measures and related compensation have to insidiously steer behaviours?"
I'd love for you to share your thoughts on this Luke
This is such an important topic as intersecting happens externally to corporations (stakeholders, activists - environmental, social, economic, governments, suppliers, customers, citizens, investors) and internally (Boards, leaders, employees, social responsibility initiatives - all with their own viewpoints, agendas in a world that continues to be potentially divisive and polarised, and where the dangers of psychologically unsafe work spaces are becoming more apparent ... Well done for highlighting the challenge, and encouraging healthy debate.
What struck me as I read your article between the lines Luke was how easily we are influenced (often unconsciously) by the societies, communities, institutions and organisations that we are a part of - an extreme form being what Scott Peck termed "fragmentation of conscience". For me this flags the importance of leader role-modeling.
(I love the logical flow of your articles)
My answers
Spot on as usual Luke! Here in South Africa businesses are taking short cuts, discarding stated values, to try and survive in an economy that was 'junk status' prior to an ongoing, harsh lock-down now approaching 100 days - and where 'inalienable' human rights are being trampled on. Trust is being hammered and one longs for some good old-fashioned values like honesty, open-ness, respect, compassion .....
I agree totally with your sentiments Shakil. We need also to take account of DGC - globally destructive competition and the deeply entrenched beliefs, behaviours that perpetuate it, and limit the extent to which our people and planet efforts can succeed. Check out Simpol (Bunzl & Duffell) endorsed by the likes of Ken Wilbur, Noam Chomsky ...) for a superb explanation of this phenomenon and possible ways forward .... and a necessary context for our people over profit quest
In a recent conversation someone used a phrase I had not heard before: "bounded ethicality". She explained it to mean that when we are wearing our 'cognitive blinkers' and making business decisions or carrying out activities we may be quite unaware of deeper considerations such as the environment, social and just economy issues ... so we need to develop 'larger minds', ways of discerning, seeing that enable us to widen our business frames. This article by Luke eloquently covers this concept.
Luke is really opening up the width and depth of ethics. In my opinion, this article also belongs in a discussion of diversity-equity-inclusion-belonging. What each brings is an array of diverse physical/intellectual/emotional/social/"spiritual" attributes that make us unique, and which should serve to widen the scope of many of our diversity discussions ....
One area of especial interest and importance, when one looks at many of the disconnects that have happened between stated values and actual behaviours, is (for me), "What potential do performance management measures and related compensation have to insidiously steer behaviours?"
I'd love for you to share your thoughts on this Luke
This is such an important topic as intersecting happens externally to corporations (stakeholders, activists - environmental, social, economic, governments, suppliers, customers, citizens, investors) and internally (Boards, leaders, employees, social responsibility initiatives - all with their own viewpoints, agendas in a world that continues to be potentially divisive and polarised, and where the dangers of psychologically unsafe work spaces are becoming more apparent ... Well done for highlighting the challenge, and encouraging healthy debate.
What struck me as I read your article between the lines Luke was how easily we are influenced (often unconsciously) by the societies, communities, institutions and organisations that we are a part of - an extreme form being what Scott Peck termed "fragmentation of conscience". For me this flags the importance of leader role-modeling.
(I love the logical flow of your articles)
Absolutely!!!!
Luke's push for a moral perspective is essential as we perhaps enter a radical adaption stage, facing challenges and imminent threats on many fronts. A rules-based approach is questionable and in support of Luke's sound thinking and guidelines, here are triggers for further thought:
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/enlightened-ethics-execution-part-1-graha...
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/enlightened-ethics-execution-part-2-graha...