From the Observation Deck

Stick a needle in my eye. I swear, he swears, we all swear for ice cream. Okay, wrong jingle. Taking oaths and making promises—not the eye sticking one of course, but the concept—goes back to the days of Abraham. So it’s not exactly new. Having said that, I thought it was interesting that we may be seeing a bit of an ethical revival of sorts in our business community. (About time lads.)

I was just reading this article from BNET that stated that almost a third of this year’s MBA graduates of Harvard Business School signed what they are calling an MBA oath. It’s an oath about working for the greater good and realizing that our actions have consequences that affect others. Wow. That’s impressive for a bunch of really smart business executives about to take on the world.

I remember taking an ethics course in business school and was astonished by what a couple of the other students thought was perfectly ethical behavior. And after the Enron scandal I remember talking to my Dad about how ethics courses should be mandatory for all business school students. Well I applaud the Harvard MBAs any other business executive out there who has taken the oath. Maybe if these values were taken seriously a decade or two ago, we wouldn’t be in so much trouble today. Maybe.

This oath is a good start but as Mary Poppins said, “No Pie Crust Promises. Easily Made, Easily Broken.” We must take the high road people. Swear not by the moon, the inconstant moon. I really could go on and on with clichés and other fun stuff said and written by others. Seriously, so many smart people have made comments about promises and acting morally. Right now I’m doing what Mark Twain once said. “To act morally is noble, but to talk about acting morally is also noble and a lot less trouble.” So on that note, I promise, pinky swear, cross my heart and hope to die, that I will really try not to steal old ladies’ pensions, run any scams, or basically behave like a wall street banker—I mean con artist. And that last comment bears no reflection whatsoever on my good buddy Fast Ed who is a financial whiz in New York and who, like me, is an ethical, MBA grad looking to earn an honest day’s wage.

And before I go I just have to say that I’m glad I got to insert a Mary Poppins reference into this blog. It brings me back to a fond memory of writing Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious in really big letters in the sand at the beach. I think I’ll go do that tomorrow. After I take the oath and search for a job of course.

When I worked for the Cleveland Lumberjacks Hockey Team (not to be confused with Monty Python’s Lumberjacks), we used to play this song called “Why can’t we be friends” whenever a fight broke out on the ice. I thought about that the other day during my last ride down to the beach. Both cats and the dog came on this trip. The cats hate the car but I had to take them. Grendel stood up (shaking) for the first 20 minutes afraid the cat was going to smack him. The cat was so nervous she didn’t care about him but he didn’t know that. By the end, it was almost like they were friends.

So why does it seem like it always takes traumatic situations to bring people (or pet-siblings) together? History is filled with examples of this—the American colonies in the 18^th century, the characters in Lost (live together or die alone), and many of us after a disaster hits our country (Katrina, 9/11).

I propose we reach out to each other when we don’t have to. Let’s see what that feels like. My church has started a movement (if you will) called Grace Epidemic. Its intention is to basically “pay it forward.” If you feel like you want to help someone—it can be in all sorts of ways big and small—then check it out at http://www.graceepidemic.com/.

Just as I was finishing this post I received an e-mail from a friend who is a civilian currently deployed in Qatar. He gave a wonderful description of what life was like there and mentioned that a recurring theme was the co-mingling of all kinds of people dressed in everything from bikinis to suits and burkas. All talking, socializing, going to the gym, raising their kids, and getting along. What a wonderful, colorful world we live in.