I had an interesting reaction this morning when I started to send an iMessage to a cousin.
As I typed his phone number into the address box (I didn’t have him in my contacts), it turned from blue to green. “What?”, I thought. How could this be? I asked my wife to confirm his number. Surely there was a mistake. He’s a guy in his 30’s with a good job in New York City. Of course he has an iPhone!
But the number was right. And he does not have an iPhone. Five years ago, I still had plenty of friends and relatives who used SMS to send messages. Now, it’s so rare that my brain defaults to a wrong number.
One day, we will be so accustomed to people doing business ethically that when someone suggests that we engage in wrongdoing – with a wink and a nod – we’ll go “What?” and assume we didn’t hear well. “Surely there’s a mistake. He’s a guy in his 30’s with a good job in New York City. Of course he’s a straight shooter!”
That day will come. Meanwhile, you and I have our work cut out.
The Ethical Leader 