Today, the American spirit of “can-do”, ingenuity, teamwork and integrity is stressed to near-breaking. With the pandemic with us likely for another year or two, the old way of doing everything is changing.

Real integrity is doing the right thing, knowing that nobody’s going to know whether you did it or not.

Oprah Winfrey

Social, political, and economic change we are living through (suffering) in the 21st Century affects everyone. It began long before we were mandated to remain at least six feet apart, and limit large gatherings. Technology has made it no longer necessary to have in- person, work or customer relationships. When both the service- provider and the served remain insulated from one-another by web ordering,  email,  text messaging, or video- conferencing, the human connection, which may be between a doctor and a patient, teacher and student, account administrator and vendor, or state official and a constituent, is absent.  

This is easily illustrated with a few scenarios. A fairly new patient of a doctor makes an appointment with the physician. In the interim, the doctor moves his private practice to a larger corporate entity. And then the COVID quarantine terminates all in-person office access for the foreseeable future. Efforts to obtain service are prevented by an inaccessible web portal, and using a telephone system to request assistance with the portal, demands up to thirty minutes or more to remain on-hold. The clinic’s email server notifies the client of important information, but cannot be read using the portal, similarly frustrated by a lack of a user passcode.

A government agency responsible for the healthcare of millions of military veterans and their families comes under scrutiny for very public and shocking displays of veterans committing suicide in hospital lobbies, delays in receiving evaluation for what veterans believe service-connected disabilities, and media reports of ill veterans dying while on waiting lists for treatment – while the facilities receive bonuses and accolades for service efficiency. Media and Congressional investigations reveal that managers were complicit in altering records and rescheduling patients. Leadership changed. Procedural changes were promised. Some workers were censured. Legislation was voted upon. Time will tell if the agency culture has focused on integrity.

A state agency that oversees licensing of healthcare workers contracts with vendors to manage the process of coordinating examinees seeking licensing exams. The same agency approves the schools offering the training, the sites where these exams may be performed, and verify each candidate has met the requirements to be licensed. The vendor is responsible for collecting the test fees, order and disseminate the exam materials, and send the test results to the state agency. while the contracted evaluators establish relationships with the training schools, coordinate test schedules with the vendor and the client schools, and perform the certification exams. The evaluators submit invoices for payment to the vendor. Since the licensing examinations are only a minor contribution to each vendors’ core business, but require substantial manual work, the vendor’s commitment to an efficient operation is of key importance. With antiquated systems, a remote workforce, an already burdened office staff and aloof management, the unresponsiveness of the organization is now a factor to consider for any future business.

The foundation stones for a balanced success are honesty, character, integrity, faith, love and loyalty.

Zig Ziglar

Operations that, under normal conditions may be hindered by bureaucracy, are only worsened by a remote workforce, COVID safety precautions, antiquated processes, and office politics. This is exactly where professional integrity should be the most important feature of any servicer -customer relationship. When the customer (other departments, clients, or outside agents) seeks status on an invoice, or a functional responsibility of that servicer, the expectation is to have an answer as to when payment should be expected. In some organizations, answers and follow-up can be difficult to obtain. People may respond emotionally, who have neglected or erred in their duties. They may respond by shifting blame instead of seeking remedies. It is a successful work environment where obtaining results or remedies and not fixing blame, exist.

When this tendency to assign blame is a characteristic of the organization, it is a leadership issue If the leader does not set the tone, as Zig Ziglar states. ” (t)he foundation stones for a balanced success are honesty, character, integrity, faith, love and loyalty.” the organization suffers. In the present economy, there are always alternatives to an inefficient or poor business model. In the private sector, new enterprises or new joint-ventures can offer more efficient processing. In the public sector, political appointments do change oversight, and vendor funding, and state charters can be revoked.

Integrity matters.