Revisiting a Business' Core Values can Establish Common Ground; Could it do the Same for our Nation?

Whenever I work with companies and organizations that seem to have disagreement on direction, I find it helpful to go back to their founding documents to reestablish the connection between their past and their desired future, and from there enter into an authentic conversation of where they are and wish to go. I do this to help define corporate responsibility priorities and a set of shared core values.

What would happen with we applied the same approach to our nation, which seems to be struggling to define who we want to be?

After the United States earned its independence, the founders again convened to draft the Constitution of the United States. This document makes it clear that the purpose of our nation is not only for the benefit of our current citizens. Indeed the preamble states their goal

“secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”

The core purpose includes meeting both immediate needs as well as those of future generations – which is the very definition of Sustainability. Indeed, the themes of environmental stewardship, social progress and sound governance can be found throughout many of the seminal writings, speeches, and even letters between our founding fathers. It remains the seminal document for the nation. When our president takes the oath of office, he (or she) swears to preserve, protect and defend it (rather than the nation).

Environmental Stewardship

Those who made their primary living off the land — like George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and many others, understood and respected the importance of caring for the environment. George Washington took pains to plant native trees — some of which still live today — on his Mount Vernon estate. Despite the seemingly endless munificence of the new continent, he also experimented with the use of living hedges, or dense thorny shrubs, to keep animals from destroying plants as a way to conserve timber. When Lewis and Clark set out to explore the vast new territory purchased from France, Thomas Jefferson gave explicit instructions not only to find and secure a water-based passage to the Pacific and to establish cordial trading relationships with any natives found along the way, he also charged the ‘Corps of Discovery’ with documenting significant locations, but also any animals, plants, insects, fish, birds – particularly those unknown in the established parts of the country east of the Mississippi River.

Throughout our history, the American people have been resoundingly in favor of protecting and preserving our environment.

We have not always stayed true to this value either, such as when Americans decimated the massive herds of Buffalo on the Great Plains or in time to save the Passenger Pigeon which once darkened skies in numbers so great that their migration blocked out the sun. Theodore Roosevelt understood the importance of preserving our natural wonders, founding our National Park system by declaring the preservation of natural habitats like Yosemite as not just a “good thing,” but in the public interest. Throughout our history, the American people have been resoundingly in favor of environmental protections including the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts, the founding of the EPA and yes, even climate change.

Social Progress

Both of America’s most fundamental founding documents — the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution — reflect an understanding of the power of diversity and including multiple perspectives. The Declaration is headed “In Congress... “ meaning that the document reflected the combined wisdom, passion, ideas and perspectives of a group of people. The Constitution begins with the powerful phrase “We the people... “ deriving its basis from the combined will of the people within the country.

At the same time, if we are going to have an authentic conversation, we must also address the glaring (to us in 2019) discrepancy between

“When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people …”

and what is written in the next paragraph:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal …”

While some have argued that ‘man’ was a synonym for ‘humanity’ and the founders fully intended to include everyone; that is a more modern (or charitable) interpretation. One need only to look at the laws passed for the early United States to discover that women were denied property rights, could not make or enter into legal contracts and were denied the right to vote – something that was only codified into law by an amendment to the Constitution less than 100 years ago.

It was almost 87 years after the nation was founded that Abraham Lincoln, clearly being more inclusive, invoked the powerful phrase; “government of the people, by the people, for the people” in his Gettysburg address during the waning days of the Civil War.

Today one would be hard pressed to argue against equal rights for women, although the number of states required to move an Equal Rights Amendment forward remains tantalizingly out of reach, many argue the rights for women are implicit or implied and therefore it is not necessary. America must come to grips with its less-than-inclusive history and decide what our country should stand at the dawn of the 21st century. An honest and authentic conversation about these things will be hard, but we should aspire, as Alexander Hamilton did; “I have thought it my duty to exhibit things as they are, not as they ought to be.”

The concept of a shared fate – rather than individual gain - was very much on the mind of the founding fathers as they set about to declare independence from the British Crown. Benjamin Franklin, as he prepared to sign his name the document stating that the colonies ought to be free famously declared “We must, indeed, all hang together, or most assuredly we shall all hang separately.” That document famously concludes with the powerful statement that

“And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.”

Sound Governance

The idea that governance must be just and fair and based on something more than claims of divine providence or military power but rather “deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed” started in the Declaration of Independence and was clearly on the mind of Thomas Jefferson when, in his first inaugural address stated; “All, too, will bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will to be rightful must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal law must protect, and to violate would be oppression.”

That, of course, is one of the trickiest things about democracy. While we decry the depths of rancor in our current debates on Capitol Hill, the campaign trail, and in our society, it is worth noting that this is nothing new. Indeed, our history shows that the halls of Congress are actually more civil today than they have been in the past. In 1850 Senator Henry Foote of Mississippi pulled a pistol on Senator Thomas Hart Benton of Missouri. Six years later Representative Preston Brooks of South Carolina, outraged at anti-slavery remarks by Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts beat him with a cane so brutally that Sumner had to be virtually carried from the Senate chamber — and was not able to retake his seat for three years. 

Today rather than open fisticuffs, we have insults and a never-ending-stream of back-and-forth castigations and posturing. We must remember that compromise is the only path to consensus and finding common ground for common interests, recognizing that this is the purpose of representative government. “Democracy is a terrible form of government,” observed Winston Churchill, “but all others are worse.”

“An army of principles can penetrate where an army of soldiers cannot,” wrote Thomas Paine. The lofty idealism that a country could find justification based on a higher purpose is not new in our national mindset. In the very beginning the founders cited divine inspiration for their desire to create a separate nation. The Declaration of Independence boldly asserts that there is no need to justify their actions to man (even a King) “We hold these truths to be self-evident...” Certainly the moral authority was on full display when Washington resigned his commission as commander and chief, thereby relinquishing his command over the armed forces that he had led in the revolutionary war in an act which solidified the moral principles behind the revolution.

Conclusion

Why does this matter? Because, like the companies I have advised over the past two decades; having authentic and open conversations starting with the basis of the historic values we share often provides the first initial common ground from which to begin to determine future direction. As Thomas Paine wrote in Common Sense; “We have it in our power to being the world again.” whether it be a sustainability program or, perhaps, something larger.

(This is an updated and modified version of an earlier piece. Again thanks to Bjorn Fischer for starting me on this inquiry.)