Ethical Houston

          Last Saturday we had our first Ethical Houston event entitled Ethically Speaking.  We had four exceptional presenters talking about ethical issues faced by business persons.  Our target audience was young professionals.  For our first event we were pleased with our turnout.  But most of the participants were over forty.  We’ve been debriefing the event as to how we can make it better in the future.  Some interesting suggestions were made at lunch that day.   Such things as awarding ceu’s for various professions, different venues and times, corporate mentoring training were suggested.  One observation was that young professionals don’t make plans far in advance and have many choices as to what to do with their time.  I think all the suggestions and critiques are valid but I think there’s another reason for the low response from the young professional community.  It was expressed by Dr. Jim Jackson, pastor of Chapelwood United Methodist Church, who said, “young people don’t know what they don’t know.”  I don’t think that was a critique, only an observation that could be attributed to all of us. 

If it’s not in the realm of our experience, we don’t resonate with it.  During the planning of this event, I have talked to numerous older business persons and almost to a person they would tell me stories relating to ethically challenging situations in their business background.  They would say, “this is one of the most important subjects that young professionals need to understand and I’m willing to help you in any way I can”.  Their years of experience had made them critically aware of the need for a better understanding of the need for business ethics and how to deal with uncomfortable ethical situations that always arise. 

Which brings us to the idea of creating an organic community.  Joseph R. Myers, the author of Organic Community, creating a place where people naturally connect states that one of the basic criteria for people to connect and relate to one another is through story.  We all have internal stories that have been shaped by our experiences.  If we haven’t had experiences in a certain realm, then we don’t have stories.  We can be connected to another person’s stories if they are compelling enough.  But the experience we have of a situation, the more our internal story board resonates with the other. 

And stories can be cumulative as well as have a communal effect.  Recently, our church had a program called A Thousand Boots on the Ground.  The purpose of the program was to get 500 people to go down to Galveston to help do Ike recovery work.  We had good leadership and an interesting title for the project but as we began to publicize it we realized that there was a strong organic aspect.  There was something internal that seemed to resonate with people and we ended up with over 600 people taking off work or taking part of their vacation to go to Galveston during the hottest week of the year and right before school started to work repairing storm ravaged homes.  Not only was our congregation involved but three other churches also participated.  So, why the outpouring?

 There were a number of internal organic stories that probably influenced us.  First, our church had held services in the dark with no air conditioning the day after Ike.  Most of us had been without power in our homes for up to three weeks. We had also seen the devastation on TV and the aftermath of a forest of felled trees and debris.  We had seen the displaced persons coming to our city.  We had also been active in relief for hurricane Katrina and Rita a couple of years before.  And we recalled our pastors theme for the past few years of Love God, Love Neighbor.  It only was logical that those internal stories spurred people to give of their time and money to help people in Galveston.  And in doing this kind of service, we created new stories that bind us together and connect us as community in ways that nothing else could. 

 Most of us live in isolation from one another.  It’s ironic that we have the ability to communicate in ways deemed unimaginable a few years ago.  And yet we remain disconnected and isolated.  Humans need connections to one another. 

Ethical Houston has as a goal to give persons the opportunity to be connected around ethical values; values that in today’s world are often blurred.  This site and the events that we will develop in the future are one way of “creating a place where people can connect”.  We encourage you to give us your thoughts on how to connect to one another, but also to share a bit of yourselves on ethical and moral behavior as you’ve experienced it.  We want to hear your story.  We’d like to see how you might participate and help.  All we ask is that in your stories you don’t use real names or company’s  names. 

So, let us hear from you.