Are you in a helping or service profession? Then this book is a must-read

Every so often I read a book and want all my colleagues to read it too so we then can have discussions which are meaty, valuable, maybe inspirational. I am reading one of those books now.

About the book, I just emailed two friends this message:

Subject: Reading a great book that I think you both might like as much as I do

The topic may sound boring but it is, for me, a can't-put-down book. It's called Ethical Maturity in the Helping Professions: Making Difficult Life and Work Decisions. The authors have written a book that has made me think, both when reading and when I have taken a break for other activities necessary to living, like eating and working.

I then sent them this excerpt to entice them to read the whole book:

While moral immaturity will hamper decision making, we explore in Chapter 2 the reality that many good people have lapses in judgement. In fact, it is more often the highly skilled and experienced people who transgress most seriously. How can this happen? The focus of our attention here is not 'those other people', but rather the opportunity for us to examine ourselves through learning about the pathways to ethical disengagement. How could I fail myself and others? How could my own moral compass go awry?

I have not finished the book but I have a feeling I will be blogging about it again, so impressed I am with the contribution it can make to this modern and complicated world. As I flip the pages to see what I have in store, I am particularly looking forward to reading about the Six Components of Ethical Maturity (and seeing how the authors believe mindfulness fits in as a part of this maturity). The Components:

• Creating ethical sensitivity and mindfulness
• Ethical decision making
• Implementing ethical decisions
• Ethical accountability and moral defence
• Ethical sustainability and peace
• Learning from experience

After you read Ethical Maturity in the Helping Professions, I'd appreciate hearing your thoughts about the book, and any ideas it provoked. Here at idealawg, I will do the same.

Click to read a review of the book from St. James Ethics Centre.

Note: I received a review copy of this book.