EXCELLENCE & ETHICS

Updates from October, 2012

• 

  Educating for Conscience AND Competence

  Matt Davidson posted in Character Blog, Character For & From Sports, Excellence & Ethics in Business, Intentional Family Culture, Power2Achieve Community at 4:06 pm on October 12, 2012 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  

  When it comes to the development of character, ethics, and integrity we would do well to heed the wise advice of Blaise Pascal, who famously observed, “the heart has its reason, which reason cannot know.”  Ethical development that targets the head and neglects the heart, tends to create ethical legalists who can reason themselves into or out of most any action or inaction.  Thus, it is critically important that we educate for conscience; essential that through education and advocacy we cultivate self-awareness and awaken the values voice inside every individual.

  The development of conscience must be an essential focus of values education; and yet, as Mary Gentile has argued in her book, Giving Voice to Values, the development of conscience alone is insufficient. Conscience—a sense of right from wrong—also requires a sense of competence—a sense of practical know-how.  Competence speaks to what Gentile and others have referred to as “post-decision making” when we know what we ought to do and need to figure out how to make it happen within the challenges of the real world pressures and stresses (Gentile, 2010).

  In our work this has meant that we distill complex and multifaceted moral and performance character values into their more specific competencies. Our operational definition of character as “values in action,” gets calibrated by a focus on the development of specific character competencies.  Competent: “able to”; incompetent: “unable to”. Organizations want and need “individuals who are able to …”, for example, give and receive constructive criticism, manage priorities and reduce stress, be fair to all involved, continue trying in the face of difficulty, and so on.

  Competencies are process skills that connect awareness and sensitivity, to reasoning and judgment, to behavior. The development of competencies requires action and reflection, practice with feedback, real-world simulation that targets practice of essential skills in settings that are similar to the real challenges one would face, and yet still safe enough to allow the development of mastery.  When skills for each of these processes are fully developed and become automatic, cognition and action become intertwined and an individual consistently engages in positive behavior (see, for example, review of related research in Narvaez, 2006).

  The development of competencies has meant the ability for us to teach general skills universal to all settings, while also targeting the development of skills specific to particular settings—be they in school, sport, or work.  A contextualized view allows us to approach each situation as having its own challenges and requisite skills.  We simulate for the most common situations you will face in this specific context. Too often training for ethics and character is too amorphous to teach or learn—certainly to assess.  IEE’s research-based tools distill theory and research into replicable guides for thinking and behavior.  Consider, for example, our Win-Win Negotiation Tool, which provides a guide for effective negotiation—a complex and critically important skill.

  
  

  Our work has been focused on developing a battery of Tools within each of our Excellence & Ethics Focus Areas.

  

  In essence, Excellence & Ethics tools, like the Win-Win Negotiation Tool, define standards and expectations. These “tools” represent what Mary Gentile would call “scripts” that guide implementation, thereby ensuring a more efficient and consistent standard of output. Clear and concise (i.e., simple, concrete, memorable, action-oriented) tools become models to guide behavior across the organization. Consistent and pervasive use of the tools over time leads to individual and organizational habits.

  The support for and value of our work has increased in school, sport, and workplace settings as we have begun to develop both conscience (a belief that I ought to) and competence (a belief that I am able to).

  Note: This blog excerpted and adapted from a paper delivered at the Baum Symposium on Ethics at Drake University, October 3, 2012.

  

   

  Reply Click here to cancel reply.

  Name (required)

  Email (required)

  Web Site

   
• 

  Care-frontation: Making Peace with Conflict

  Matt Davidson posted in Character Blog, Character For & From Sports, Excellence & Ethics in Business, Intentional Family Culture at 9:52 am on September 21, 2012 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  

  Conflict is inevitable for any group individuals who share space and goals.  Conflict isn’t bad or good necessarily, it simply is.  Conflict is a byproduct of human relationships and human performance.  Put any group of individuals together in community; allow for personality and ability differences; factor in limited time, money, energy; account for the toll exacted by the day-to-day grind; and you’ve got a cauldron for conflict. Should you aspire to lofty individual and collective goals, you will have added a conflict catalyst to the conflict cauldron.

   Show me individuals thriving in any role—parents, spouses, siblings, teachers, workplace leaders, coaches, teammates; priest or rabbi, politician or physician—any individual, thriving to any degree in any role or setting and you will see individuals who manage conflict well. Where individuals and organizations are surviving, not thriving, where there is inconsistency in the quality of human interactions and performance, poor conflict management is likely part of the equation.

  You have humans, you share space, you have some task to perform: you have conflict.  Thus, managing conflict is an essential element of a positive and productive culture of excellence. Too often, however, our approach to conflict is focused on avoidance and dismissal—avoid conflict at all costs, and if you can’t make it go away.  We often speak and operate in terms of conflict resolution, rather than conflict management. In the former, we seek to resolve it, or make it go away. In the ladder we accept it and manage the type and nature and net costs of this inevitable byproduct of human interaction.

   Even in contexts where the goal is enjoyment and the relationships are familiar (i.e., friends or family gathering for food and fellowship), conflict doesn’t disappear. However, in contexts where our goals are challenging and our relationships are contingent, even utilitarian in nature (i.e., individuals with particular skills hired to help us thrive as an organization), then the nature, frequency, and intensity of conflicts are likely to increase. An intentional culture of excellence must proactively establish and develop the habits needed to efficiently and effectively navigate conflict—or suffer the real costs to the individuals and the organization.

  In his book, Caring Enough to Confront, David Augsburger argues that when we see confrontation as rooted in caring, when we understand it as “care-frontation”, then we can begin to experience conflict as “natural, normal, neutral, and sometimes even delightful.”  How could conflict ever be delightful?  When it removes for the confronter the acute pain and recurring aggravation, along with the deep wounds and heavy burden that festers and grow when suppressed. Or, when it removes for the confronted the tangible tension and persistent awkwardness and provides them with something new insights into how to better exist and work with another.

   Augsburger argues that “care-fronting unites love and power…concern for relationships with concern for goals.”  Love and power, relationships and goals:  I want the best for you, therefore I expect the best from you. I challenge you because I love you. I challenge you to make you the best you.

   When confrontation is re-framed as care-frontation it goes from something to be avoided—a win-lose, angry and argumentative, attack the person not problem reality—to something healthy and productive and worthy of the energy required. Confrontation becomes care-frontation when we speak the truth in love, expressing our deepest beliefs and needs while still respecting the deepest beliefs and needs of the other(s), holding self and other accountable out of mutual respect and for our mutual benefit.

   Here are some simple—though not necessarily easy—steps to transform confrontation into care-frontation:

  1. Attack the problem not the person. The goal isn’t to be right; the goal is to get it right.
  2. When in doubt, do it. Conflicts delayed and deferred make little things into big things.
  3. Use I-statements that honestly and respectfully express your thoughts and feelings, are solution-centered and clarify the goal or expectation (e.g., I think ___because…I feel ___ because…I intend to ___ because…).
  4. Avoid You-statements that blame, insult, attack the personality and/or character of others. You-statements divide, distract, and disrespect. They sound like “You never, you always, you should have, you won’t, you don’t.”
  5. Seek win-win solutions by clearly expressing your needs (I want), their needs (you want), and working together to find creative solutions that satisfy both (we could).
  6. Accept that mistakes and missteps will happen; be ready to apologize, make up for, and move on from mistakes—they too are inevitable byproducts of human relationships and goal attainment.

  Conflict is neither bad nor good;  it simply is. Conflict simply is an essential part of goal achievement and human interaction. Turn confrontation into care-frontation and you’ll begin to more fully realize your human potential and performance goals.

  

   
• 

  Lighting the Fire

  Kyle Baker posted in Character Blog, Excellence & Ethics in Business, Power2Achieve Community at 5:16 pm on February 8, 2012 | 1 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: mission, passion, purpose

  __

  Posted by Kyle Baker, Program Coordinator at the Institute for Excellence & Ethics.

  You can follow his daily adventures here.

  ___

  Last week, I was sitting in one of my favorite Syracuse haunts, Recess Coffee House, when a group of four nestled into the plush chairs across the room.  It quickly became apparent that the group was comprised of three freshman college students and a “mentor.”   By the content of their conversation (so maybe sometimes I can actually hear through my earbuds…so?) and the body language of the students, it appeared that they were assigned to meet with this mentor through some type of academic support program (in other words, they didn’t seem too thrilled to be there).

  After some brief small-talk, the mentor quickly moved to what must have been the topic for the day’s discussion by posing the following question to the group:

  “So, where do you see yourself heading after you graduate from college?”

  Needless to say, he didn’t gather much of a response from such a bold prompt.

  As I sat there responding to emails and checking calendar dates, I had to laugh.  Only minutes before I had been with Matt Davidson discussing a similar question: “What will our work at IEE look like in 2012?”

  In everything from grandiose life ambitions to more typical daily decisions, it can often feel as if we’re constantly seeking clarity of direction and purpose.  This certainly is true for me; I’ve often joked that I stick to water, coffee, and espresso because a decision like what kind of Gatorade to purchase can cause my knees to buckle…(anyone who’s ever made a road trip with me can attest that the process isn’t pretty).

  But developing our sense of passion, purpose, and mission is much more important than deciding on a drink flavor.  In fact, an emerging collection of cross-disciplinary research is teaching us that having a clear sense of what drives you as an individual and/or organization is essential for health, happiness, productivity, and social change. (See the January/February issue of the always excellent Harvard Business Review for an insightful analysis of current research in this area).

  Recently I was blessed with the opportunity to lead a retreat for college students where we focused on a line that St. Ignatius of Loyola, a prolific thinker and writer, often included at the bottom of the letters he would pen to his friends and colleagues around the world:

  “Go forth, and set the world on fire.”

  The question that stems from this line is a big one:  “How do I do that?”

  The answer waits for us in reflection on what helps us light the unique fire within each of us, or as Howard Thurman put it, “what makes us come fully alive.”  This reflection includes thinking about our dreams, openly and honestly identifying what can help us achieve them as well as what may prevent us from doing so, and learning to articulate who we are and who we want to become.

  Following the retreat (you can view the slides that were used during the retreat here) I received feedback from students indicating that for many of them the retreat represented the first time they’ve reflected deeply upon these themes.

  Perhaps just as interesting (and deeply moving) were the emails I received from those that were on the retreat in supporting roles along different points in their journey:  A person preparing to retire later in the month from a job that by his own accord had “defined his identity” for several decades; a person who shared that he was “at the theoretical midpoint of life this year” and beginning to reflect upon “what my epitaph will say (which is the sentence carved in stone),” and a person just beginning her career who summarized the experience by saying “the issue of where is my life headed is a BIG anxiety button for this generation of so many options and possibilities.”

  These are big questions whose answers are constantly evolving, but even though they can be scary and complex, working to discover our passion, purpose, and mission through exercises such as the Blueprint for Life, the Character SWOT Analysis (both featured in Power2Achieve Unit 8.1), and writing (then living) “Your Sentence,” (presented in Daniel Pink’s bestseller Drive and featured in Power2Achieve Unit 5.1) is essential, as is creating opportunities for our students and members of our organizations to do so. (As you’ll see in the retreat slides, these served as the pillar exercises for our retreat…and the sentences the participants came up with filled me with a great sense of hope for our future.)

   

  So “Go forth, and set the world on fire”…but before you set out to do so, be sure to spend some time thinking about what lights your own fire.

   

  

   
• 

  Corporate Creativity & Innovation

  Eric Martin posted in Character Blog, Excellence & Ethics in Business at 7:47 am on November 17, 2011 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  

  Eric Martin is the Director of Outreach at Character Counts In Iowa (CCII), a non-profit institute housed at Drake University in Des Moines, IA.  CCII proudly partners with IEE to serve as Iowa’s Excellence & Ethics Regional Center.

  Over the past year, we’ve had the opportunity to partner with Hy-Vee a large retail and grocery store chain that is based in Iowa and spans across eight states in Midwest with more than 220 stores. Much of our professional development work with numerous leadership teams within the company have focused on enhancing the corporation’s strong core fundamentals; Helpful, Friendly, Honest, Respectful and Dedication.

  These fundamental values are a rich tradition and key to the success of this rapidly growing company.  Through our work, we’ve aligned their company’s fundamentals within the moral and performance character framework.  This alignment has provided us with a new lens to view these core fundamentals. Together, we are taking an in depth look at how these look, feel and sound in action among employees, vendors and customers.

  In addition to the continued promotion of the fundamental beliefs, the President of Hy-Vee recently encouraged his store directors to support and inspire creativity across the company.

  In response to the President’s interest in promoting creativity and innovation, we’ve partnered with their education and training department to develop a course for their executive leadership program called Hy-Vee University. This training program provides extensive learning and developmental opportunities for future store leaders. The course that we have designed is built around the following Culture of Excellence & Ethics Tools that engages creativity, innovation, critical thinking and problem solving:

  • Creative Solutions System
  • Group Brainstorming Guidelines
  • Innovation Stimulators (SCAMPER Technique)
  • Innovation Map

  Participants were given an assignment to take these research-based tools back to their stores and use them to support and encourage creative thinking.  Our training team is eager to meet again with this cohort in February to learn how they used these tools with their employees.

  We are looking forward to the continued use of these and other Culture of Excellence & Ethics Tools to meet the needs of our corporate clients across Iowa.

  

  Hy-Vee University - Culture of Excellence & Ethics Innovation Map

   

   

   

  

   
• 

  The case FOR competition

  Matt Davidson posted in Character Blog, Character For & From Sports, Excellence & Ethics in Business, Intentional Family Culture at 2:12 pm on January 13, 2011 | 2 Permalink | Reply
  

  A recent article in Ed Week’s teacher magazine argued for putting the kibosh on classroom competition, citing numerous ways that it was harmful to the classroom climate and individual psyche.  In response to that article, I’d like the make the case FOR competition—a case we originally made in the Smart & Good Report (page 19), which was informed by my previous work with David Shields and others at the Mendelson Center for Sport, Character, and Culture at the University of Notre Dame.

  I’ll only add the following the following points to what we originally wrote:

  1. Our work in schools and with sports teams since the time of the report’s publication  only reinforces our belief in the importance of competition as a valuable opportunity for building moral and performance character, for overall engagement, and enhanced achievement.  In particular we have found in our work with high school students that their engagement increases exponentially in an assignment or activity when there is an element of individual or team competition.
  2. The key to using competition to develop the culture and character of excellence and ethics is our intentionality in its use.  We must have a rationale for its use and what we hope to develop from it, and we must focus on teaching the moral and performance character NEEDED FOR competition.  If it is misunderstood, poorly designed, and left unmonitored completion can run amuck and lead to problems; but that shouldn’t surprise us, nor does it suggest that competition is the problem.

  The devil is clearly in the details when it comes to discussion and use of competition. I’m hoping that re-sharing what we wrote in S&G helps to provide some useful guidelines in the use of competition.

  —————————————————————————————————————————-

  The Case for Competition:

  5 Ways It Can Aid the Development of Performance Character & Moral Character

   At first glance, especially when there’s plenty of evidence that students cheat to get ahead academically, athletes use steroids to break records, and companies bend and break the rules to beat their competitors, the very nature of competition might seem to be antithetical to the development of performance character and moral character.  Because of the all-too-common cut-throat competition, many see competition as a necessarily war-like relationship: I win only when you lose, all means are justified, and only one thing ultimately matters—winning.  In this view of competition, all individuals—even classmates and teammates—are adversaries vying for limited external rewards (e.g., grades, playing time, promotions, championships, etc.).

  However, this notion of competition as inherently adversarial is really a corruption of competition’s root meaning.  In Latin, “com-petere” means “to strive with.”  In this original meaning, we compete with each other, not against one another.  We achieve our individual best through the challenge and support of others: I realize my personal best (which doesn’t necessarily mean I win) when your best effort pushes me to excel beyond what I would have achieved in isolation.  In this way, competition is an extension of a community that supports and challenges.

  At every level of performance competition, new levels of excellence are achieved when participants find good competitors.  Clearly, in any competition, we are striving against our personal limitations and against the marks set by other competitors. However, the goal should not be simply to win, but to pursue excellence. If schools want to foster, across all areas of school life, a culture of positive competition that promotes the pursuit of excellence and avoids the dangers of destructive competition, they must establish supportive institutional structures (and eliminate negative ones) and work to cultivate in students a positive perspective on competition.  What follows are 5 ways for young people to understand competition as having great potential to support their development of performance character and moral character:

  (1) Competition gives me unique opportunities to develop my performance character and moral character.

   (2) Being a good competitor requires that    I develop the self-understanding and skills for managing the powerful emotions and potential pitfalls of competition (e.g., stress, frustration, resentment of others, anger at perceived unfairness).

   (3) Competition is a partnership, a form of cooperation between competitors where I show respect and care for the other by agreeing to play fairly and give my personal best so as to bring out the best in others.

   (4) Seeking out good competition is a chance for me to realize a level of excellence I would not achieve in isolation; winning and losing are less important than whether I give my best effort and learn or master something that contributes to my pursuit of excellence.

   (5) The outcomes of any given competition can serve as a benchmark in my quest for excellence; engaging in post-competition reflection allows me to analyze what worked well, what improvements are necessary, and what next steps should be taken.

  

   
• 

  Start with a small change...

  Kyle Baker posted in Character Blog, Excellence & Ethics in Business, Power2Achieve Community at 4:39 pm on November 10, 2010 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: ntcamp

  Check out my new post as guest blogger for New Teacher Camp , “Stick to Just 1″.  The group at New Teacher Camp is doing some really cool things, including hosting several “unconferences” each year, one of which is this February in Burlington, Mass. which I’m tentatively planning to attend!

  Maybe I’ll see you there!

  http://www.ntcamp.org/2010/stick-to-just-1/

  

   
• 

  100% of whatever you've got—Developing the performance character to outperform your resources

  Matt Davidson posted in Character Blog, Character For & From Sports, Excellence & Ethics in Business at 10:43 am on September 3, 2010 | 1 Permalink | Reply
  

  I went for a run the other day late on a hot afternoon after returning from several days away working with schools.  I knew it wouldn’t be an easy run for me, but I knew that I needed the run to get my head clear and so that I’d be ready to go the next day.  While out for the run my mind was running much faster than my legs: most of my thoughts were basically mental whining on my part about how tired I was, how hot it was, and how old was, and about why in heck I ate those chips at lunch, etc., etc., Amid the sweat and tears (starting to make a pretty pathetic run seem glorious, aren’t I?) I recovered an idea about our notion of performance character that was relevant on that run, and I think relevant to those we teach and coach:  performance character isn’t simply about giving 100% all the time, because when it comes to giving our best effort in pursuit of excellence, we’re often drawing upon energy for excellence reserves that are much less than 100%. 

  We define performance character as the “character needed for excellence in any area of endeavor”.  We’re talking about putting values in action such as grit, perseverance, work ethic, positive attitude.  These “willing values” are what we need on a day and in a moment like I described above when you must do what you don’t want to do when you don’t want to do it. Performance is the outcome–the grade, the test score, the final scoreboard. It’s important, but doesn’t tell us if you have “performance character” those qualities needed to maximize your potential for excellence.  (You can win by 40 and not ever draw upon your performance character, right?).

  We first “rediscovered” the idea of performance character (rediscover since the character connection to excellence certainly preexisted our work, the field of character education was just predominantly focused on moral character) in our work with sports and character.  Coaches talked a lot about the character needed for success in sport, the character that enabled a team or individual to “outperform their resources.”   The idea of performance character has proven a sticky one that resonates deeply with those in all walks of life.  It’s easy to see the importance of performance character; it obvious that our work as teachers and coaches is next to impossible if those we are working with will not continue giving effort, persevering through difficulty, or striving to maximize their potential for excellence.

  The more I work on the development of performance character with teachers and coaches and with myself, the more convinced I am that the test of performance character is precisely when we don’t have 100% to give.  I’ve done plenty of runs when I was well rested, had good nutrition, when it was perfect temperature outside (although in my current sleep-deprived, hectic life, here in Upstate New York, I don’t see many those perfect days!). Heck it’s easy to give it your all on those days. That’s the point: performance character isn’t a sometimes ideal that we go after as if we’re trying to plan the perfect moment to summit a mountain.  It’s an all the time struggle to do the best we can given the circumstances and what we’ve got to offer.

  Developing performance character means that we find really good Public Performance opportunities to work out our performance character muscles (this can be that last lap when you’re tired and you just want to go home; or it can be one more draft on a paragraph that you’ve revised 25 times, but still isn’t clicking).  I wouldn’t have likely worked out my performance character muscles if I hadn’t been out running—putting my weakness and humanity on display for all to see.  Sport gives us plenty of Public Performance/Presentation, which is good. But the glorious moments of “the game” often require less performance character than the inglorious moments of practice.   Bottom line: we need opportunities for Public Performance/Presentation to draw out our inner reserves.

  Developing performance character requires utilizing Self-Study to monitor how we react or respond when “we’re in the red.” What do you do when you’re tired, frustrated, hurting and think you can’t do it anymore?  Do you simply quit. Do you lash out at others? Do you beat yourself up? Can you find little ways to keep yourself moving forward through the pain to your goal?   It’s a scary feeling to get in that uncomfortable spot in your mind when you just want out; if you can stay there, study it and maybe understand it; you’ll discover a limitless power source.

  Developing performance character also requires use of good Other-Study examples, and here the obvious ones aren’t always the best.  I love Hoosiers and much as the next guy, but that’s a pretty view of performance character, when in reality it’s much, much, more gritty.  Use Other-Studies that draw out the gritty, difficult, but absolutely essential elements of giving 100% in a moment where all you’ve got to draw upon is 75, or 50, or 25% of your normal reserves.   Everybody loves the “pull it out at the end against all odds in front of the sold out stadium story.”  We have to draw more attention and teach from the “pull it out on a Tuesday afternoon when you’re tired and distracted by other things and you still stuck with it even though nobody would know if you didn’t story.”   (And if we want to connect to the real world, we should study the performance character needed by the worker who gets up every day at 5AM and does their work well day after day after day; or, study the performance character needed to be a single parent juggling life at home and work. Which is often nothing like the glory of sport whatsoever, but very much like the inglorious preparation required for sport).

  Finally, developing performance character requires Support & Challenge.  Don’t simplify performance character to a “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” hero complex.  I’m sure that if I’d had a running partner out there with me on my run, I would have been able to get out of my own self-pity and pulled it out. I would have drawn energy from their example and gotten more out of myself simply by keeping up with them.  Performance character isn’t just about personal reserves; it’s about surrounding yourself with others who know how to support and challenge you to get the most out of what you have to offer on any given day, in any given circumstances.  In fact, the “so what” of this story may well be that the way to routinely outperform your available resources is seeking out the Support & Challenge of good coaches and teammates capable of helping get more out of yourself than you believed you have.

  Performance character: the character needed to outperform our resources. Is it in you and your team?