Resources for Your Next Ethics Course or Training

SUCCESS → Foster Ethics and High Performance

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Featured

• Achieve your goals by competing less, not more. - Doing "whatever it takes to win" is not just unethical. It's also ineffective. [Article]
   

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• A More Positive Path to Power - A new study shows why the idea that "nice guys finish last" a harmful myth.

• How Self-Reflection Can Improve Your Leadership - A study shows how you can get in touch with your ideal leader self and turn your leadership aspirations into action—all while you drink your morning coffee.

• Doing Well by Doing Good: A Scholar and a Practitioner Discuss ESG - ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) metrics have transformed the way many companies assess their impact. In this discussion, Amelia Miazad (Business and Society Institute, Berkeley Law) and Bill Kennedy (Fidelity) explain how ESG can help you combine purpose and profitability. [Video]

• The Power of Positive-Sum Thinking - We can tell a better story about business. First, we need to recognize how cooperation—and not greed—makes business tick.

• What Most Leaders Miss About the Value of Virtue - New research suggests that to achieve the highest levels of performance, leaders need both character and competence.

• Using Business to Address the Root Causes of Income Inequality - In this video, Jessica Rose, CFO and Director of Employee Ownership Programs at the Democracy Collaborative, explains how businesses can develop market-based solutions to income inequality. [Video]

• It (literally) pays to be generous. - We expect selfish people to have greater financial success. We’re wrong. [Article]

• Lessons on Social Entrepreneurship from Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus - Nobel Prize-winner Muhammad Yunus explains how social business leads to "super-happiness," why it's important to think big and start small, and why we're all entrepreneurs. [Video]

• What can a bonobo teach a hedge fund manager? - New research on hedge fund managers and primate behavior reveals why collaboration can be your competitive advantage. [Article]

• Are you a cynic? It might be hurting your career. - Being cynical in your social interactions may seem like the safe approach—yet it can keep you from succeeding professionally and financially. [Article]

• Ethics Pays - How an Investment in Ethics Translates to Profit, Productivity, and Prestige [Download]

• The Science of Setting Goals: What Works and What Backfires - Setting goals is essential for driving performance, but goals can also drive unethical behavior. Here’s how you can avoid the dangers while sending the signals that promote both performance and an ethical culture. [Article]

• Transform Your Critics Into Allies [Video] - In his career path from maritime lawyer to pharmaceuticals executive to CEO of the industrial manufacturer Magnetrol, John Heiser has observed leadership at its best and worst. In this series of videos, he shares key insights on how to make your business a force for good—not just for its employees, customers, and shareholders, but also for the broader communities in which it operates.

• Four Ways to Use Your Power Ethically - Does power corrupt? Not always. In fact, recent research suggests that we can change the way power affects us in order to help others and ourselves. [Article]

• Sustaining Success: Managing the Pressures that Come with High Performance - Exceeding expectations is a good thing. But according to new research, it comes with added temptations. Here's what to do when the pressure is on. [Article]

• The Potential Danger of Lofty Goals - A new study on high performance goals, depletion, and unethical behavior shows that it might be time to pump the brakes on the pressure and realize the potential harm it could be doing. [Article]

• How Failure Can Be an Asset in Your Ethical Development - John Gordon discusses how missing a goal can release the gradual buildup of pressure to hit targets at any cost. [Video]

 

VALUES → Develop Integrity and Compelling Corporate Values

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Featured

• When you take a stand, go beyond grandstanding. Here's how to avoid turning your moral talk into a "vanity project" and instead keep it focused on the people and the causes that matter most.
   

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• Stories Make Your Values Stick - When it comes to building character and ethical cultures, stories aren't entertainment. They are essential.

• Designing Values-Driven Digital Tools - In this interview, Virginia Eubanks, author of Automating Inequality, explores how we can design digital tools that uphold our values rather than undermine them. [Video]

• What Dishonesty Does to Your Brain - Why does lying become easier and easier? Ask your amygdala. [Article]

• What is Integrity? - Integrity is the most-mentioned corporate value. But what is integrity, and how do we build it? Research suggests that when it comes to developing a reputation for integrity, small wins may actually matter more than grand commitments. [Article]

• Advancing Values - Rick Lenny describes how to uphold and emphasize values in an organization. He expresses the importance of environment, leadership, and integrity to promoting values and ethics. [Video]

• Keeping Promises - Frank Belatti describes a lesson he learned early in life about trust and keeping one's word, and how that has shaped his understanding of ethics and leadership throughout his career. [Video]

• Do Corporate Values Make a Difference? - They’re everywhere, and they can help—but it’s not automatic. Here’s how to ensure your mission and values statements make a real impact. [Article]

• Refreshing Corporate Values: Big Blue's How-To - Reinforcing common values can be challenging across a huge company—but as the case of IBM shows, technology can make the process easier. [Article]

 

DECISIONS → Improve My Ethical Decision-Making

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Featured

• Great Leaders are Good at Hearing Bad News - Why do we ignore information that could help us make better decisions? [Article]
   

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• How to Fail Better - Failure can be a powerful source for learning, growth, and innovation. But in order to benefit from it, we have to learn to see it for what it is.

• How to Spark Moral Imagination - Moral insights often arrive as suddenly and unexpectedly as lightning. But that doesn't mean we wait around for them to strike.

• Is ethical leadership an art? - Leaders who want to do the right thing can find help from an unlikely source: the imagination.

• To make better decisions, get comfortable saying "I don't know." - On the surprising power of intellectual humility [Article]

• Do What's Right, Sleep Well Tonight - New research lends support to the “pillow test”: Unethical behavior really does keep you up at night. [Article]

• Lessons on Developing Values-Driven Leadership from Mary Gentile, Creator/Director of Giving Voice to Values - In this interview, Mary Gentile offers key insights she has accrued over several decades of teaching business ethics both in universities and in businesses across the globe. [Video]

• How "Could" Triggers Moral Insight - Asking "What could I do?" can shift you toward more creative, insightful solutions for your toughest ethical dilemmas. [Article]

• Side-by-side comparison can help you make ethical choices and avoid stereotypes. - When we consider one option at a time, we are more likely to make unethical decisions and fall prey to stereotypes. Placing options side-by-side prompts the reflective thinking needed to avoid these dangers. [Article]

• Build Integrity by Imagining Your Future Self - Your ability to see a vivid picture of your future self can help you make the right decision under pressure. [Article]

• Four Ways to Avoid the Pitfalls of Motivated Moral Reasoning - Our inner "lawyer" often manipulates our ethical decision-making. Here’s how you can access your inner “judge.” [Article]

• To think ethically, stay focused on the future. - We make better decisions about the future than about the present. Why not “lock in” your future decisions now? [Article]

• A simple switch that boosts ethical behavior: focus on gains rather than losses. - We're wired to avoid losses. You can promote ethical behavior by removing your "loss-frames" and using "gain-frames" instead. [Article]

• Doing the right thing takes time. What if you don't have it? - Each day you face pressure to make high-quality, high-velocity decisions. Here's how to make sure your ethics are able to keep up. [Article]

• Inside the Mind of a Whistleblower - What is it like to blow the whistle on a multimillion-dollar Ponzi scheme? We asked Scott Noble to walk us through his experience as a whistleblower in a financial fraud case that led to the conviction and incarceration of his business associate, the owner of Samex Capital, Keenan Hauke. Scott stressed the importance of being proactive, finding moral clarity, and seeking allies to support your effort to do the right thing. [Article]

• How to Make the Right Choice - Tom Linebarger gives his insight into dealing with difficult decisions. He offers a practical, simple approach to making the right call — even when it feels like there is no right answer. [Video]

• The Importance of Saying No - Barry Salzberg cites examples from his career where saying "no" was the best way to do what was right. [Video]

• "Is it Legal?" vs. "Is it Right?" - Owen Ryan describes a positive development he has noticed in the business community in recent years. [Video]

• How Fraud Happens and What It Takes to Dig Out - Weston Smith recounts how the pressures of hitting quarterly numbers and a culture of reaching short-term goals at all costs created a situation that eventually landed him in federal prison. He describes the rationalizations the company used, the slippery slope that followed, and the tipping point that made him decide to do the right thing. [Video]

• Doing the Right Thing When Dollars Are on the Line - Jim Sinegal talks through a decision to do the right thing for his employees despite an economic cost to the company. Sticking to your word, even beyond what might be reasonably expected of you, reveals true character. [Video]

 

SOFT SKILLS → Master Soft Skills—the “Hard Stuff” Behind Ethical Leadership

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Featured

• Why Leaders Should Embrace Emotional Complexity - Here’s why a “good vibes only” approach won’t help you navigate times of change.
   

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• Want to be a compassionate leader? Start with self-compassion. - Being kind to yourself empowers you to grow and give.

• During dark times, gratitude matters more than ever. - In the midst of a crisis, gratitude can help you access the resources and support you need.

• Get better at disagreement with this four-step "receptiveness recipe." Here's how a new research-based formula—generated with the help of machine learning—can keep conflicts from escalating out of control.

• Three Strategies for Ethical Influence - Studies of hand washing hold powerful lessons about what it takes to motivate others to act ethically.

• Feeling Moral Stress? Here's How to Foster Resilience. - Focus on realism, social connection, and self-compassion to keep moral stress at bay.

• Humility about your own ethics can inspire your followers to act ethically. - New research shows how leaders can signal moral humility and, in turn, positively influence their followers.

• Be honest or kind? Do you really have to choose? - Most managers struggle to balance honesty with kindness. But research suggests the two may not conflict as often as we think. [Article]

• The Surprising Link Between Dishonesty and Empathy - Research shows that dishonesty takes a toll on our relationships by impairing our ability to read other people. [Article]

• Four Benefits of Bringing Awe to Work - Experiences of awe can be rare, especially at work. But they come with a wide range of tangible benefits for ethical leadership. [Article]

• In a divided world, here’s how to close the empathy gap. - Finding common ground begins with understanding the moral foundations that motivate other people. [Article]

• Gratitude has more benefits—and fewer risks—than you think. - Leaders are missing out when they fail to say "Thank you." [Article]

• The Little-known Emotion that Makes Ethical Leadership Contagious - To make their behavior contagious, ethical leaders need to harness the power of "elevation." [Article]

• Go ahead. Get angry about unethical behavior. - Good leaders avoid anger. Great leaders get angry for the right reasons. [Article]

• Are your ethics better than average? - Many of us fall prey to the illusion that we're morally superior to others. But a healthy dose of humility can help us become better, kinder people. [Article]

• Getting angry at work can help you stand up for what's right. - Moral anger can give you the courage to stand up and speak out about what is right. Other forms of anger can harm you and your organization. Here's how to tell the difference. [Article]

• How Generosity Builds Trust - Generosity is a powerful—but often overlooked—strategy for building trust with strangers. [Article]

• The Secrets of Giving and Receiving Thanks at Work - Gratitude can have a powerful impact on performance and wellbeing in the workplace—so what holds us back from giving and receiving it? [Article]

 

CULTURE → Develop an Ethical Corporate Culture

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Featured

• Bethany McLean: A Journalist's Perspective on Business Gone Wrong and What it Takes to Get it Right [Video] - In this video interview, Bethany McLean shares her insights on spotting fraudsters, avoiding short-termism, the difference between rules and principles, and the effect of social media on business transparency. [Video]
   

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• How to Build a High-Trust Team in a Low-Touch World - Proven strategies for building trust are at your fingertips—even when your team members aren’t.

• Turn Your Toxic Conflicts into Productive Disagreements - Better disagreements can lead to smarter decisions and closer connections. But first we need to approach dialogue more deliberately.

• Can a Connection to Nature Enhance Your Ethics? - A connection to nature doesn't just calm your nerves. It cultivates your character as well.

• 3 Strategies for Leading in Times of Political Polarization - "Political sectarianism" hurts us all. Here’s how leaders can reignite connection, collaboration, and commitment.

• A New Framework for Advancing Racial Literacy in Tech - Mutale Nkonde, CEO of AI for the People, shares her approach to advancing racial literacy in the tech industry. [Video]

• Four Ways to Stop the Spread (of Misinformation) - Use these research-based strategies to ensure that truth prevails in your organization.

• Is there an ethical upside to remote work? - Leading a remote team presents major challenges. But leaders who use the opportunity to encourage employees to be more authentic could reap surprising ethical benefits. [Article]

• How Can We Close the Gender Punishment Gap? - New research provides a clearer picture than ever of the "gender punishment gap," and it offers practical suggestions for working to close it. [Article]

• Deloitte US CEO Joe Ucuzoglu on Leadership in the Fourth Industrial Revolution - Deloitte US CEO Joe Ucuzoglu describes what it takes to lead in the Fourth Industrial Revolution [Video]

• “Creative Maladjustment”: Refusing to Adjust to Injustice - This week, as we celebrate the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr., we consider what recent research on “ethical champions” can tell us about King’s call to become “creatively maladjusted” to the injustice around us. [Article]

• Leadership Lessons From Tom Mendoza - Tom Mendoza helped build NetApp from a startup into to a Fortune 500 company. In this interview, he shares insights he has gleaned along the way about what it takes to create an ethical corporate culture and lead during good times and bad. [Video]

• Creating a High-Performance, High-Integrity Corporate Culture - For Baird Chairman Paul Purcell, values are the key to a high-performance, high-integrity corporate culture. [Video]

• Breaking Conformity: The Power of One Lone Voice - A single dissenting voice can empower others to speak up and influence leaders. [Article]

• How High-Integrity Leaders Can Help Employees Speak Up - Your integrity is an asset. But it may cause your employees to feel that they can't speak up about what matters most. Here’s how to maintain your principles without silencing others. [Article]

• To boost ethical behavior, let your employees learn something new. - By providing opportunities opportunities for learning, you can help your workforce become future proof and more ethical at the same time. [Article]

• Create a "Speak Up" Culture - Here's how to create an organizational culture that encourages employees to voice their concerns. [Article]

• Do Good by Being Yourself: The Ethical Benefits of Authenticity - New research argues that feeling fake can lead to unethical behavior. Here’s how leaders can help their employees practice authenticity in the workplace. [Article]

• The Three Pillars of Culture - Susan Ochs describes her take on organizational behavior, culture, and how to affect employee mindsets. From her extensive research and experience in the corporate world, she posits that the mental models and assumptions of employees have a crucial yet often overlooked role in culture management. [Video]

• Communicating Values from the Top - Cathy Engelbert, CEO of Deloitte LLP, discusses the importance of communicating an ethical tone from the top – and how recruitment and professional development play a part in building a culture of integrity. She also discusses how ethics and strategy are interwoven. [Video]

• Engaging Ethical Ambassadors On The Front Lines - We all know that tone at the top is important: without legitimate, committed support from senior management, even the best ethics program will fail. [Article]

 

PEOPLE → Attract, Hire, Train, and Retain Ethical Employees

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Featured

• Yes, ethics can be taught. - A new study provides an evidence-based answer to a timely—and timeless—question. [Article]
   

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• Will meaningful work make your employees moral? - The "Great Resignation" is here: Employees are leaving their jobs in droves to find work that aligns with their passions. Organizations stand to benefit from this trend—but only if leaders appreciate the potential (and the pitfalls) of meaningful work.

• How the Best Apologies Are Made - For some leaders, leadership means "never having to say you're sorry." But new research suggests that they are overlooking the profound benefits a good apology has to offer.

• Finding Profit and Purpose by Hiring a Workforce Others Overlooked - As a Senior Vice President at Walgreens, Randy Lewis bet his career on a plan to hire 200 people with disabilities to staff a brand new distribution center. Lewis's plan worked, and it taught him powerful lessons about using business as a tool to help others succeed.

• Hiring for Humility - Tom Horton, former Chairman and CEO of American Airlines, explains how hiring for humility can help you create an ethical culture within your organization. [Video]

• Ethics Training is Broken. Can Storytelling Fix It? - Too often, ethics trainings can be boring and ineffective. Storytelling can help—not just by keeping your participants awake, but also by helping them remember and act on what you teach. [Article]

• Four Feedback Strategies that Drive Performance and Ethical Behavior - Not all feedback is effective. If you want to drive sustainable employee performance and encourage ethical behavior, practice this mindset and these four strategies. [Article]

• Improving Ethics Training - Companies spend billions of dollars on ethics training programs each year. But are they effective? Joan Dubinsky, former Chief Ethics Officer at the United Nations, offers insights on what causes an ethics training program to fail, and she suggests ways you can redesign your organization's program to create ethical leaders. [Video]

• Attract Emerging Leaders with Purpose, not Perks - Millennials have been called the “job-hopping generation.” But research reveals that Millennials are loyal and engaged when companies offer them ways to grow and make a difference. [Article]

• Bringing Your Ethics Code to Life - All companies need to have a code of conduct, but can most employees tell you what it says? At Georgia-Pacific, probably so. See how their innovative scenario-based training is changing the game. [Article]

• Making Feedback Normal - Can I give you a little feedback?” It’s something we all hear or say from time to time, and what follows is often accompanied by awkwardness and anxiety on one or both ends of the conversation. But what if we could release the tension and leverage feedback on a more regular basis? [Article]

• Educating for Ethics - Ann Nobles, Former Chief Ethics and Compliance Officer of Eli Lilly, discusses how to navigate working in a highly regulated industry. She explains the importance of educating both employees and financial stakeholders on ethical standards in order to ensure a company-wide ethical approach to business. [Video]

• Aim High: Insights on Developing Leaders from the Air Force Academy - Founded on interdisciplinary research and tested within the high-stakes environment of the United States Air Force, a conceptual framework used there could help take your organization to the next level. [Article]

• Why Ethics Education Needs to Stay Positive - When designing ethics curriculum, focusing on the examples of failed ethics could actually decrease ethical behavior of students and trainees. [Article]

• Hiring for Guilt: How a Simple Test Might Help You Hire More Ethical Employees - Knowing that hiring ethical people means building a better organization, what predictors can savvy employers use to assess a potential employee’s ethical fiber? [Article]

• Making Tough Calls with Top Performers - Bill McDermott emphasizes the importance of holding even top performers accountable to ethical policies. He tells of an instance in his career where this was especially hard to do, but was absolutely the right thing for the company. [Video]

• Adding Emotion to Ethics Education - Traditionally, teaching ethics involved reasoning through abstract cases. But after all we’ve learned through neuroscience, social psychology, and behavioral economics, it’s clear we can’t leave out emotion. [Article]

• Buying Integrity - At five bucks a pop and ten minutes per test, can your company afford NOT to do integrity testing? [Article]

• Ethics and Integrity in the Recruiting Process - A Guide for Employers and Job Seekers [Downloadable PDF]

 

NUDGES → Implement Small Changes that Produce a Big Impact

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Featured

• One simple question can "nudge" people toward ethical behavior. - We often use carrots, sticks, and training to improve ethics. But we should not neglect the power of a simple question. [Article]
   

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• Improve Your Self-Control with This Simple Strategy - Take a tip from the pros: Adopt a ritual to trigger self-discipline. [Article]

• You can promote honesty by asking better questions. - The way you ask a question can shape another person's decision to lie or tell the truth. [Article]

• Protecting Yourself from an Unethical Boss: The Power of Moral Symbols - Protecting yourself from an unethical boss might be easier than you think. Just bring a moral “necklace of garlic” to work. [Article]

• Nudging for Ethics - Applying Small Changes to Promote Ethical Outcomes [Downloadable PDF]

• Designing for Ethics - The corporate world has many mechanisms in place to prevent, assess, and address ethical violations in the workplace. But do these mechanisms really meet the needs of an employee facing an ethical dilemma? At our 5th Annual Forum in Chicago, we dove into the innovative field of design thinking in search of an answer. [Article]

• The Ethical Triggers We Don't Notice - Ethical decision-making isn’t always as rational as we often think it is. Here’s how subconscious priming can actually make people more ethical. [Article]

• Increasing Your Odds - Across the spectrum, researchers say, we’re all prey to thinking we’re more ethical than we really are. The good news is that there are proactive steps businesses can take to avoid common pitfalls. [Article]

 

SUSTAINABILITY → Achieve Business Results Without Harming the Planet

 

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Featured

• Creating Sustainable Businesses through Stewardship and Collaboration - Erin Fitzgerald is on a mission to make the dairy industry a greater force for good. In this video series, Erin discusses how leaders can draw upon their personal values and foster collaboration to create a lasting positive impact. [Video]
   

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• Ethics and Sustainability - Focusing on long-term value creation is one of the best ways to lead ethically and build trust. In this series of videos Jean Bennington Sweeney, Chief Sustainability Officer at 3M, offers insights on making decisions for the long term good of people, profit, and the planet. [Video]

• Coming Clean: Why it Pays to Be Honest About Environmental Impact - When it comes to carbon emissions, corporate instincts may be to keep levels quiet. But three accounting researchers find that disclosing may actually help a company’s financial performance. [Article]