We are predisposed to trust and cooperate with others.
Research on empathy, compassion, and altruism shows that when we encounter the pain or suffering of another, we are wired not only to feel their distress but also to reach out to help relieve it. Relationships between people or institutions are based on exchange in which all parties have a mutual understanding of their rights and obligations. Relations between members of an immediate family or between spouses are based on obligations such as obedience or respect. Relations can be forged through gifts or personal favors and bring with them obligations and expectations.
For every action, something is expected in return.
Those who do favors are highly esteemed; they are recognized as people who have respect for those around them. Every previous or current situation produces expectations for future behavior on the part of the giver and gift recipient.
Yet, although we possess altruistic potential, we are also often propelled by some very harmful primitive drives. The traditional image of the human torn between the competing voices of a devil on one shoulder and an angel on the other may indeed be an apt metaphor.
Are you putting the Law of Reciprocity to work for you?
Reciprocation flows from Divine Law that can neither be ignored or put aside. Perhaps, the most important of these laws is the 'law of love.' Put simply, "Love is Law, Law is Love. God is Love, Love is God." This amounts to the same thing as "the gift of giving" without the "hope of reward or pay," or serving others. This 'law of love' is identified in many different ways--for example, in Wayne Baker's bestseller, "Achieving Success Through Social Capital" (Jossey-Bass), this law of love in the workplace is described as the "law of reciprocity."
The law of reciprocity is not what can best be described as "transactional reciprocity." Baker says that, "Many people conceive of their business dealings as spot market exchanges--value given for value received, period. Nothing more, nothing less. This tit-for-tat mode of operation can produce success, but it doesn't invoke the power of reciprocity and so fails to yield extraordinary success."
Whatever our human nature is, it is in a process of evolution. In worldwide lectures, independent scholar and evolutionary theorist Duane Elgin asks audiences, "If you were to imagine the human species as a single human being in the process of development from infancy to old age, where would you place our species on the developmental spectrum?" He then lists the various developmental stages and asks the audience to vote on the answer. Without exception, the developmental stage that receives the greatest number of votes is "adolescence."
This widespread perception that humanity as a whole has not yet reached adulthood is a compelling indication of our collective self-awareness.
Considering we are the only species to have evolved a complex language system and advanced cognition and to have organized ourselves on a social scale larger than the pack, it could be argued that, given the amount of time we've had, we are doing remarkably well. Nonetheless, we are at a critical historical moment in which our technological evolution has dramatically outpaced our moral, cultural, and spiritual evolution.
We know that in crisis we are driven to seek larger circles of cooperation. The global crisis now facing us may turn out to be the catalyst we need to impel us finally to recognize the common ground beneath our differences and to begin to cooperate on a planetary scale.
In today's interdependent global economy, we can help our employees, neighbors and countrymen develop inclusion as a core leadership competency. However, we must understand what leadership is and how to develop commitment within organizations and in a world of "free agents" and "volunteer" talent.
Source: Changing the Story of Our Future, The 2008 SHIFT Report, The Institute of Noetic Sciences