People
Issue No. 21 - February/March 2005
CharacterWorks
When all else fails
by Colin Pearce
I reckon I’ve been waiting 36 years to start speaking and writing about character. It’s been smoking away inside me but there have been two stumbling blocks:
a) I didn’t know how to say what I wanted to say — in a way that wouldn’t get me tarred and feathered and run out of town on a pole.
b) No one wanted to listen.
Then, a couple of years ago, both obstacles disappeared overnight.
From the Prime Minister to football code executives and talk-back radio hosts, people of all walks of life started bemoaning the fact that society had lost its grip on values, ethics and character. They were all saying, "Why doesn’t someone do something?"
I had written a little book called The Fox-Proof Chook House in 2003 which gave me a good excuse to speak about character without upsetting too many people. Then during a study tour of the US I happened to visit the notorious Oklahoma City Jail where the warden was working miracles after establishing a culture of character. The place was like a YMCA camp with locks and if I needed proof that emphasising character really works, that was it.
I came home and spent 2004 defining what Australians and New Zealanders regarded as important in our own culture. I came up with a systematic Australian approach called Character Works.
People are fed up with gimmicks
Ask your employees what they want to hear at your next staff meeting or conference and they’ll shout,
‘No more sales gimmicks’
‘No more customer loyalty programs’
‘No more time management’
‘No more paradigm shifts’
‘Shove your key performance indicators’
‘Stop trying to manipulate us.’
‘Do something for us. Care about us, our families, our relationships, our hopes, dreams
and aspirations.’
‘Talk about real things, about life itself and its basic values; how to get our kids to li...
