Integrity

When I started this blog, it was to counter the idea that a Gandhist solution is impractical because human nature will undermine it. Essentially, I thought that if it came down to whether we are inherently good enough or not then we had better be good enough or we might as well give up and go home.

But what if we can make integrity a must-have element of the way things are organised? Like sustainable development and stewardship, integrity could become an aspiration or buzzword that becomes embedded in how we do things.

So what does that mean?

Law is the bedrock of a harmonious society, but it alone does not foster gentility. If anything, the cold, hard surface of legislation can cause resentment. Laws are seen as something to be grudgingly accepted, worked around, bent or slyly broken. In other words, law alone does not promote integrity.

People of faith might argue that the shortcomings of rigid structures of statehood can be overcome by a moral outlook, based on religious teaching. And they would have an essential truth in saying so: while laws are often based on moral principles, their operation and adoption often does not. It is soft, moral values that have to be implemented too.

Whether morals require faith or not, or as I would argue, they are a facet of human nature, the challenge is to effectively join two very different materials. To stretch the metaphor of law as bedrock, integrity must lie on top and in the crevices, providing fertile soil.

Already, the line between compulsory laws and voluntary standards is blurred, both where standards become de rigeur and where management systems standards require a commitment to obeying relevant laws. But this doesn’t encourage a mindset that sees personal, organisational, corporate and societal behaviour as interconnected.

Such a mindset is critical to a sustainable community because any disharmony between the levels of and elements of society makes it harder to keep together.

Integrity will be seen as an essential part of how the elements of society operate in the same way that many individuals in desperate need of positive thinking operate. They “fake it to make it”, smiling until smiling becomes second nature and they feel a genuine warmth for others.

Organizations can and should claim integrity as an aspiration until that is exactly how they behave. At that point, no-one is being conned, trust is earned and “light-touch regulation” can become a reality.