Bird Droppings November 6, 2011
Integrity is it only a word

“Real integrity is doing the right thing, knowing that nobody’s going to know whether you did it or not.” Oprah Winfrey

I am sure there are many things and events we will never hear about that Oprah has done and or been involved with. I saw news broadcast when she gave away cars, 250 or so to her audience was an advertising experiment for Pontiac. As I look at the venues she chooses to do her deeds within I am impressed. Every so often I will hear a story from Pennsylvania about how my father had done this or that for someone else’s dad or mom and every once in a while I will hear a story as my brother comes home from South Africa where a miner or mine manager will tell him what my dad did for them twenty years ago, often the stories were never really meant to be told and or for anyone else to hear about but that person for whom they were done.
Integrity is such a powerful word, one that politicians try and promote so tirelessly. I received an ad through email about how this such and such politician has integrity; I believe this person was running for Sheriff of our county. You do not buy integrity through ads or through doing good deeds as the cameras roll. Back many months ago for whatever reason at my mother’s, my youngest son and I move a cabinet for her, she wanted to bring her piano in her room where she could play more often. On top of the cabinet were a group of pins, badges and tiny trinkets. She asked if we would like any as we left, one was gold A charm. It turns out it was given to my father in college he graduated 1952 from Albright College. My youngest son now has that A. Another was a very special pin, was my grandfathers, he was an engineer on a coal train nearly 80 years ago and this was his railroad pin. My wife put it in safe keeping for my oldest son my grandfathers namesake. Integrity we cannot buy it and or trade it.

“Integrity is what we do, what we say, and what we say we do.” Don Galer

“Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind.” Ralph Waldo Emerson

Looking at trying to define integrity might be easiest by saying it is the totality of who we are, not what we simply say we are. It is the daily undertakings and events that transpire from our footsteps to our handprints through the day.

“If you believe in unlimited quality and act in all your business dealings with total integrity, the rest will take care of itself.” Frank Perdue

I remember the first time I saw a Perdue ad for yellow chickens, no actor just Frank Perdue and a chicken, a pretty simple concept. As it goes Perdue has become one of the leading marketers of chicken and higher dollar poultry in the nation through the marketing of their integrity. I have never questioned Perdue chicken.
In Georgia we have another yellow ad campaign, Yellow Wood, which is pressure treated timber and the campaign basically started with integrity and went from there. They put their money where their mouth is and cute ads with everything yellow.

“Losers make promises they often break. Winners make commitments they always keep.” Denis Waitley

Dennis Waitley is a leader in the area of performance management and the author of fifteen books on production and management.

“The power brokers in the new global arena will be the knowledge facilitators. Ignorance will be even more the tyrant and enslaver than in the past. As you look in the mirror to see the 21st Century you, there will also be another image standing beside you. It is your competition. Your competition, from now on, will be a hungry immigrant with a wireless, hand-held, digital assistant. When you are Hungry for food, hungry for a home, for a new car, for security, for a college education, Hungry for knowledge, Smart, quick thinking, skilled and willing to do anything necessary to be competitive in the world marketplace, Working long hours and Saturdays, staying open later, serving customers better and more cheerfully. To be a player in the 21st Century you have to be willing to give more in service than you receive in payment.” Denis Waitley

As I read this paragraph and thought about today and our educational systems. We are not simply preparing students to leave school but to compete in this world that is what we should be doing. The last line very much emulates Phillip J. Crosby the great guru of Quality, “you have to be willing to give more in service than you receive in payment”. Crosby defined the word as, “Quality is exceeding the expectations of the customer”. Integrity is providing to those around you more than they expect and expecting nothing in return.

“The Lord doesn’t ask about your ability, only your availability; and, if you prove your dependability, the Lord will increase your capability.” Source unknown

“Integrity: A name is the blueprint of the thing we call character. You ask, what’s in a name? I answer, just about everything you do.” Morris Mandel

I have perhaps started a bad habit of TV watching it seems my wife; myself and our oldest son when he is home will watch several back to back episodes of NCIS on one of the cable channels. It seems integrity is a powerful word in the black ops type world of NCIS. One of the agents in one of the shows has to choose between her brother and her boss and shoots her brother a terrorist assassin. All of her training was to this point in life but the honesty and integrity of her boss Agent Gibbs stood in the way of what was intended. Please keep all in harm’s way in your hearts and on your minds.
namaste
bird