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| “Justice and power must be brought together, so that whatever is just may be powerful, and whatever is powerful may be just.” Blaise Pascal (French Mathematician, Philosopher and Physicist, 1623-1662) |
Be prepared to define your most important concepts
In business, there are many words and phrases that fall into the category of “Often used, but ill defined.”
Examples of these words and phrases are:
Fair
Unfair
Top priority
Professional
Quality product
Attitude problem
Unacceptable dress
For example:
We all agree that “fairness” is a virtue; we need to treat others fairly. We must not treat others unfairly - we all agree on that.
So why does “fairness” cause so many problems? The answer is; there are many versions of “fairness”.
To you, what does it mean, in practice, to treat others fairly?
Does “fairness” mean?
Treating everyone the same?
Treating everyone according to their individual need?
Treating everyone according to their individual merit?
Treating everyone according to how you honestly feel?
Treating everyone according to company policy?
Or some combination of the above?
Or something else?
Fairness causes us problems because there is ambiguity of meaning. You should always be clear on what you mean when you use the word.
Imagine you were in a meeting and the boss said, “I want you all to do the right thing”.
Everyone would agree they should do the right thing - the boss has agreement, but not an understanding. What would happen? Everyone would implement their own notion of “the right thing”, and everyone would go running off in different directions. That is the problem with language: It is often vague.
In business, there are many words and phrases that fall into the category of “Often used, but ill defined.”
Examples of these words and phrases are:
Fair
Unfair
Top priority
Professional
Quality product
Attitude problem
Unacceptable dress
For example:
We all agree that “fairness” is a virtue; we need to treat others fairly. We must not treat others unfairly - we all agree on that.
So why does “fairness” cause so many problems? The answer is; there are many versions of “fairness”.
To you, what does it mean, in practice, to treat others fairly?
Does “fairness” mean?
Treating everyone the same?
Treating everyone according to their individual need?
Treating everyone according to their individual merit?
Treating everyone according to how you honestly feel?
Treating everyone according to company policy?
Or some combination of the above?
Or something else?
Fairness causes us problems because there is ambiguity of meaning. You should always be clear on what you mean when you use the word.
Imagine you were in a meeting and the boss said, “I want you all to do the right thing”.
Everyone would agree they should do the right thing - the boss has agreement, but not an understanding. What would happen? Everyone would implement their own notion of “the right thing”, and everyone would go running off in different directions. That is the problem with language: It is often vague.
