Ethical Edge Letters on Integrity  

Cooperation is life’s fundamental motivator. Cooperation is the creative, results-producing principle that drives the progress of individuals, organizations, communities and nations. Cooperation rests on the bedrock realization: We are connected.

Zig Ziglar, America’s No. 1 business and motivational speaker, unlocks the secret of how to continuously pursue integrity’s ethical asset of managing cooperation.

“I believe that you will get everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want,” he writes.

Hidden behind Ziglar’s statement is a challenge to the narcissistic self-absorbed entitlement thinking that permeates 21st century American life. His words point leaders and their organizations to pursue a path that does not deny getting. But, the path will prove fulfilling as we focus on helping others achieve their goals!

David Cooperrider’s research, "Appreciative Inquiry," offers insights into why a cooperative model moves the mission of organizations.

The Positive Principle is the fourth of five cooperation concepts in Cooperrider’s work. It identifies that “to build and sustain change momentum, large amounts of positive affect and social bonding are necessary. … Things like hope, excitement, inspiration, caring, camaraderie, sense of urgent purpose and sheer joy in creating something meaningful together. The more positive the questions we ask in our work, the more long lasting and successful the change effort is.”

What is the most urgent question for the practitioner of the integrity asset of managing cooperation? Martin Luther King penned the answer: “What are you doing for others?” That question produces powerful, positive, practical connections at home, at work and in the community.