Author: Shaun Coffey

Shaun Coffey is interested in future making and institutional building. He is an agricultural scientist who tries to integrate fragmented and sector-specific technical and scientific knowledge to address the wicked problems that characterise the real world.
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The imperative of being ethical

The world is challenged today by the unethical behaviours of leaders. But is it just at the top that we have problems?

Organisations (governments, businesses, sport and community groups, any type of organisation) can create an environment conducive to ethical behaviour.  It all comes down to how people – both inside and outside – perceive the way they are being treated by the organisation and its leaders, and the extent to which they can influence what happens.

Three factors come into consideration.

  •  Purpose:  use values, hopes, and a clear purpose statement to determine what is acceptable and unacceptable (fair, reasonable, responsible) behaviour.
  • Preparedness (Professional):  by knowing as much as we can about our job/role/reponsibility and striving to perform effectively we develop an identity with the purpose and pride ourselves and of our organisation.  Knowing what is at risk can help you resist temptations to behave unethically. Making certain that you are informed and as knowledgeable as you can be.
  •  Perspective: be reflective in our practice. Make time to pause and reflect, make yourself aware of what is going on around you. See the big picture and all the impacts. Respond and adjust, using purpose as your reference point. Be aware of how you and what you do and say impacts on others.

There is a lot to unpack in the following quote from Ludwig DC and Longenecker CO (1993)  The Bathsheba syndrome: the ethical failure of successful leaders. Journal of Business Ethics 12(4):265-273

Ethical leadership is simply part of good leadership and requires focus, the appropriate use of resources, trust, effective decision making, and provision of model behaviour that is worth following.  Once it is lost it is difficult if not impossible to regain.

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Reflection in Action: Reflection on Action. What is it that we do when we do what we do?

What is it that we do when we do what we do?

Donald Schon introduced many of us to the power of reflection in The Reflective Practitioner: How Professionals Think in Action. He drew on earlier work by John Dewey to demonstrate how you could draw insights from experience through reflective practice. What is it? Why is it useful?

Schon defines reflective practice as the practice by which professionals become aware of their implicit knowledge base and learn from their experience. He uses three terms:

  • knowing in action
  • reflection in action
  • reflection on action
Continue reading “Reflection in Action: Reflection on Action. What is it that we do when we do what we do?”
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Places of Realised Potential

People with a commitment to potential see potential not merely as self-fulfillment but as expressing stewardship and servanthood. Is where you work a place where potential can be realised? 


A place of realised potential:

  • Opens itself to change, to contrary opinion, to the mystery of potential, to involvement, to unsettling ideas.
  • Offers people the opportunity to learn and grow.
  • Offers the gift of challenging work. 
  •  Sheds its obsolete baggage.
  •  Encourages people to decide what needs to be measured and then helps them to do the work.
  • Heals people with trust and with caring and with forgiveness.
  • Is a social environment – people in places of realised potential know that organisations are social environments.
  •  Celebrates.

Source : Max De Pree (1997)  Leading without power. Finding hope in serving community.  Jossey-Bass  ISBN-13: 978-0787910631

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You “never arrive”; you spend your life mastering disciplines

“To practice a discipline is to be a lifelong learner.  You “never arrive”; you spend your life mastering disciplines. You can never say, “we are a learning organisation,” any more than you can say “I am an enlightened person.”  The more you learn, the more acutely aware you become of your ignorance.  Thus, a corporation cannot be “excellent” in the sense of having arrived at a permanent excellence; it is always in the state of practicing the disciplines of learning, of becoming better or worse.”  Peter Senge 1990 The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization Doubleday Business. p.11