In yet another example of how leaders, political pundits and many others are helping to crush the public’s capacity to discern fact from spin, President Bush role-modeled this very problem during his speech last night. For the facts, click here:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20766644

If this practice were a one-time aberration, or if only a few people did it, well… there are always a few rotten apples. But, it is being role-modeled every day in every way by far too many political, business and even some religious leaders, by lobbyists, by media pundits and talk radio hosts, and by everyday people across the political and ideological spectrum. After all, if so many leaders do it, it must be okay, right?

The truth is that is practice of making it impossible to distinguish supposed facts from actual spin clouds everyone’s capacity for discernment. This widespread practice renders even the most well-meaning people unable to make informed decisions despite their best intentions. This example of widespread lack of integrity undermines the very foundation of democracy and free society.

It is time for people across the political, ideological and advocacy spectrum to start insisting to the leaders, advocates and commentators that they support cease this practice once and for all. We need to focus less on attacking the “other side” for doing this and focus more on using our power where it can be felt, through insisting that “our side” stop doing this.

Making unilateral decisions about highest good occurs when I talk myself into believing know what is best for you and I will do whatever I must in order to bring it about. A variation on this is where I know that what I want isn’t best for you but I am going to talk you into believing it is so I can get what I want. But that is more about lying, Unintegrity Pandemic #1.

Forms that unilateral decisions about highest good can take include: imposing our will on others (excluding containing violence, of course), unethical manipulation, confusing dogma with fact (dogma is a point of view put forth as authoritative without adequate verification), and Fanaticism Disorder (covered in Unintegrity Pandemic Variety #5 above).

Example of Unintegrity Through Unilateral Decisions: U.S. Stonewalling Collapses the Doha Round of World Trade Organization Negotiations

In 2006, I was invited to Geneva, Switzerland, to give a workshop on collaborative negotiation and leadership skills to a number of World Trade Organization (WTO) ambassadors from developing countries. It was a wonderful experience and I hope it proves to be a beginning rather than a flash in the pan. Shortly after I gave my workshop, the round of WTO talks collapsed. I can safely say I had nothing to do with that outcome, but because of the workshop I gave, I had an extraordinary opportunity to learn a deal about how negotiations occur in the WTO.

From my perspective there are essentially three types of negotiation strategies: manipulation, compromise and collaboration. Manipulation means I convince you that the solution I want is in your best interests when it in reality serves my interests more than yours. Compromise is successful if you and I come up with an agreement in which we both feel equally ripped off. Collaboration means you and I share the core intentions beneath our positions, and then co-create a solution that honors both our intentions, even if that takes a different form than either of us would have thought of on our own. All three styles produce agreements but the collaborative style is by far the best at building truly healthy long term relationships.

Four important things I learned through working with the developing country WTO ambassadors were:

1. What they knew about negotiation they learned through the WTO

2. They knew a fair amount about feeling on the receiving end of manipulation and some about compromise, but very little about collaboration

3. They very much preferred a collaborative negotiating style

4. They wondered what it would take for the largest developed countries such as the United States to become willing to use a collaborative negotiation style.

I was therefore not surprised by the reason the press was given by the WTO about why the Doha Round of talks later collapsed (in the WTO, rounds of talks are named after the city in which the agreements for a round of talks are created). The reason given was that the United States was perceived as “stonewalling” the negotiations. Essentially, “stonewalling” is saying “my way or the highway.”

In this case, not only was the United States taking that position, but that the position it was taking was the best one for all concerned. Funny how very few other countries seemed to agree with that. This is a classic example of Unintegrity through making unilateral decisions about highest good. There is a simple word for this: arrogance. This kind of arrogance is yet another form of Unintegrity that is not being called what it truly is.

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.