When all else fails … CharacterWorks

©2005 Colin Pearce

I reckon I’ve been waiting 36 years to start speaking and writing about character. It’s been smoking away inside me but there have been two stumbling blocks:

a) I didn’t know how to say what I wanted to say — in a way that wouldn’t get me tarred and feathered and run out of town on a pole.

b) No one wanted to listen.

Then, a couple of years ago, both obstacles disappeared overnight.

From the Prime Minister to football code executives and talk-back radio hosts, people of all walks of life started bemoaning the fact that society had lost its grip on values, ethics and character. They were all saying, "Why doesn’t someone do something?"

I had written a little book called The Fox-Proof Chook House in 2003 which gave me a good excuse to speak about character without upsetting too many people. Then during a study tour of the US I happened to visit the notorious Oklahoma City Jail where the warden was working miracles after establishing a culture of character. The place was like a YMCA camp with locks and if I needed proof that emphasising character really works, that was it.

I came home and spent 2004 defining what Australians and New Zealanders regarded as important in our own culture. I came up with a systematic Australian approach called Character Works.

People are fed up with gimmicks
Ask your employees what they want to hear at your next staff meeting or conference and they’ll shout,
‘ No more sales gimmicks’
‘ No more customer loyalty programs’
‘ No more time management’
‘ No more paradigm shifts’
‘ Shove your key performance indicators’
‘ Stop trying to manipulate us.’
‘ Do something for us. Care about us, our families, our relationships, our hopes, dreams
and aspirations.’
‘ Talk about real things, about life itself and its basic values; how to get our kids to listen, our teenagers to stay safe and our marriages to be happy. We need to be encouraged that real morality and standards of behaviour still exist – AND that you want these qualities to show up at work.’

To see this for yourself, try this simple exercise. Grab a pen and link these ‘good’ traits to their character sources:

Now trace these ‘bad’ traits to their lack-of-character sources

You probably noticed some of the behaviours have several character qualities – or lack of them -- at their roots.

Once you have this knowledge, don’t be trendy with it.

A lot of people latch on to half the story and do themselves a disservice. They’ve heard a bit about corporate values and decide they should work theirs out. They spend a few months nutting out what their people value: (say) attitude, team work and follow-through.

They put posters on the wall, sit back and wait for the magic.

It doesn’t work like that. Masterpieces take time, not wall posters and lip service.

Posters are a nice start, but only about a poofteenth of a percent of what needs to be done. None of the ‘values’ are actually character traits. They are the results of character traits being applied on a daily basis.

Commit to a daily approach

Take the stated value, ‘Teamwork’ for example. Teamwork comes from a group of people exercising a cluster of character traits including benevolence (showing good will to others) humility (deliberately modest and respectful ways), hospitality (enriching time with friends and strangers)

Not to mention vision, influence, joyfulness, generosity, and commitment.

It follows that developing the traits of benevolence, humility and hospitality would foster punctuality, cooperation, minimising waste, reducing stress, building initiative and a host of other highly desired outcomes in people who had been ‘challenged’ in those regards.

Thus, to establish a culture of teamwork we need to drive and embed up to 24 character traits over a couple of years using a system of day seminars, monthly emphases and daily reinforcement.

It’s a bit like brain washing in the best sense of the word, but I prefer to call it brain ‘cleansing’.