Zach Aldwin Milkshake in the Boardroom
The fall in a person’s ethics is not a one step process, it starts slowly and then builds up to a point where it seems that there is no way back. Seth Godin posted a great article on business ethics this week (you can look it up yourself) but in it he pointed out a great truth – businesses do not have ethics, only

people have ethics. A business is as principled as those running and working for it.

As the countdown to the end of 2015 ticks away, I want to take some time to examine a facet of our lives that we often neglect and that if we are not careful can be detrimental to our well being; both as individuals and for the corporations we are involved in. I call it “The Slide”.

Do you remember playing on a slide as a kid? There was this little flat curve that you sat on at the top and you could carefully edge yourself slowly on it.

There was this moment where as you edged forward the pull of gravity started to be greater than the friction of your pants on the metal, this glorious moment where a slow movement began, you could feel the tension build, then you hit a critical point and accelerated rapidly to the bottom.

There is an assault on our convictions, a barrage to compromise on our ethics.

The fall in a person’s ethics is not a one step process, it starts slowly and then builds up to a point where is seems that there is no way back.

Creep is the process where a substance deforms under constant pressure. The stress is not enough to break or snap the substance, but over time there is a subtle shift in structure.

Imagine a cog system where over a long period creep occurs in one of the cogs, it deforms and now does not turn as efficiently as planned.

Creep is slow, it is akin to the top of the slide. Creep is low pressure over a long time.

Like it or not you are under pressure. The daily demand for a bribe from unscrupulous officials is pressure.

The increased bureaucracy with multiple departments asking for multiple payments to get previously unregulated areas approved is pressure.

Social media with the constant flow of opinions, many of them given without thought, is pressure. Social media with its “group think” that judges heavily those outside the norm and crosses the protection of national boundaries to criticise and try bring conformity is pressure (if you doubt this then put up a controversial post on something like anti-homosexuality and compare the responses of those from Africa and those from the West).

Without taking steps to constantly evaluate and protect our values we will find them eroded.

No one gets fat overnight. Rather is the extended period of eating badly that contributes to ill health and being overweight.

It is the constant drip in a tap that over time wears the washer out even more until you have a constant flow.

Pressure produces a response.

At a very basic level, both diamond and oil are formed from carbon-based substances under pressure for a long period. Unlike the carbon, we get to choose our response to pressure; whether we shore up our convictions or whether we flow along like everyone else.

The lie that the enemy would have you give into is that you are the only one standing for that which is right. Sometimes you can look around yourself and think that you are the only one with any sense of ethic.

It is easier to give in than to make a stand when you seem to be alone.

The same lie that the pushy guy tells the innocent teenage girl to get her into bed that “well everyone else is doing it” is the lie that we can use to justify our failure to do what we know to be right.

As we hit 2016 and step out once more into the battlefield of business, take a moment to mend your armour. Refocus, recalibrate, and check your values and your ethics.

Check where the slide may have started and catch yourself before it accelerates you. This coming year each time you refuse to pay a bribe know that you are not alone.

Each time you refuse to cut a corrupt deal know that you are not alone. Each time you take a step to better the lives of a client or member of staff know that you are not alone. Stand firm, build strong, and have a wonderful New Year.

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