Going Both Ways

So I found the preceding aphorism on integrity on LinkedIn this morning. It's pretty run-of-the-mill stuff, with the bog-standard verbiage about "doing the right thing" and "it takes great courage."

But what it misses is anything about trust. If this sort of integrity is going to be anything but suicidal, it has to result in some benefit to the individual undertaking it at some point along the way. It's when people can't see how there's anything in it for them, or at least how integrity doesn't make their position worse, that they throw it out of the window.

And I think that this, in the end, is why these sorts of exhortations fail to move the needle. Integrity is about more than being trustworthy; it's also quite a bit about being trusting. Letting people know that if they follow the rules, the community will ensure that the common good is also good for them would go a long way in making the desired style of behavior more common.