Volume 9    Issue 1     Spring 2002

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THE ETHICS OF RESPECT

by James Terrell

The cost to business and society of acting unethically has seldom been more apparent than it is today. For ten years Collaborative Growth has been using a process we developed called Values Centered Strategic Communications to help organizations and teams align their behavior with their true purpose to increase the quality of their results.

The study of what is valuable in philosophy includes ethics, morality, freedom, art, religion, and education -- hardly the quantifiable kinds of stuff that lends itself to precise measurement and analysis.

The pursuit of what is valuable today is another matter. The fast pace of business in the global marketplace means if you can't make complex decisions fast enough your whole enterprise could go under overnight. Even when think Big Picture, there's not much time given to the Whole Picture of People, Purpose, Planet, and Profit. However, as we have recently seen, the inability to make ethical decisions, and conspiring to conceal the unethical ones can also bring even the mightiest corporate giants to their knees.

The heart and soul of Values Centered Strategic Communications is simple, it's the title to Aretha Franklin's standard R-E-S-P-E-C-T ! It teaches us how to communicate respect for our basic human ability to show up and work productively to create a quality product. The way in which we communicate with our employees, our team members, our customers, and our investors will either build or erode the integrity of our organizations -- and at the end of the day, no quantity of metrics can ever replace the quality of the relationships that weave the true meaning of our lives.

Contrary to so much hype and popular opinion, making money is not our primary motivator. Each one of us has a very individual sense of purpose, and when we feel that our ability to produce a quality product is respected, we feel connected to that purpose everyday -- through our work! People will work for a reduced salary, or even just the promise of receiving one sometime in the future if they feel that their work is meaningful and furthering the true purpose of their lives.

When communicating that respect is one of our strategic goals we encourage our people to accept new challenges, to increase their knowledge and grow their competencies in alignment with their purpose... and the corporate mission! When people feel that valuable, and have developed the skills to help them express it, they will automatically extend the same respect to each other and to the customer, which obviously serves the investors best interests as well.

Time and time again our experience has shown us that conflict goes down, productivity goes up, and ethical behavior is the norm when people feel connected to their purpose through their work.

©2002, Collaborative Growth