Listening to Mary Jerram present at TEDx Sydney 2014 was inspiring as she challenged us to continue searching for moresophisticated ways to evoke justice in society. She retired from the role of the State Coroner so brought an incredibly insightful point of view and context to her thoughts and experiences.
She challenged that too many of us confuse justice with retribution and vengeance. She shared many stories of people seeking revenge when something tragic happens – the natural and immediate response is that you want someone to blame. Accordingly she was appalled by the cries for mandatory sentencing in Sydney as society battles with the alcohol fuelled violence being experienced on our streets in Sydney. She passionately claimed such sentencing can never result in a “just” sentence!
Mary challenged us to redefine our concepts of fairness, justice and vengeance – and I think this can apply equally to our business environment. There is still far too much blame, revenge and even vengeance being fuelled within corporate Australia – and more HR processes to create immediate solutions and approaches, just like mandatory sentencing is not the solution. We need emotionally intelligent leaders to bring justice in the way they “treat” people within the business and through the conversations they have the courage to engage in – see someone behaving badly and tackle them front on – don’t walk away and report them to HR for the solution to be implemented later.
I think this is an interesting topic that requires far more thought and exploration just as Mary challenged us to do – thank you for the ignition of different thinking!
