The Value of Integrity
Social fractals have integrity. When values that apply to everyone are replicated consistently in all situations and contexts, they generate equitable and sustainable patterns that scale.
What does this look like?
“Hmm.” It often starts with the soft hum of uncertainty.
“A fractal approach to scaling sounds interesting. But also abstract and complex. What does this look like in practice?”
This question comes up a lot. It’s actually simple. Social fractals are everywhere, and they generate patterns with integrity. Wholeness.
I noticed an example when listening to Tim Walz’s recent speech at a campaign rally in Philadelphia. The Governor of Minnesota was talking about his values, which include a commitment to working together, to seeing past differences, and to lending a helping hand:
“The same values I learned on the family farm, and tried to instill in my students. I took it to the Congress and to the State Capitol and now, Vice President Harris and I are running to take the same values to the White House.”
He was talking about applying his values consistently across all of his spheres of influence — not only this one, or only that one. He also talked about value-based actions that generate patterns that resonate across scales.
Universal Values
Values that apply to everyone, independent of who they are and what they believe, are called universal values. These values are inherent to everyone, regardless. They are at the core of the 1948 United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which recognizes the inherent dignity and equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family to be the foundation of freedom, justice, and peace in the world. Among the Declaration’s 30 Articles, the second one recognizes that:
Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.
The key here is everyone.
Social fractals
When universal values are consistently embedded in words and actions, they generate patterns with integrity or wholeness that replicate across scales. Social fractals.
Social fractals that resonate can inspire others in non-linear and non-local ways. Patterns with integrity foster unity, not by homogenizing or flattening out differences, but by embracing diversity.
Unity and diversity are not opposites — they are complementary, like waves and particles in the quantum realm. Diversity is an essential part of unity because it introduces different views and perspectives and highlights different skills, talents, and potentials. Diversity, including the magnificent variety of species and ecosystems, makes the world a richer and more beautiful place.
Along with diversity, values like equity, justice, and integrity relate to what we say and do, and how we show up. Do our words and actions unify or divide? Are we generating fractals or fragments?
Words matter
Words have power and can indeed inspire actions that generate patterns of integrity when they reflect universal values. Think about Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I have a dream” speech, which communicated freedom, equality, and possibility. Words and stories like this contribute to coherence and wholeness, creating a resonance that reverberates across space and time.
Unfortunately, political rhetoric is becoming increasingly dissonant, exacerbating both polarization and fragmentation. Politics has been portrayed as a fight between us and them. It’s about winning or losing, usually based on what is considered right or wrong from a particular viewpoint, perspective, or interest. It has become destructive rather than constructive.
Will choosing different words contribute to different outcomes? Yes! In their book, How the Way We Talk Can Change the Way We Work: Seven Languages for Transformation, Robert Kegan and Lisa Laskow Lahey stress that our speaking regulates our thinking, feeling, and meaning making, which in turn influences how we see the world and act in it.
For example, during the same speech when Walz described values that apply to everyone, the audience broke into loud chants of “lock him up,” with reference to their political opponent. The chant is ironic and reflects the emotional context of an election with high stakes for people and the planet.
Does this language generate fractals of change, or does it add to fragmentation and polarization? It’s a useful thought experiment. Imagine if people replaced “lock him up” with “justice for all.” These words draw attention to values that apply to everyone: whether or not people care about it, they have a universal right to justice.
Patterns with Integrity
The value of integrity lies not in perfection, but in practice. I am reminded by Dr. Monica Sharma that if we want radical transformations, we need to do things differently. In Radical Transformational Leadership: Strategic Action for Change Agents, she writes that integrity is not about being right or wrong, or blaming ourselves and others. It is about asking different questions, and engaging in “a process of inquiry into what it means to be whole. … to have non-judgmental spaces to inquire, reflect, notice, [and] be mindful as we are in action…” Over the next week, I’m going to be thinking about wholeness — and focusing on integrity as a practice. First, I’ll practice integrity and post this newsletter!
“Each individual is a pattern integrity.”
“Integrity is the essence of everything successful.”
— R. Buckminster Fuller
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Thanks for this clear thinking, Karen. The other universal value that it is tranformational and is now finding a voice in the Harris/Walz movement is "shared responsibility." It's what used to really make America great, but we've lost touch with it in a consumer culture that encourages legal responsibility instead, always looking backwards to blame others for problems rather than looking forward and asking what we can do to resolve problems. It is music to my ears in this era of climate trauma, which calls for reorientation of all our relations.
As for patterns of integrity, Buddhism explains this through the concept of "zhigpa," or the "just having happenedness" of an action. If the zhigpa is powerful and congruent, it resonates and ripples out, and MLK's "I have a dream" speech is often cited as an e.g. of powerful zhigpa (the most literal translation is "disintegratedness"). It's the medium of karma. The Harris/Walz ticket, like the French, Mexican, and UK elections before, are all good examples of the resurrection of universal values. Let's hope their zhigpa keeps gaining amplitude!