Center for governance and leadership that instils a deep sense of fairness also urges every one of us to work generously for the common good. After all, we owe it to our respective institutions, as a matter of justice, to work assiduously for the realization of its vision and the pursuit of its strategic priorities. But in order to do this effectively, we should constantly upgrade our levels of competence.

It is in this light that our places of work should be schools for proper attitudes towards work and social action. In the workplace, we learn the manifold skills and the proper social orientation that our work requires; moreover, we get to put them into practice.

We need continuing reminders that by work well done, we perfect ourselves; we perfect the others; and we perfect the work we do itself and consequently improve the over-all environment around us.

By discharging our duties well and with due care, we become better persons. We gain more knowledge; we acquire better self-discipline; and we put our talents to work. Moreover, we help the other people around us to become better. By the example we give, by the help we offer, and by the services we render, we can uplift in many different ways the lot and the condition of others. Finally, the impact of our work – especially if it and proper social orientation – can be overwhelmingly positive upon our environment:

It ends up actually becoming better. Precisely because of the potentially wide social impact that our work has upon the broader environment, we view our work within our respective institutions as the first natural step towards undertaking social action. In other words, we need not go far away from our respective work stations in order to carry out an effective social action program. All we need to do is to carry out our duties with professionalism and care: This would represent the first stone we throw into the lake of society. By those duties, carried out well and with a genuine spirit of service, we create a positive ripple in society. It soon causes other ripples and progressively through those other ripples we can influence the whole of society for the better.

This does not mean that we refrain from taking subsequent, follow-up steps towards undertaking social action.

We should get involved in at least a few initiatives that help bring about social change: To the extent that our time, talent, resources, and the limits coming from our other obligations permit, we should go some distance and take additional steps.

But as we do so, we should never neglect to take the first natural step towards social action, and it is one identified with our daily chores in the ordinary course of trying to carry out our work within our respective institutions well.

Through the governance culture it promotes and sustains, a center for governance and leadership can and should underscore the close connection between fairness, working for the common good, raising our levels of competence, and converting our workplaces as schools for continuing education. They can and should become practical schools for proper work attitudes and for effective social action.