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Before the modern era of "soft skills" employee training like Empowered Leadership, Dress for Success, Customer Service Success, and others, there was the classic harassment and discrimination training. It was around long before employee training was in vogue and may have been the only non-technical training available at the time. You've probably taken the same kind of discrimination course a dozen times in your education and career and can recite an anti-discrimination statement word for word. But is this the measure of success? As the saying goes, "Familiarity breeds contempt," and the fact that you've taken the same course a dozen times doesn't indicate that you've learned anything about what it means.

Slow down and take a few moments to consider the profound ethical and character implications of the all-too-familiar anti-discrimination statement. If you think about it, the statement, "You shall not discriminate on the basis of race, gender, creed, national origin, age, and disability," is a powerful moral imperative. But what does it mean and why should you care? Why don't you discriminate? Is it because the statement enlightened you in some way? No, the reason you don't discriminate is because it breaks the most fundamental of all moral and ethical principles: fairness.

No matter how you feel about race or gender issues, it's a cold, hard reality that no one likes getting the short end of the stick because of an unfair advantage or cheating. In every avenue of life, all we want is to get fair shake. That is, we get a fair chance to be judged objectively by our merits and character and not anything else. Make no mistake, there is a deep moral and ethical imperative in an anti-discrimination statement that goes far beyond race or gender.

Ethics is fundamentally about fair play. We call someone who plays by the rules, "ethical." Discrimination is completely anti-fairness. It is impossible for a person to call him or herself "ethical" yet practice discrimination against others based on factors such as race, sex, age, etc. An ethical person must subscribe to the principle of fairness without reservation whatsoever. There are no gray areas. Discrimination is as unilaterally unethical as lying, cheating, stealing, and any other universally accepted wrongdoing.

Although a relatively few people in your workplace probably accept discrimination as legitimate, some people may find it difficult to resist discriminating on a case-by-case basis because of fear, prejudices, ignorance, or lack of perspective. Consider some of the traps; First, people dehumanize others who are different. They see them as somehow "lower" and do not consider them to be as fully "human" as they are. Second, people fear what is unfamiliar. Comfort zones are hard to leave and many people simply can't accept anything alien. Third, people let their preconceived notions and attitudes become reality. Fourth, people allow prejudices to flourish that have nothing to do with the truth and the person standing in front of them. And fifth, people fail to make the moral and ethical connection between fairness, discrimination, and ethics. These things are completely intertwined and inseparable.

On the positive side, if you can sign your name to the anti-discrimination statement and mean it, you are saying something very powerful about your character. To say, "I will judge everyone fairly and give everyone a fair shake" is a serious commitment. It's not just a pat statement or a human resources hurdle but a fundamental approach to how you treat every person with whom you come in contact. You are saying, "Even if I don't like someone, I'm going to give them a fair shake." "No matter who comes through my door, I will treat them right." This is no easy goal because there may be times when one of those snares rears its ugly head. But, if you can truly stand by the idea of fair treatment of others, you will be taking a giant leap forward in your character.

So the next time you see your anti-discrimination policy or attend diversity training, stop and think about ethics below the surface. Reflect on the meaning of ethics and fairness. Search yourself and consider the kind of person you are at your very core. Think about how you treat others and what kinds of barriers get in the way. Take an ordinary event such as your diversity training and turn it into an extraordinary change of character.