What people are willing to share with us is a gift and it enhances our ability to be clear and to make good decisions. The less willing people are to confide in us, the weaker the information we have to make good decisions.

We dealt with what “ownership accountability” looks like in action. This level of accountability: 

1. Starts with what I’m accountable for in my job, and what I’m paid for 

2. It also includes my impact on others in how I get my job done 

3. Finally, doing my job with an enterprise-wide perspective, that what I do, or what my team or area does, has some impact on the whole organization.

These are historical representations of what we, Momentum Consulting,  refer to as “Fundamentals”, which represent the bones of building performance into Cultures or guiding one's behavior. 

Most of us have a strong drive to hold on to pre-existing beliefs and convictions, which keep us anchored in the world. When your stance on controversial issues both cements your group identity and plants you in opposition to perceived enemies, changing it can exact a high personal toll.

I AM ASSOCIATING ENGAGEMENT WITH ELEVATING OURSELVES UP THE HUMAN LADDER, WHICH TAKES ENGAGING THE HEART.

So, if how we perform is driven by our behavior, and our behavior is driven by what we believe, couldn’t taking our thoughts off of “automatic pilot” have a huge impact on how effective we are? This takes a lot of sustained discipline, because it takes raising our daily awareness.

How to Have Everyday Integrity:

1. Keep your promises even if it takes extra effort.

2. Go back to a store and pay for something you forgot to pay for.

3. Never betray a friend's trust even if you get in trouble.

4. Inform the cashier he gave you too much change back.

5. Do not gossip or talking badly about someone.

6. Remain true to your spouse or partner.

7. When in a serious relationship, don't keep secrets from each other.

8. Return money that you noticed someone dropped without expecting a reward.

9. Ignore someone's advice on how to cheat on your taxes and not get caught.

10. Do not let someone else take the blame for something you did.

11. If someone gives you confidential information, never tell anyone what you know.

12. When it is obvious to you a relationship is over, don't drag it out but discuss it openly.

Burning Man operates on 10 Principles, similar to our Fundamentals that we share every week, that set the standards of behavior. Inside this behavioral code, there is enormous freedom to express yourself. There is an environment of acceptance and appreciation. People walk the street, sometimes in just their shoes and maybe a dust mask, and others barely notice. It is a mecca for expressing oneself how they always wanted and would not dare in our normal environments.

WHEN DECENCY BECOMES LESS IMPORTANT THAN IDEOLOGY…

If the power of decency is being threaded out of our Culture, what impact does that have for business thinking and strategy?

Brain science reveals a lot about how we interpret life, especially to fit our personal worldview or reality. Some of those distinctions are:

1. Conformational bias: Looking for qualities and behaviors that confirm your beliefs about someone or something while ignoring those that contradict your beliefs.

2. Halo/horns: When a positive or negative impression of someone carries over into all future interactions with that person.

3. Stereotyping: making assumptions based on appearance, or grouping people to assume they are all the same

4. Similarity effect: Having greater confidence or trust in someone because they are like us.

5. Motivational blindness: the tendency to not notice the unethical actions of others when it is against our own best interests to notice. (this is a wicked one!)

If you treat people with consciousness and a concern for your impact on them, in business or in life, you will get a higher return on your effort than if you do not!

In the world of business... profit, advancement, proving oneself, etc., can often blind us to bringing decency into the equation.  It is our intention to demonstrate such thinking is short-sighted! 

Organizations that choose to build their success on the sound principles of economics and the practices of decency can lead the way to return our society to a more collaborative and harmonious character.   

Hidden within our blind spots are our “limiting factors.” What you see in the mirror is created by your beliefs, some are self-defeating, limiting. Finding them takes dedicated work, the rewards are exponential to the work.One final lesson from the Gospels of Thomas said, “never desist, find the light.”

Our general success at running our lives on autopilot gives us the false impression that we are present and operating successfully. Truly sustaining high performance takes recognizing that the conversation steadily running through your mind, aka the “Narrator”, is not a kind of thinking.

This year, we are going to present a few of the key distinctions that leaders must model to sustain high performance.

1. Developing ownership & accountability in your organization

2. Examining how "perception = reality/default listening"

3. Increasing engagement and trust by expanding your own awareness