Professional Values

Whilst our professional values rarely change, the way in which we apply them, in different cultural contexts, will often need to change. As Heraclitus said:

“The only thing that is constant is change”

And life sure shows us that all too clearly. The industry sectors we are used to inhabiting need to change in order to meet the needs of end-users. They need to change to meet fiscal restraints and to honour changes in legislation. Industry sectors must morph in order to survive the political ebb and flow. Business must move physical location, change its behaviour in the market, develop its product or service strength, refine its identity and attend to its purpose, lest it become redundant and unprofitable.

As part of the workforce, individuals are caught up in these shift. The number of jobs will rise and fall, whole tiers of the hierarchy in an organisation may disappear. Entire departments may be shipped out for consultants to vie for. What was once a public sector service may be privatised.

These shifts certainly speed up with events such as Brexit on the horizon. What we need to do in order to ride with these waves of change, is to take care of ourselves during these transitions. We can do this by working to ensure we reconcile our own ethical dilemmas. By ensuring we honour our professional values, we can work with whatever new paradigm that presents itself, without causing ourselves harm or dis-ease.

So, for example, how can we make it ok that the person -centred work we are used to doing, shifts from public to provision by private sector? How can we realign our professional values within a context that might previously have seemed unacceptable? How can we make this a potent and non-toxic context for us to work in?

Do we accept that this is the only context that provides this work right now?

Do we acknowledge that the value to the end user is the same as when the provision was made in the public sector?

Can we honour the possibility that ‘you’ve gotta be in it to win it’. Knowing that in order to have influence on the ethical stance of an entire industry, you have to be operating within that environment?

Do we choose to bring ‘The Healer’ to work? I mean what would happen to business if ‘all the good people’ worked for charities?

Our professional environments will be facing huge huge changes during the coming months and years, merely in order that they can survive turbulent times. As individual professionals, we must confront the resultant challenges this could bring to our beliefs and values. When we avoid reconciliation and become misaligned, we become both unhappy and unwell. Ignore the signs at your own peril. ‘Business’ looks after itself. As the people within these contexts, we must do the same.

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