RESPONSIBILITY

 

This is part of a six-part series that examines and explores how we might be able to use our personal and professional values the shape the future. In today’s blog we will explore RESPONSIBILITY. 

Please read this and share what are your perspectives on responsibility and how you use it to manage work, lead change and create the future.

The PMI Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct describes responsibility as follows:
 “Our duty is to take the ownership for decisions we make or fail to make, the actions we take or ail to take and the consequences that result”

https://www.pmi.org/about/ethics/code

As we move into a post-COVID-19 world, being responsible for creating our future has become more critical now than ever.

Response-ability is our ability to respond and fulfill our accountability.

Our reaction arises out of a nervous instinct. A reaction shoots automatically from our subconscious mind with  no filtering or conscious choice. The reaction may trigger unintended consequences. This is why there is no such word as reactionability, as it would be a contradiction.

Our response comes from our intuition, it is the result of a conscious choice. When we respond we tap into our wisdom, we apply a chosen discipline. The choices we make may be intuitive, and subconscious as driving or riding a bicycle, but they are measured in terms of their impact on our lives and others.

The distinction between reacting and responding becomes particularly important in a time of stress and crisis because when there is danger, we are more likely to say or do something that is going to harm ourselves or others.

Our ability to respond is a discipline. The self-determination we apply is dependent on our maturity.

This is why Disciplined Agile is the foundation of requisite agility. It is not agility for the sake of agility but a conscious response to changes that are occurring in the environment and in business.

How response-able are you?

• Have you ever challenged or reported someone who is being unethical or doing something illegal?
• Have you ever failed to follow through or fulfill a promise or commitment you have made? 
• Have you ever taken what others say or do as personal rather a reflection of who they are?
• Have you ever blamed others for how you feel?
• Have you ever cut off, shamed or belittled others to feel good about yourself?
• Have you ever broken the law or taken advantage of a situation when no one is looking?
• Have you ever shared a confidence, knowing no one will find out?

Take a minute about how you felt when others irresponsibility has affected you and your work.

When people say values cannot be measured, they have not asked these hard questions of themselves.

It is important to feel what responsibility means is in your stomach and your skin, and why it is important.

The future is wide open, waiting for us to create it. What do you want to do with it?

How are you going to use your RESPONSE-ABILITY to create the future of your family, your work and your relationship with yourself?

How are you creating a context that allows not only you but those who you live with and work with to grow towards response-ability?

There are many things that we cannot choose in life, but our most important choices of all, who we are, how we show up, what we stand for and how we create the future through our values – these choices are in our complete control.

Please share in your comments your thoughts on the importance of values, so we can all learn from each other.

How are you going to use RESPONSIBILITY to create the future through the chaos and turbulence of your new realities?