Every clan has its rituals and code of behavior. This is true of organizations big and small, from a girls softball team to a Rotary Club to any organized religion, and is just as characteristic of unconventional enterprises as it is of mainstream ones. The penalties for violating a code of behavior can be extreme – think of the IRA and “kneecapping,” where informants would have their knee caps shot off. The prospect of a lifetime of disability and pain is a strong incentive not to talk to the authorities.
values
Patience is a Virtue
values, international development, organizational mgmtComment“Patience is a virtue,” my mother frequently remonstrated her small children, the five of us no doubt insisting that we needed something right now – a new bicycle, clothes, a snack or to be driven over to visit a friend.
As a kid, I always wondered what she meant. We all knew that patience was on the list of officially-sanctioned virtues, what was the point of reminding us? I thought she was saying, “Patience is a good thing.”
It wasn’t until I was a teenager that it suddenly struck me; what she really meant was, “patience is one of the virtues that you should cultivate in yourself.” And not for the first or last time, I wondered if I was perhaps an exceptionally slow learner.
Values, Virtues and Vampire Squids
east meets west, international development, organizational mgmt, philanthropy, valuesCommentValues are everywhere these days, dripping off the pages of corporate annual reports and the subject of earnest discussions in non-profit strategic planning sessions. The World Bank, for example, advertises their core values as “personal honesty and integrity, working together in teams, empowering and respecting others, and enjoying work and family.” Who could find fault with that? These are laudable values, and if it is true that every single person in the organization around the world holds these values dear, then the World Bank must be a great place to work.