MUSINGS and other writing by Mark Kolke

. . . . . . there is no edge to openness

TODAY'S MUSINGS

ARCHIVED COLUMNS

ARCHIVE SPRING 2023

ARCHIVE WINTER 2022-23

ARCHIVE AUTUMN 2022

ARCHIVE SUMMER 2022

ARCHIVE SPRING 2022

ARCHIVE WINTER 2021-22

ARCHIVE AUTUMN 2021

ARCHIVE SUMMER 2021

ARCHIVE SPRING 2021

ARCHIVE WINTER 2020-21

ARCHIVE AUTUMN 2020

ARCHIVE SUMMER 2020

ARCHIVE SPRING 2020

ARCHIVE WINTER 2019-20

ARCHIVE AUTUMN 2019

ARCHIVE SUMMER 2019

ARCHIVE SPRING 2019

ARCHIVE WINTER 2018-19

ARCHIVE AUTUMN 2018

ARCHIVE SUMMER 2018

ARCHIVE SPRING 2018

ARCHIVE WINTER 2017-18

ARCHIVE AUTUMN 2017

ARCHIVE SUMMER 2017

ARCHIVE SPRING 2017

ARCHIVE WINTER 2016/17

ARCHIVE AUTUMN 2016

ARCHIVE SUMMER 2016

ARCHIVE SPRING 2016

ARCHIVE WINTER 2015/16

ARCHIVE AUTUMN 2015

ARCHIVE SUMMER 2015

ARCHIVE SPRING 2015

ARCHIVE WINTER 2014/15

ARCHIVE AUTUMN 2014

ARCHIVE SUMMER 2014

ARCHIVE SPRING 2014

ARCHIVE WINTER 2013/14

CONTACT

INTEGRITY MAY BE OBSOLETE

Saturday Jan. 26, 2019

Integrity used to matter …

Equivalent to having both a backbone and a beating heart – integral to life itself, you couldn’t thrive without integrity.

I don’t know if integrity is obsolete – but it might be going extinct, to be put alongside rare birds and critters on some ‘endangered lists’ because it is looking more and more like a relic of a more genteel past.

Wasn’t integrity assumed?

In our immediacy driven connected world, we’ve lost trust. We can’t trust blindly like we used to.

Integrity seems to be ‘missing in action’, more elusive than ever. We’ve sacrificed our ‘doing due-diligence’ to confirm integrity in favour of point/click speed and efficiency.

This is speedy – great if what you found online is true – and it sucks when it is false. Consider Volkswagen, Wells Fargo, Donald Trump et al, Enron, Facebook, Lehman Brothers, Countrywide, Worldcom, Tyco, Bernie Madoff, Qwest, big tobacco – this list could be endless.

Integrity doesn’t mean success, or without flaws.

To me, it connotes ‘without deception in intent and actions’. Tricking people for profit or personal gain is supposed to earn a spanking for children and jail time for grownups. Sadly, in the corporate world it comes with fines, settlements and class-action lawsuits. Seems more like a speeding ticket …

Each time we meet someone new, encounter a business opportunity we might get into, each time some organization large or small seeks our involvement, our patronage or our vote – should we assume they are operating out of integrity?

I don’t mean blindly expecting, or assuming it is automatic.

I take new folks ‘at face value’ ~ watch and wait, see if they live up to their billing. I’m questioning whether we should expect them to live up to what they say/imply/promise or to some other standard, such as our own?

If I meet you and you promise nothing, I should have no expectations. But, if you engage with me as friend, colleague or customer – I do have expectations around authenticity of what you say, that what you promise is genuine and that you live up to your promises.

That, in my book, is living a life of integrity.

It goes both ways of course, we all want reciprocity in relationships.

I’ve had several situations recently – people weren’t breaking promises but they weren’t living up to their espoused standard – not operating as promised. One person is out of my life, one company I’ve disconnected from, and another I’m ‘in the process of moving to another supplier’. Sometimes we can make changes immediately, sometimes it takes longer – but when we know, that feeling, that ah+ha, we know it in an instant don’t we? Like an electric shock – gasp of surprise – someone did (or didn’t) do something, said (or failed to) say something.

We used to notice these incongruities – and now we miss them in mind numbing noise …

Reader feedback:

MY GREATEST FEAR

Hi Mark, I don’t read all of your musings, but sometimes do. This one caught my attention because I was curious to see what your greatest fear would be. I have to admit, I am not sure if I share your greatest fear. I guess my thought is that, generally, we make the decisions we make with all the information that we have at the time we make that decision, and that information will always be imperfect (situations change, we don’t have all the information, we get new information or information may be wrong). So our decisions are always the best decision we can make at the time because they are based on this information that we have at the time we make the decision. And if information changes, and this changes what our decision should be, we just make a new decision - we have no choice, we have to make the new decision. Perhaps this helps (and perhaps not), but for me, it enables me to move on from a decision, and accept it, and try to make it the best decision until circumstances change. I suppose it allows you to stop some of the “what ifs”. Cheers, DA, Calgary, AB

No doubt about it, we are under constant bombardment by messages that make us feel small if we let them.   Be slim, enlarge this, trim that, earn so much...   The media!   Scientific breakthroughs promising mind boggling deliverables, although probably not quite in time for the boomer generation.   Always falling a bit short, or so it seems. Or perhaps we should stop and check our back trail occasionally, and see how far we have come.   Hiking and skiing the back country in Alberta I would regularly do that, partly too to make sure I could recognize the route back out, but just as often to pause, reflect, and think Wow! I certainly managed to accomplish something today.   Just look at that view! And as the song says... 

“Yes, there are two paths you can go by.

But in the long run

There's still time to change the road you're on

And it makes me wonder...”

I’ll leave you to figure out which one it is! Cheers Mark!, DM, Ladysmith, BC


SIGN UP TO GET MUSINGS BY e-mail: CLICK HERE

SIGN UP TO GET MUSINGS BY e-mail: CLICK HERE

Link to all my contact coordinates + links

Comments are always welcome - please contribute to the discussion.  

Reply to: kolke@markkolke.com

Copyright - all rights reserved - Mark Kolke, © 2003-2023 - MaxComm Communications

 - this site is updated daily - last update - 2023 / March 27