Unteachability means refusing to recognize the consequences of our actions or inactions. Refusing to recognize the impact of the consequences of our actions on others compounds our Unintegrity and makes it very difficult for others to hold us accountable for being unreliable.

Example of Unintegrity Through Unteachability: Global Warming

Global Warming is a phenomenon that took a long time for enough decision-makers (ad the general public) to understand well enough to pressure world leaders to accept and do something to reduce. Profoundly compelling data confirming the dangers of global warming and the man-made sources contributing to it have been known about for years by both scientists and those in power. But, yielding to the greed of mass consumption without regard to it interfering with serving highest good, resulted in leaders refusing to be teachable. As a result, they have not taken action in a timely manner to reverse the human contributions to global warming.

The release of the movie, An Inconvenient Truth, in the summer of 2005, helped begin to change this. This movie helped people become more teachable. As a result of seeing this movie, more citizens, business leaders, social advocates and political leaders then ever recognize not only that global warming can have potentially devastating worldwide consequences during the 21^st century and beyond, but that there are realistic things we can do to prevent this from occurring.

Another Example of Unintegrity Through Unteachability: Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq

People who are attached to their preconceptions are not only not teachable, but they will lie in order to justify sticking to their preconceptions despite evidence to the contrary.

The primary reason used to persuade governmental officials to support the invasion of Iraq that put an end to Saddam Hussein’s rule was that Hussein had developed and stockpiled weapons of mass destruction (WMD).

In the years following the invasion, what came out was that some who advocated it were so intent upon it occurring that they actively suppressed intelligence information reporting that Hussein did not have a WMD arsenal.

Undependability means not making good on commitments made. What I say I’ll do and what I actually do are two different things. Undependability is perhaps the form of Unintegrity most often recognized as Unintegrity. Even so, I have noticed that most people refer to this by names other than integrity. Names that water down the magnitude of what is at stake, such as: lazy, irresponsible, undependable, and even commitment-phobic. But if we are going to truly break through the veil of denial about the magnitude of the Unintegrity Pandemic in the 21^st century, you might want to consider calling this what it is: Unintegrity.

Undependability can occur despite good intentions. Undependability is about follow-through more than intentions. When our undependability is pointed out to us and we respond by making excuses, making us unaccountable for our actions. This only compounds our Unintegrity.

Example of Unintegrity Through Undependability: Chronic Lack of Accountability Among People At Work

Someone makes a commitment. They don’t follow through. When called into accountability, the excuses fly. Or the lies. Or the manipulative shame (they respond with so much shame that it seems cruel to hold them accountable – and that’s the manipulation). This is Unintegrity.

We have all seen this in employees, supervisors, co-workers, vendors, customers, and of course ourselves. And we have seen this – and been this – in our personal lives as well.

Another Example of Unintegrity Through Undependability: The Divorce Epidemic

Pundits pontificate about how the divorce epidemic is so high because people don’t have enough religion, or because we are an ‘anything goes’ culture, or because too few people take the institution of marriage seriously enough anymore, or et cetera.

I would suggest that even though there are grains, and sometimes boulders, of truth in all these reasons, each are symptoms and not the cause. You will not be surprised to read that I propose the source of the divorce epidemic is the Unintegrity Pandemic.

One of the seven crucial Integrity skills is Relationship Synergy: knowing how to join together to create solutions that honor both people’s core intentions. To be able to identify and honor our own core intentions, we must first be in integrity with ourselves. To co-create solutions that honor both people’s intentions, we must be committed to maintaining the integrity of the relationship.

I propose that insufficient personal and relationship integrity causes or contributes to far more divorces than lack of religion, an ‘anything goes’ culture, or because not enough people take marriage seriously anymore.

Lying means telling falsehoods or concealing truths in order to manipulate you, especially when doing this does not serve highest good. Lying is the first of the eight epidemics comprising the Unintegrity Pandemic. One source of information about lying, its consequences and what to do about it is Radical Honesty by Brad Blanton. Also see the product on Fibs, Lies & Authenticity on the Willingness Works website.

Example of Unintegrity Through Lying: The Tobacco Industry

As most of us are aware, for decades, the massive tobacco industry denied and suppressed their own evidence that smoking cigarettes was a significant health hazard not only to the smoker but to those who breathed second-hand smoke from the smoker.

The tobacco industry was not only out of integrity because they lied to the scientific community, the public and the government. They lied because that was the only way they could get away with making massive profits through selling products that were out of integrity with what serves highest good (Unintegrity Pandemic Variety #6).

Another Example of Unintegrity Through Lying: Phishing

I am particularly amazed at how many people there are on the internet attempting to lure people into “consensual robbery by ignorance.” What I mean by this term is that people respond to phishing e-mails, enabling them to be robbed, because they are ignorant about recognizing the many forms phishing occurs on the internet these days. Phishing is the internet term for “consensual robbery by ignorance.” This is an example of word that is nice enough sounding so that the extent of the malice is watered down. If the internet gurus want to use “ph” in the word, then they should just call it what it is: Phraud.

Here are some of the more popular examples as of this writing. There’s the fraudulent notification about you having won tens of millions of dollars in a lottery. There are the threatening demands that confirm your bank account, credit card, e-bay or PayPal information in order to not have your account suspended. There is ever-present scam, with many different variations, about the person who died and left behind tens of millions of dollars that cannot be accessed, and how you can help for a piece of the action.

Other Examples of Unintegrity Through Lying: Name Your Cover-Up

There are far too many massive cover-ups that have occurred in recent years to recount. A couple of infamous examples include Watergate (this was a cover-up of a great example of Obsession – Unintegrity variety #5), Enron (a darling of the corporate world whose downfall came because of “cooking the books” and then covering this up), and multiple prisoner abuse cases in Iraq.

I offer you a couple of warnings before I launch into the examples:

1. This is Not About Blame: As I said above, the purpose of this chapter is not to lay blame but to expand your awareness of the range of ways in which Unintegrity expresses itself. Because I see the Unintegrity Pandemic as a systemic problem, I hold to blame no one individual, culture, religion, organization, business, profession, political party, governmental agency, country and organization of countries. I propose instead that each one of us has a huge role to play in solving this problem. Each individual, culture, religion, country, organization, business, profession, political party, governmental agency, country or organization of countries. So, as you read the rest of this chapter, I ask you to not dwell upon the question of who is at fault. Rather, simply open your eyes to how pervasive the Unintegrity problem is, so you can begin to focus on the solution (an integrity revolution), instead of continuing to view each of these illustrations as separate problems needing to be addressed separately.
2. Refrain From Despair: While it might be tempting to throw your hands up in despair as you read about the magnitude and pervasiveness of the Unintegrity Pandemic, please keep in mind that this book is about a solution to this problem. Only this chapter is about the problem itself. I therefore urge you to treat this chapter as a call to consciousness and as a means to motivate, not as an invitation to despair.
3. Examples Cross Categories: I have placed the examples you are about to read into individual categories to make it easier to understand each category. In reality, though, most of these Unintegrity illustrations could just as easily have been used to illustrate other categories as well. So, if you find yourself thinking, “This example could have been an illustration of arrogance as greed,” that is probably true.

I have catalogued Eight Varieties of the Unintegrity Pandemic. Most of them are self-explanatory, or at least nearly so. Yet, most tend to be thought of as separate problems rather than as symptoms of a single problem – Unintegrity:

1. Lying: Telling falsehoods or concealing truths in order to manipulate you
2. Undependability: Not making good on commitments made
3. Unteachability: Refusal to recognize the consequences of my actions or inactions
4. Non-Self-Responsibility: I had no part in what happened between us, what I did is not my fault
5. Obsession: My goal is so important that I will reach it no matter what damage I do to myself or others along the way: the ends justify the means
6. Disregarding Highest Good (personal, relationship or systemic): Short-term success achieved at the expense of long-term price; I get what I want in ways that make it harder to get what you want
7. Unilateral Decisions About Highest Good: I know what is best for you and I will do whatever I must in order to bring it about
8. Dysfunctional Systems: Those in the system know it is broken but do not make it a top priority to join together to do what is necessary to repair it. See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil. We’re doing the best we can just putting out today’s fires, and we will cover one another’s backs despite how broken the system is. Nero fiddling while Rome burns.

Real life Unintegrity situations often include more than one of these qualities, but creating an individual portrait of each one makes it easier to spot them.

I invite you to reply to each of the posts in the “Unintegrity Flavors” category of this blog with additional examples of each of these flavors of unintegrity. I hope you will post news stories and that you will also be courageous enough to post examples from your own personal or business life as well. If you share personal stories, please do not name names of others or other specifics that would give away their identity without their permission. This is not a blog for tattle-tales, or an invitiation to indulge blaming, but rather a catalogue of examples that all of us, in our abundant humanness do, most often without even knowing it!

The most dangerous worldwide pandemic of the 21st century is neither a dreaded disease nor global warming!

This global pandemic…

• Is not a medical condition, although it causes medical problems
• Is highly communicable
• Touches virtually everyone on the planet
• Damages international relations, the planet, the economy, businesses, politics, communities, relationships and individuals

This global pandemic has no name!

• Not being able to identify it makes this pandemic even more dangerous
• The 20th century personal development movement helped create it
• The 20th century approaches to business success helped create it
• Mental health professionals hold the secret key to its solution, even though most of them do not realize it

What is the name of this pandemic? You tell me the name of the opposite of integrity and that’s its name. Isn’t it curious that there is no word for lack of integrity? Well, we need a word for this, because lack of integrity is the global pandemic about which I am referring.

Stay tuned for more details and lots of examples, including hopefully examples that YOU post too, plus solutions to this pandemic that lives at the heart of what imperils all aspects of our planet in the 21st century