What does it mean for something to be fair?

<p>When I was little my dad used to say, “You want fair? Go to Turlock in August.” That’s when and where the county fair was held each year. That was his way of saying life wasn’t fair and that was too bad.</p> <p> </p> <p>Dr Bob Choat started our conversation off by talking about culture and how, depending on where you are and what biases you have, fair might be seen differently.</p> <p> </p> <p>For Lisa Howard two words came to mind first, balanced and impartial. She then went on to add, moral, ethical, free of bias and favoritism. She believes a situation has to be looked at holistically to determine if it is fair.</p> <p> </p> <p>Brett Knopf agreed, adding there is a subjectivity to it. He considered the question from a negotiation standpoint. In that case, fairness is both parties walking away satisfied.</p> <p> </p> <p>I believe there is an element of expectation when it comes to fairness. In the conversation I shared a funny story of my sister explaining to her four-year-old why it was “fair” for them to split a chocolate bar one third to the toddler and two-thirds to my sister. Fair doesn’t always mean equal.</p> <p> </p> <p>Another little antidote from my childhood – If I was splitting something with a sibling my mom would always have one of us cut it and the other one got to choose their half first. You have never seen such careful halving of something as me cutting something knowing my sibling would choose the larger half.</p> <p> </p> <p>What do you think it means for something to be fair? Is fairness a thing in the adult world?</p> <p> </p> <p>Connect with the panelists:</p> <p>Lisa Howard: <a href='https://www.linkedin.com/in/lhoward2/'>https://www.linkedin.com/in/lhoward2/</a></p> <p>Is the Founder of the HR consulting company, People Core Strategies. She is a trusted Business Consultant and HR Advisor - Helping companies grow through effective people strategies.   </p> <p> </p> <p>Brett Knopf: <a href='https://www.linkedin.com/in/brett-knopf-5849b48/'>https://www.linkedin.com/in/brett-knopf-5849b4