Masonry Magazine April 2002 Page. 30
Nationwide Parts
BRACING SYSTEMS INC.
CONTRACTORS EQUIPMENT
Authorized Lull Parts Distributor. Wide Selection of Hard-to-Find Parts at Competitive Prices! UPS & Fed Ex for Quick Delivery!
BRACING SYSTEMS, INC. 888-259-4740. Ask for Dane or Jim - Parts Dept. or Fax Orders 630.665.4034
YOUR #1 SOURCE FOR SOLID SAWN DI-65 SCAFFOLD PLANK. ONE CALL GETS IT ALL! * OSHA Stamped * Durable & Strong * Rodded-Clipped-Branded * Standard & Special Sizes * Available Nationwide * Pocketbook Friendly
KENFOR 1-800-256-7197 PH: 337-625-8141 FX: 337-625-5275 RIC FONTENOT & BOB EDENS Ext-16 Ext-21
Choosing To Be Big With Our Decisions
When integrity moments are resolved with decisions that support and enhance integrity, even when made in the face of painful consequences, they boost our sense of self-worth and self-esteem. In other words, they result in feeling big about ourselves and our decisions. Conversely, when integrity moments are resolved in a way that is inconsistent with our core values and principles, we often are left feeling small.
Alice, in Lewis Carroll's Wonderland, has much to teach us about size control. Remember how Alice finds herself curiously too big to go through a door and then alarmingly too small to reach the all-important key to unlock it? Miraculously, a potion with a labeled invitation to "drink me" and a delicious piece of cake change her circumstances.
Yet being big or small for Alice does not follow a consistent pattern. The drink does not always make her small, nor does the cake consistently increase her size. Peculiarly, even a fan could be responsible for her rapid shrinking.
Eventually, Alice finds a way to control her size and make it just right for the situation she faces. A caterpillar advises her about eating from the right or left side of a particularly round mushroom to regulate her height. And clever Alice discovers which side is which. From that point on in her adventures, Alice can be whatever size makes sense in the moment.
What does Alice's story have to do with integrity moments? Quite wonderfully, a lot.
Each of us is full of two very different kinds of stories from our lives: moments when we are big by acting consistently with our basic values and principles - and those when we are small by acting inconsistently with our basic values and principles. In a Wonderland way, what separates the two experiences is your sense of how big or small you feel in the moment. Happily, Alice helps to teach us that with some effort we can learn to manage our size.
Although you may not always recognize this quality in the moment, being big or being small is really a choice you make. Your decisions provide a key difference between resolving integrity moments into consistent experiences versus resolving them as inconsistent experiences.
Perhaps these choices seem straightforward or simple. After all, who would not choose to have only consistent experiences? The fact is, real-life situations are very complex, often involving competing values and principles. We all have both consistent and inconsistent experiences almost every day. Like Alice, you and I have moments of both being big and moments of being small.
Bill, the association executive, often feels big at work. His repeated successes through the years have earned him good promotions and raises. When it comes to his relationship with his boss, Elizabeth, he has a tendency to back down or not share his ideas.
She says she's open to input, but given how furiously busy she is and with her attention on the board and external relations, Elizabeth often dictates decisions. As much as he wants to be big, Bill feels small in this relationship and is embarrassed by his reaction to her.
Qualities of Good Decision Making
Having integrity in our day-to-day decisions is affected by at least two major factors: authenticity and ethics. Decisions involving integrity invite a negotiation of these two factors. Authenticity is what makes you uniquely you and me
30 MASONRY APRIL, 2002