Ethics: #3 Individual level

[samvara]

Accidentally tried the Power Chai - I prefer Tiger Chai but the cafe people are either slightly deaf or really fond of the power chai because if I don't get in and correct them they ignore my order and do power chai anyway..

Exciting class! Lots of stuff, some of which whizzed by at speed. Phil showcased SPARK which we trialled a couple of trimesters ago to give and receive feedback about team behaviour. I was cranky about it back then and Phil kinda nailed it when he said this time that it was not well understood how to use it. I gather this time around it's optional. I'll see how my group feel about using it.

We did a bit of a compare of our learning journals (part the 1st due for eye-balling today). I chose not to share mine with the team and we were thankfully time limited so it wasn't much of an issue. I don't expect it to be an issue but I did like having more time for my team to get to know me as a person as well as 'the gay one' (I'm not touching the bisexual thing with a ten foot pole). My learning journal was a mash-up of that fabulous gay marriage flow chart, Tony Abbott's worst nightmare, ' the wiki world map of same-sex sexual activity, John August's adorable U.S. map of states in which he is (probably) married and the Australian reporting on the Greens push for same-sex marriage. I then added a bunch of commentary about how I saw it linking to what we've been studying and what it has meant in my life - mostly to do with working out when and how to speak for best effect after I worked out that not speaking wasn't an option for me.

One thing that came of out the entire-group discussion was about public figures and morals - are they held to higher standards, or are they just in the unpleasant position of being held accountable?

Giving Voice to Values

• ...rather than taking a preaching stance wherein we might try to counter temptations with all the moral reasons why we should behave ethically, or taking a persuasive stance wherein we might counter those same temptations with all the practical arguments for ethical behaviour, the approach here is to take an enabling stance.
• We try to identify both
  • the times when we already want to act in accordance with our highest moral values
  • and the reasons we feel that way
• Then we focus on building the confidence and skills (and the scripts!) that enable us to do so skillfully and effectively with minimal angst
• The idea being that if enough of us were doing it, the world would be a better place (I mean Business would be better. Yes!)

The Seven GVV Pillars

1. Values - there are universally shared values. Values convey what is important to us in our lives, each person values them differently and they are part of what motivates us. Some values seem common to all cultures:
   Hypernorms: Honesty, respect, responsibility, fairness, compassion, courage, humanity, justice, temperance, transcendence
   
2. Choice - we can choose whether or not to voice our values. Recognising and acting on our values, as well as the fact that we have not always done so, is both empowering and enlightening. Our failure to act on our values in some situations does not cast us as unethical for all time, now does our success at doing so in other situations relieve us from the necessity to continue to challenge ourselves and remain vigilant (CONSTANT VIGILANCE! *rolls single eye madly*)
3. Normalisation - if we treat this as expected, it becomes easier. This is a process of moving from seeing value conflicts as getting in the way of doing our work to seeing it as part of our work. It becomes normal, less threatening and the expectation changes from something potentially avoidable to something we expect to manage (hopefully well)
4. Definition of Purpose. if we narrow our definition we marrow our freedom when facing value conflicts - if we define our professional purpose broadly, then we make it easier to express our values (this is easier if you think MBA-context: do I serve business stakeholders or a wider community?) Apparently this doesn't make life any simpler, but it does bring dignity.
5. Self-Knowledge, Self-Image and Alignment. Know who you are, act in ways that support your self-image (am I a lover or a fighter? *swooshes cape*) We all have our own narrative. A handy category systems:(you don't have to be exclusively one of the other)
   • Idealist - attempt to act on moral ideas no matter what
   • Pragmatist - act in service to own material welfare as well as moral ideas (most business people self-identify here)
   • Opportunist - driven exclusively by own material welfare
6. Voice - there are so many different ways to express our voice - we can look for win/win solutions, be persuasive, use logic, talk to our bosses boss, make allies, ask questions, research, negotiate, lead by example and NOT be a saint or a martyr. We have areas in which we are most skillfull, context will affect, practice helps.
7. Reasons and Rationalisations
   • Everyone does it
   • Impact is minimal
   • Not my responsibility
   • I'm loyal to X not Y so neener

We did a quick exercise and listed as many of our values as we could in a very short amount of time - mine were compassion, wisdom, ethics, grace, honesty, respect, fairness, generosity, integrity and after some culling I pulled out compassion, wisdom and respect as my top 3. I kind of want to wedge kindness in there though. I found it relatively easy to do but it sounded like some of the class didn't - perhaps it's a matter of whether you've thought about it a lot before.

Then we talked about what industries we'd like to work in if we had no restrictions at all. I want to be able to work full time for the OTW, my second choice is stalking the U.N. job boards although that was met with withering disgust from one of my team mates who thinks they are a bunch of U.S. lackeys. Heh, I told him I respected that he had a different view :p

Random trivia included the Thank You Water project, alas only operating in Sydney and Melbourne - I'd like to support them.

We talked about ways value conflicts might occur in our work - I find this really interesting comparing my paid job to working with OTW - all the same conflicts arose - ALL of them. But in OTW when I was chairing I was in the delightful position of being able to say 'hey, I think this is important' and of being able to put energy into addressing them. At my paid work, I am able to affect my immediate surroundings but have not had much success reaching beyond that.

15 min break!

We read an article about defining success that asked 'why do bad people 'win'? I wish we'd had more time to discuss this. I think bad people 'win' because we as a culture have agreed that the definition of 'winning' includes things that bad people do. I 'win' when I reap the rewards from developing fantastic, meaningful relationships so I put a lot of energy into developing and maintaining them.

We did a massive questionnaire about various business related values then discussed the 2008 results (PDF) - unsurprisingly there are differences over time and also over gender.

Also covered the Team Project *shudders* we're to contact an organisation and produce a team report on ethical values and business innovation. There must be interviews and subsequent analysis plus report writing. This looks like a great big time-suck and I am desperately looking for ways to see this positively. I suggested an organisation, one of the other team members did as well and we agreed to think about it between now and the next class. We've all exchanged email addresses.

....and then we ran away