I know a few cops I greatly respect. I know a number of vets I greatly respect. My issue is not with cops, nor is it with soldiers, sailors, airmen or Marines. My issue is with an overwhelming culture which makes it MORE and not less difficult for these people to maintain their personal accountability and integrity. Real friends, and those who want to have a community they can be proud to be a part of, do not cover for one another, but support one another in taking responsibility for their actions. They hold each other accountable. This is not as easy, or gentle in the short term as covering for each other, but its worth it. Covering enables a descent into an increasingly ugly web of mutual lies and a mindset that remembers that these breaches of integrity are ok. Holding each other accountable means at the end of the day, theres no lies to remember, no debt, and men and women who have established, with the help of their friends, a mindset where they take responsibility for themselves, and dont allow themselves, or each other, into a place without integrity. We have a culture so afraid of accountability, that we cant differentiate between being called on the carpet, and being disciplined. We have become afraid of owning our mistakes. Once we begin owning them, we realize that mistakes are not the end of the world. They happen. When they happen, we can work together to ensure they are not repeated. We can find causes and fix them. This mindset is a key to encouraging an environment of accountability. If you are more interested in crucifying someone for screwing up, than you are going to make it less likely that they will own up to their mistakes. At my job, Ive been taking 4 times longer than I thought I would on a given project. This is not my finest hour and Im very much not proud of it. What I am proud of, is that my boss has been working with me, has talked with me about it, and Im working on it. They allow me to be honest about my situation so we can fix things, rather than crucifying me when I was WAY off on my estimate. At your work, what is the environment? Do you encourage each other to be accountable and to own your mistakes? Do you encourage each other to act with integrity? Or do you have an environment where mistakes and poor judgment get swept under the rug? where some combination of the perceived or real high stakes of mistakes and poor judgment, along with a culture of covering for other people out of loyalty encourages people to chose falsehood over integrity?
Posted on: Tue, 09 Sep 2014 16:50:33 +0000
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