Beijing – Traveling (anxiety)

Not surprisingly, I woke up at 2 AM, a full hour before I really needed to get out of bed for my flight.

There’s always a certain level of anxiety before a trip like this, even though I travel all the time. I wonder if I packed everything I need, even though my trusted checklist hasn’t let me down in 10 years. I think about Plan B if my flight is delayed or cancelled (like it was during my last trip to Australia). I tend to rehearse in my mind what is going to happen during the trip (depending on whether I’m going on an investigation or audit, to provide training, or present at a conference).

Of course, I wake up several times wondering if I missed my alarms – both of them.

Not very Stoic, I know.

And somewhat strange because I looooove to travel.

So here I am. Sunday morning, 3:30 AM. I’ll head out early and wait for the AA Admirals Lounge to open at 5 AM.

And when all goes according to plan, I’ll be in my Beijing hotel room 24 hours later.

See you on the other side.

Focus

Most of what we think and do is unnecessary.

This is true of our personal and professional lives.

For ethics and compliance professionals, there can be dire consequences if we spend time on unnecessary tasks while the risks are mounting.

It should be part of our daily ritual to look at our tasks and projects and to ask, as Marcus Aurelius exhorted, “Is this one of the unnecessary things?”

All or nothing

“We don’t abandon our pursuits because we despair of ever perfecting them.” – Epictetus, Discourses, 1.2.37b

Too often in large organizations we lose flexibility. If we can’t do something for our 100,000 employees, we don’t do it for any of them. Or if we can’t be sure it’ll work, it’s already dead.

In the complicated world of ethics and compliance, we can’t wait for certainty before taking steps to address the risks we face. This is especially true now that the world is moving at an ever-faster pace. Our job is to create some measure of certainty that our proposed actions are going to generate progress. We learn from that experience (faster than if we simply tried to predict an outcome) and repeat the process.

Today, reject the all-or-nothing mindset and take action, however small.

Who are we?

When we think of philosophers, many of us think of preachers and thinkers and theorists, people who ask questions like “What are numbers?”

Which is why I have a preference for stoicism. The Stoics thought of philosophers as doers – individuals who lived the philosophy.

So, who are we as ethics & compliance officers?

Preachers or doers?

Stoic patience

“The only thing that isn’t worthless: to live this life out truthfully and rightly. And be patient with those who don’t.” – Marcus Aurelius

For ethics & compliance officers, what does it mean to “be patient with those who don’t?”

Does it mean that we should accept defeat when competitors cheat to win a contract? Or allow clients not to pay what is owed to us? Or look the other way when suppliers lie about their ability to deliver?

What about wrongdoing committed by those within our organization? Should we be patient when our own employees or agents violate our values?

This stoic directive simply means that we should not be shocked or upset when others breach our trust. We can hardly expect to go through life without someone wanting to take advantage of us. So why be surprised with it happens?

A stoic attitude is helpful to the ethics professional. It allows us to look at – and accept – the facts as they are, to calmly reach a decision that is just, and to administer justice in a respectful way. We can use our empathy to understand why others behave the way they do. That is an exercise in patience.

Our job is difficult enough without the additional burden of impatience, in its many forms.