IT has been over four decades ago when integrity as a virtue was first ingrained in my consciousness as an individual and as a professional—first as a banker in the mid-70s to the late 80s, and then as an association executive from then on.
In the banking institution where I worked after university, integrity was part of the organizational culture. My boss then would always remind me that “integrity is my passport in banking.” I completely understand this mantra since a bank is in the business of trust. I also believe that integrity transcends banking and, in fact, all aspects of human life.
My organization, the Philippine Council of Associations and Association Executives (PCAAE), recently conducted a webinar on “Integrity: The Pathway to Performance.” Our speaker, Aljor C. Perreras, founder and CEO of Primordium Inc., Philippines, has been continuously delivering personal growth and leadership programs for 20 years, including as a former senior leader in one of the world’s leading companies that deliver transformational programs.
Here are excerpts from Aljor’s presentation which delved deeper into the subject of integrity, one worth sharing with associations and other organizations:
1. Integrity is the state of being whole, complete, unbroken, unimpaired, sound, and perfect condition which applies to an object, system, person, or human entity (e.g., organization, society or nation). He used this definition to show the relationship between integrity, workability, and performance.
He used the analogy of a bicycle wheel which, in its whole, unimpaired and sound condition, will work perfectly and will provide maximum opportunity for performance (winning a race for a rider, for example). Take out a spoke and its workability declines and its performance diminishes. Take out more spokes and its workability is lost and there is no chance for performance.
So Aljor offered this formula: Integrity equals workability equals performance.As the integrity (the state of being whole and complete) of an object, system, person, or human entity increases, then workability increases; in turn, this also raises the opportunity for performance. Obviously, when something has full integrity (i.e., entirely whole and complete), its opportunity for performance is at its maximum.
2. Integrity for a human entity: Integrity for a person or human entity is a matter of keeping or honoring one’s word, nothing more, nothing less. Prevailing wisdom holds that trust is created only over a considerable period of time. While perhaps counterintuitive, maintaining your integrity by honoring your word is a fast track to being trusted. In this case, integrity equals trust.
There are more aspects to discuss about integrity which this space will not be able to fill. But suffice it to say that a person, group, organization, association, society, and nation committed to workability and performance requires a culture of integrity. Without integrity, nothing works!
The column contributor, Octavio ‘Bobby’ Peralta, is Founder & CEO of the Philippine Council of Associations and Association Executives and concurrently, President of the Asia-Pacific Federation of Association Organizations. The purpose of PCAAE—the “association of associations”—is to advance the association management profession and to make associations well-governed and sustainable. PCAAE enjoys the support of the Tourism Promotions Board, the Philippine International Convention Center and the Association of Development Financing Institutions in Asia and the Pacific. E-mail: [email protected]
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