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![]() ![]() Realign ConflictsThe family is the first place that we learn about conflicts of interest. Fathers and mothers relentlessly press children to behave in approved ways, though there is an evolving resistance that may throw parents and others off-balance. Interests and feelings press us to get along with adults, but as children, we also endeavor to satisfy our own needs in our own way. Similarly, as we grow up we evolve our own way of resolving the many conflicts of interest that arise throughout life. Most of us have developed response patterns that work for us and are rarely uncomfortable. People with responsible positions, like corporate executives or heads of government departments and agencies or of health and educational organizations give high priority to the needs of the hierarchies they lead and also may try to accommodate the needs of others that to some degree conflict. Those who rise to the top with success after success are among the most assured that the priority and decision-making methods that they have evolved are just right for them.They are so comfortable with their methods that
they think that “conflicts of interest” are not a problem for them.
It does not occur to them that occasionally some particular
resolution of such a conflict by their normal methods will cause them to
miss the opportunity for a better alternative.
While the public may not notice such failures, on rare occasions
it does. The leaders may
then pay a severe price -- loss of office, loss of opportunity to
achieve high office again, or public disgrace. The Solutions, for example, can re-align the parties involved in a way that eliminates major conflicts-of-interest. Such conflicts cannot be eliminated by the players themselves acting inside the system. The conflicts treated in the social innovation Solutions include
Social innovators who have a fine ear for conflicts-of-interest and a willingness to read, study, discuss, and think hard about how to overcome them with arrangements that are better for all involved then also have a very useful talent and a good background for social innovation. A well-balanced social innovation team needs not only at least one good networker as we see in networking, but also entrepreneur-innovators well versed in the causes and cures for conflicts-of-interest throughout society. |