SHARED VALUES

One of the eight critical success factors in my Ethics Pizza? methodology is “shared values”! What that means is that for an organisation (or a society!) to be really successful and become sustainable they have to have a range of values that every team member or citizen embraces.

It is also quite clear that the precise nature of these values is not universal but there are clearly some values which most people seem to embrace or strive for. In organisations, it is easier to create a culture of shared values as one can draft an Ethics Charter (Code of Ethics), a Code of Conduct and one can recruit the type of people who subscribe to the organisation’s values. One can also introduce an effective system of “consequence management” to reinforce the policies and procedures.

Some countries seem to have developed a culture of shared values over thousands of years – Japan is the striking example – but most other countries have anything but cohesive societies! This is a massive problem here in South Africa and we shouldn’t be surprised that we aren’t getting the important things right when a huge majority of our population don’t seem able to even follow the basics.

This becomes obvious when one drives around during load-shedding and witnesses the chaos at intersections which are normally regulated by traffic lights! It boggles my mind that so many motorists are unable to understand what is expected of them at these times!

Staying with driving for the moment, am I the only one who is totally irritated by motorists who don’t think and plan ahead when they are driving and try and change lanes and turn at the last minute. My pet hate is people who are in a straight and right turning lane who only put on their indicators at the last minute or sometimes not at all.

How about those drivers who do U-turns whenever and wherever they feel like it and the hundreds of others who believe that they can drive and park however they like as long as they switch on their hazard lights?

The other thing that I observe with horror is how many pedestrians are unable to understand what is expected of them at pedestrian crossings. Have they not been taught that they should only ever walk when the green man is flashing? And then we wonder why we have the highest pedestrian death rate in the world!

One would have also thought that most people would know that when you are waiting to get into a lift (elevator) that you always wait for the people getting out to get out first before trying to squeeze yourself and sometimes your supermarket trolly and kids into the lift!

Littering is still an appalling problem in South Africa. I recently saw this discarded pile of IT equipment in one of the parks where I frequently walk and was completely shocked! This is not just a case of dropping your KFC packaging on the pavement but is a premeditated act! This stuff wasn’t dumped near the parking area but these people would have had to have carried this rubbish at least twenty metres from the nearest parking spot!

We know that we're headed in the wrong direction when many people believe that it is perfectly fine to claim to have an educational qualification that we haven't earned or to wear medals, decorations and insignia that we haven't been awarded!

Some people may think that I’m being petty but when one considers that we have the highest rape and murder rates in the world we do have a very serious problem. There is also an underlying belief that the only time that the sanctity of property ownership applies is when it belongs to them. If any other items belong to other people a shockingly high percentage of our population believe that it’s theirs for the taking!

I’m normally a very positive person but I am sadly convinced that we, as a society, will never ever be successful unless and until we develop a culture of common shared values which most of us subscribe to and embrace. The criminal justice system has totally failed us in South Africa and until there are consequences for people who don’t adhere to our laws and values, we will continue our slide into the abyss of the failed State!

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This series of posts is derived from the various workplace ethics workshops and webinars that I present. If you’d like more information and some free resources, please visit https://theethicsarchitect.com or send me a mail to [email protected]