Entries Tagged as 'Analysis'
4-Way Integration
This article from Knowledge@Wharton: Leadership and Change talks about the need for 4-way integration of Work, Home, Community and Self. Stewart Friedman talking about his book, Total Change argues for this integration. I really believe that this is crucial — I have tended to argue that one should integrate their personal or home with their institution of greatest influence (work, church, politics, etc.) But the integration of these four areas resonates with me. Given my work in values, the personal is essentially implied here. And I have kind of merged Work and Community.
I think the key issue here is integration. While you may have some different “preferences” many of the common values will be the same just the order may change. The danger that I see people getting themselves is that they believe that the values and the institutions in which they interact are somehow separate. The priorities will can and often change but the core values stat the same.
First, it is very difficult to separate or compartmentalize like this. And if one is able to do it, it will likely create a high level of internal conflict. It creates a kind of institutionally enforced schizophrenia. Moving between these compartments can create tension and conflict. This frustration can, of course, come out in ways that do not create the best environment for those areas.
Accountability and Responsibility
Accountability and Responsibility, we hear about it all the time. Like trust it has been dummied down. It often means little more than managing milestones and meeting targets. It comes off as very transactional. I feel like my kids’ Tae Kwon Do instructors look at this with a much higher level. It is about “personal” responsibility and “personal” accountability. That somehow that if you violate this you have let people down at deeper more profound level. In the corporate reality, You might lose your job, but it is not like personally there is a one has deeply violated this, or maybe more importantly that one is rewarded for maintaining this high level of respect.
Corporately it is really achievement and success that is driving people. But for some reason it is under the guise of accountability and responsibility. No one is going to fall on their sword because of a missed target.
Accountability should really feel like you are piercing the soul if you violate it. I am not suggesting that there is no integrity in business and that people do not take their reputation and their relationships seriously, but all too often business is watering the definition to where it becomes meaningless.