The Hierarchy of Developmental Needs: In preparing for your decision, take a few minutes to run the impact of your potential choice on the people you live and work with. Finally consider the impact on your soul if that is your belief. After reflecting on this ‘community inventory’, how ‘good’ do you still feel about the Pause I Sense of Good in this context and option to be considered. What has changed? Why? What adjustments to this option might be necessary?

I. Safety:  How will this option impact your community’s sense of safety?  How aware are you of your friends, neighbors, and colleagues individual and collective safety needs and risk tolerance?    Crossing the Sense-of- Safety of your community or its individual members is a predictor of difficult conflict.  Who will fear the consequences of your decision and can you mitigate that fear through conversation, mediation, and relationship?

II. Affection and Belonging:  Will this option disappoint people with whom you share affection and whose Sense of Good seems to be aligned with your own?  Who are these people and can you adapt your decision or enter into a conversation with those people to check your perception. Conflict with this group almost certainly will cause distress.  For those people whose Sense of Good may be misaligned with your own;  Who are they?  Can alignment be improved?  Is a conversation or negotiation possible?  

III. Morality and Ethics:  The law may frame the community but morality and ethics are the interior design.  Moral distress arises most frequently when your Sense of Good and the choice you make conflicts with friends, community members or colleagues in your work community. Morality and Ethics formally make explicit the behavioral values of your community.  When your Sense of Good and choice of options conflicts at this level, again conversation, negotiation, or mediation should precede the decision because the price of unresolved conflict at this level is high.