My posting has been sporadic due to Christmas break (and I took more days than normal, gotta use up that leave balance!) but also because I'm working on a book, ideally part of a series on leadership. I'm on the ethics section, and wanted to share a small part of what I've written so far:
Our moral compass is built slowly over time. You accumulate experiences, training and
guidance that tells you what is right and wrong. Drastic changes are rare and easy to spot.
Your moral compass is
more likely to suffer death by a thousand cuts than a sudden brittle
fracture. Worse, you are heavily
influenced by those around you. If your
command climate permits questionable ethics, you'll be more likely to make poor
ethical decisions.
Germany was a perfect
example of this. I recommend reading
Erik Larson's book "In The Garden of Beasts." The book shows the perspective of Germany
from the American ambassador, who watched it slowly decay over the reign of
Hitler as Chancellor. His daughter and
wife noticed that although the German's were nice people, slowly over time they
became increasingly harsh towards the Jews.
One quote is particularly telling:
“Coordination' occurred with astonishing speed, even in sectors of life
not directly targeted by specific laws, as Germans willingly placed themselves
under the sway of Nazi rule, a phenomenon that became known as
Selbtsgleichschaltung, or 'self-coordination.' Change came to Germany so
quickly and across such a wide front that German citizens who left the country
for business or travel returned to find everything around them altered, as if
they were characters in a horror movie who come back to find that people who
once were their friends, clients, patients, and customers have become different
in ways hard to discern.”
Remember that these people started
off just like you and me. Hitler's
desire to exterminate the Jews eventually crept into most of his soldiers, no
matter what their upbringing. Or, in
more blunt terms, you can't be a diamond in the mud, because at some point you
become just another mud covered diamond.
This isn't a defense
of Germany's actions. We can guard
ourselves from ethical problems. It
starts with properly identifying the problem.
You won't face ethical dilemmas on some big scale, instead, it will be a
small ethical decisions on a day to day basis that you need to be constantly
getting right in order to maintain your moral compass.
