How Ethics is Like Fitness
How do you constantly keep ethics at the forefront of conversation within a corporation? I really believe ethics is like a fitness routine. Many of you know, that I am committed to a daily workout regimen. I mix it up every day. I am an avid runner and cyclist, uh, as well as lots of other things. So I do bar classes and yoga classes and orange theory, and I have a Peloton and, and I try to get in the pool. I recently have taken up water jogging cause I’m a little injured. So running outside is become a problem, I’ve been running too much during the COVID quarantine. I believe ethics is like a fitness routine. So when you’re working out, you are hopefully constantly growing and recalibrating and recognizing that if you don’t continue to mix it up or add something new to your workout routine, then you’re going to plateau, right?
And when you plateau, your body begins to normalize and you’re not getting as much benefit from the exercise. You know, of course there’s the emotional and psychological and mental. Like for me, I get such a high, it’s a mood relaxer for me. I get the endorphin high and the adrenaline rush. Uh, and of course you’ve got the physical benefit, but the physical benefits, sometimes plateaus, you’re not getting the same benefit if you keep doing the same thing over and over. So if you just run every day for an hour and that’s all you do then after, you know, for a little bit of period of time, yes, your body will show some sort of result. Maybe you lose weight, maybe, you know, you’ll tone down a bit, but then after awhile it’ll talk toe and you won’t be seeing as much results. And then that gets frustrating.
Well, ethics is one of the same things? So in fitness, if that were to happen, you’re going to grow. You’re going to change. You’re going to modify in ethics if you just have the conversation once a year or once a month, because you’re just checking the box and you’re satisfying the department of justice guidelines or requirements by any sort of regulatory agency. It’s not an ongoing conversation, then there’s a flat consequences. There’s a flat result that comes out of that training rather than if you create the safe space to have these courageous conversations around ethics and around compliance and around accountability and ownership and vulnerability and you recalibrate. So something happens and, and situations change, or there’s a new competition, or there’s some, some new pressure that gets inputted or introduced into the workspace or into your company.
The idea of ethics is constantly being thought about at, at your core. For me, ethics is at my core because of everything I’ve gone through. It’s not always the case for everybody else.
In conclusion, until ethics becomes a constant growing opportunity for people to talk about, you’re going to be having a stagnant plateau just like in fitness. So treat ethics like a fitness routine, keep it going, make a daily commitment to it, commit to recalibrating and growing as things develop, as you change, as different pressures are introduced into the mix. And now there has to be a new conversation and maybe a different approach that gets introduced, or maybe you bring somebody else in to do some training, whatever it is commit to making it’s like a fitness routine.
Rashmi Airan‘s mission is to help organizations create cultures focused on integrity, authenticity, and accountability by connecting these efforts to human performance, behavioral ethics and emotional intelligence. Rashmi is a keynote speaker and consultant specializing in organizational culture, reputational risk, and human performance. Contact Rashmi to see how she can help your organization.