SWiM® Starting with Me™

On the Ethics of Democracy in Business Decisions

2009-11-09T09:18:00.000-06:00

The occasion of the health care bill passing the House by five votes raises questions about how democracy works - majority rules - and whether that model is ethical in a business venue. Can you imagine running a business as a democracy?

What if you were wanting to roll out a new product and your research showed that only the barest majority of consumers were behind it? Would you see it as a mandate to move forward? Would it shake your trust in your R&D department? Would it be cause for celebration or for a serious reconsideration of what the customer wants, needs, and would be willing to pay for?

What if the consumer feedback you were getting raised questions about the ethics of producing the product? Would you consider a narrow margin of favorable market research as reason enough to tool up for production? If some of your major stakeholders expressed a belief that your product would create an unfair burden on them, how would you react?

Ethical decisions cannot be based on democracy. Majority rule does not guarantee moral right and winning a simple majority does not guarantee viable products.

On the Ethics of Expressing One's Faith

2009-10-07T14:43:00.000-05:00

It was one of those watershed events. In a meeting of people from many different cultures, a Native American introduced himself with a simple, yet powerful description of his beliefs in the Great Spirit and the importance of his ancestors, who were buried near the very spot from which he was speaking. No one else in the room did anything even close. It had a convicting effect on me as I began to question why I had never acknowledged the most important influence on my life as part of who I was.

Now, years later, I challenge my clients - and all you readers - to truly understand the values and beliefs that influence your lives and to articulate those in a personal mission statement. There are two important ethical considerations here.

First, since ethics by definition, is the application of our values and beliefs in real life action, it is vital that we examine and name those values. To do otherwise is to act capriciously, reacting to the circumstances rather than plotting a purposed direction or taking a stand on our understanding of truth, justice, righteousness, etc.

Second, effective decisions on if, when and how to share our beliefs can only be made if we understand the relation between our beliefs and the circumstances. This is part of why people who share their faith are often seen as insensitive and/or judgmental. I believe it is irresponsible of people to comment publicly on others' actions when they have not examined their own values and thought through how they relate to the situation.

Back to my Native American role model - his introduction was an important step in setting the stage for the talks that were to take place between the various communities of color. His belief system shaped his view point and sharing that from the beginning eliminated all kinds of misunderstanding and questions.

I was recently at another business meeting in which the speaker shared a very personal faith story as he talked about his company and described the way he has chosen to do business. Again, it seemed appropriate to the situation in that the purpose of the talk was to help all the other participants get to know this man and his company to evaluate whether and how they were to do business with him.

Expressing one's faith can be a powerful and effective communication tool; but it is only effective when we have first done a good job of expressing our values to ourselves.

On the Ethics of Apologies

2009-09-14T16:15:00.000-05:00

Several high profile apologies have been reported lately from sports and entertainment stars, from politicians and business executives. What are the ethics issues in an apology?

Ethics, remember, involves the selection and use of principles in one's behavior. Speaking is a behavior and reflects a person's beliefs. Apologies, especially public ones, expose one's principles by what is said, what is not said, and how it is said. As if that weren't enough, one's actions after an apology further defines the true character and beliefs of a person.

The next time you hear an apology, look carefully at the words, the delivery and the accompanying behavior. All of these act together to reveal the underlying principles.

For some recent examples, read The Art of An Apology.

On The Ethics of Taxation Without Representation

2009-09-01T14:01:00.009-05:00

Whatever your political leanings, it is important to consider the ethics of shifting the cost of today's government to tomorrow's citizens. This YouTube advertisement from DefeatTheDebt.com drives home the point that we are creating an onerous future for our children and grandchildren.

So, what is the ethical issue, here? In a word, it is deceit. We are deceiving ourselves and we are "slipping one over" on our progeny. While it is important whether such-and-such a program should be proposed and passed, it is equally important that we are transparent about how it will be paid for. One of the founding tenets of the Revolution was "No taxation without representation," yet we are heavily taxing the children and not-yet-born of our country without any representation from them.

What about requiring a "Truth in Lending" statement be attached to every bill so that citizens could clearly understand the financial impact of proposed programs on our children and grandchildren?

What about requiring a minimum down payment from today's taxes on any proposed program along with an amortization schedule detailing the remaining time and amount?

Progress is all important, but it is totally unethical for us to saddle future taxpayers with today's debt.

On the Company You Keep

2009-08-28T13:54:00.000-05:00

Once again my favorite ethics blogger, Chris MacDonald sparked some thoughts about ethics in his latest post. How does the company you keep reflect on your ethics?

I was personally challenged with this recently with my Twitter account, DailyConscience. I received a "So-and-so is now following you on Twitter" message. As I always do, I clicked to find out more about this person and whether she was someone I might want to follow. Turns out it was a person with only 2 Followers and many Follows. Her avatar was that of a scantily clad woman in a provocative pose, and her 1 Tweet was an invitation to do things my morals would not allow me to do.

This is a great example of an ethical dilemma. My Tweets are meant to get people to think about their behavior and values - to "tweak" the conscience everyday. Do I assume "So-and-so" actually was touched by my latest post and was reaching out for some help? If so, by all means, let her follow. Or do I assume I was just another scalp on her (non-existent) belt? If that's the case, do I want to be associated with the moral stand she represents? My answer at the end of this post.

MacDonald was writing to point up the potential ethical pitfalls in corporate sponsorship. If we were all clear on our corporate and personal beliefs, we would do well to compare them regularly with the beliefs of those with whom we associate. Even if they are different, or conflicting, we may choose to continue the association, but at the very least it would be wise to open a dialogue about the differences. For example, in the case of the conference sponsorship MacDonald was writing about, it might work to publicly acknowledge the differences and hold them up to debate.

As an ethics professional, I try to be very open about my beliefs - not because I believe I am "more right" than anyone else, but because knowing and understanding others' beliefs and what motivates their behavior is a core function of an ethicist.

So, take an inventory of the company you keep - your customers, vendors, partners, investors, investments, employees, etc. Ask yourself how each reflects on the public and private values you espouse and whether those relationships need to be reexamined.

So what did I decide about allowing "So-and-So" to follow my Tweets? I decided, "yes." At best, she may read something that causes her to think about and question her own values and behavior. At worst, someone may page through the thumbnails of my followers and decide that I screwed up and let one slip through. For now, I choose to take the risk of being judged by the company I keep.

On Looking from the Outside In

2009-08-26T10:58:00.002-05:00

This quote in the summer 2009 issue of The Corporate Responsibility Officer caught my eye:

"For pharma, the best way to improve is to talk to those outside the pharma industry." (Melinda Hanisch, Office of Corporate Responsibility and Global Policy Support, Merck.)

Thank you Ms Hanisch. This is a lesson important to everyone in every industry - and applies not only to corporate responsibility, but every phase of business.
We must all be constantly looking at ourselves through the standards of others. This doesn't mean we need to accept the standards of others, but rather to continually hold up our own decisions, products, ideas, and procedures to the beliefs of others.

The benefits to us are that we keep ourselves from organizational incest. We open the doors to new ideas and thoughts. We allow others to help us examine our own. And we gauge the pulse of other markets and niches. We will recognize the need for education of both ourselves and others and we will gain opportunities and entries to speak into others' lives and values.

Take every opportunity to look from the outside in. Look at almost any corporate (or even personal) scandal in the news and think how differently things may have turned out had those involved talked to people outside their situation to hear how their emerging decision sounded to them.

Such an important step - and so easy to implement.

On Building Ethical Landmarks

2009-08-21T15:18:00.004-05:00

An unusual piece of research showed up in a NY Times article as reported in the St Paul Pioneer Press. The researchers found that hikers in the wilderness who did not have visible landmarks - such as the sun, moon, distant mountain peak, etc. - really did wander around in circles. It turns out, "'You cannot trust your own senses at all,' said Carol Stone White, an author and editor who has chronicled hikers' exploits, awesome and otherwise, in Adirondack Peak Experiences and other books."

So why is this a subject in an ethics blog? "You can't trust your own senses at all" is the key. Whether we are talking about business, personal, cultural or any other ethics situations, we must have ethical landmarks against which to judge our actions. Dr. Jan Souman of the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics in Tuebingen says, "The brain has different sources of information for almost everything...There is a complicated interplay of different senses. Those cues — images flowing over the retina, the sense of acceleration or turning in the inner ear, even how the muscles and bones are moving — are combined in the brain to give a sense of where the body is going. But all those information sources are kind of relative," Souman says. "They don't tell you you are moving in the same direction as an hour ago."

Souman, of course, is talking about the physical brain and physical actions, but does not our experience tell us this is also true in the realm of values, beliefs and their resulting behavioral decisions?

In order for us to behave ethically, we must identify, recognize and act on ethical landmarks. Anything else is relative and will lead us in circles. Just as a hiker needs to be well prepared before venturing into the woods with a good compass or GPS, so too do we need to be prepared to make strong, ethical decisions. Yet we are often afraid to enter into the kind of discussions that unearth those landmarks. We often lack the skill to discuss things without levelling judgment or receiving others' remarks as judgment.

Be bold. Be respectful. But most importantly, be genuinely inquisitive about your own and other people's values and beliefs.

Other articles on defining the basis for ethical decsions:
Playing by the Wrong Rules; Playing the Wrong Game

Lying and Cheating - Are They Ever Right?

On What Do You Bias Your Opinion?

On Teaching People to (Eat) Fish

2009-08-07T05:36:00.003-05:00

Finally, a health care initiative that makes sense. A Star Tribune article reports a Minnesota Health Department grant to test whether people will make healthier choices around lifestyle habits related to chronic diseases. This comes in the midst of national debate around spending billions of dollars to provide universal health care.

While I can't tell from the short article how effective the program might be, it certainly seems to be a wiser use of money than offering the entire nation a free pass for remedial care. This comes under the old "Give a man a fish..." saying, in that it creates opportunities for people to affect their need for health care interventions through healthy care habits.

On the Ethics of "Free" Money

2009-07-31T11:39:00.005-05:00

The current wave of stimulus-type programs raise many ethical questions that beg to be answered. It seems it would be a healthy exercise for us as a society to have an open discussion about those questions and the answers our actions pose. May I suggest starting from the standpoint of comparing "common wisdom" to today's situations? Here are just a few ways to start those conversations.

"Pay now or pay later." The massive amount of money being pumped (or being proposed) into our economy must come from somewhere. What are the ethics of paying for today's ills with tomorrow's money? Who will pay for the billions in deficit spending? Are we comfortable putting names on that debt? What if legislators had to go on record saying, "I vote to let my grandaughter Amy and my two grandsons, Jason and David, pay for the GM bailout."

"There is no such thing as a free lunch." Did we really think that stimulus dollars directly to taxpayers was free money? Let me think, who supports the government? Oh, yeah, the taxpayers. So, the government gives me $200 and I pay it back over how long? At what cost?

"You reap what you sow." If people made poor decisions in buying gas guzzling cars, trucks and SUVs in the past, how will giving them a credit toward trading them in impart wisdom for future decisions? While I understand the immediate effect of stimulating car purchases and eliminating gas guzzling vehicles, what are the ethical implications of rewarding those who made bad decisions and not those who made good decisions?

"There are no guarantees in life." What are the ethics involved in guaranteed health care? Can our health care system truly guarantee consumers they will be cared for? (And to borrow from the above conversation, "at what cost, to whom?"). How will the system be structured so that there is incentive for research and development to meet the unforseen demands of future health issues and problems? Who will make decisions about what care is to be denied to all because of the cost of care supplied to all?

"Learn to stand on your own two feet." Finally, pertaining to all the above ideas, where are the lines to be drawn between responsibility for oneself on the one hand and removing the ability and incentive for self-responsibility on the other? What are the ethics of placing the onus for self-care on society? On the opposite end of the spectrum, what are the ethics of not caring for those who cannot care for themselves?

These are not partisan issues. These are conversations we ought to be having with each other in every forum we can. Making decisions without understanding and being open about the values on which they are based is simply unethical.

On Health Care Reform - Starting with Me

2009-07-28T07:54:00.004-05:00

As health care premiums soar as much as 25% per year, indicating spiral costs in the industry, everyone is talking about health care reform. The president and congress, state governors and legislatures, health care executives and think tank experts are all scrambling to find an answer to this very complex social problem.

True health care reform, though, will not be structured through legislation or insurance incentives. True health care reform must start with each of us. We are chiefly responsible for health care costs, in that, if we lived in such a way as to reduce the need for health care, the costs would decrease.

Oversimplification? Yes, admittedly. There are medical conditions, trauma, and epidemics that are beyond our personal control, but studies show that an extremely large percentage of health care interventions are focused on lifestyle related issues.

At the personal level, diet, exercise, hygiene, drugs, alcohol, smoking and stress are all things we do have some control over.

At the community level we have a direct effect through our driving habits, ecological behavior, hygiene, and yes, drugs, alcohol and smoking.

So what are we waiting for? I,for one will not stand by and watch the health care debate. I resolve to engage in reform where I can, starting immediately, Starting With Me.

On a Firm Foundation for Our Actions

2009-07-13T07:51:00.006-05:00

Just saw this story in the news: New Age Comes in Many Forms. The author makes a statement about the New Age movement, "where beliefs change faster than you can flip a tarot card." A "flip" comment, to be sure (pun intended), but reading on through the rest of the article causes one to think about ethics - the practical application of one's beliefs in any given situation.

Kathy McGee, a New Age magazine editor is quoted as saying, "New Age thinking is all-or-nothing — you either have an open mind to all beliefs, or you don't. It is wrong for anyone to pick which beliefs are acceptable. You don't want to say, 'This is OK, and this is not,' There is nothing we would exclude."

Now this is important because it illustrates a vital point. The comment is directed at Tim Miejan, a fellow New Age editor about whom the linked article is written. Miejan is making decisions on what to publish in his magazine based on his beliefs about the New Age movement. So, McGee is saying that Meijan's belief is wrong because all beliefs are right. Her behavior is negating her own statement of belief!

If all beliefs are acceptable, there is no longer any foundation on which to base daily decisions and actions. Standards are a moving target. In order to make a decision to act or speak, you must embrace some value. By doing so, you are holding that value more dear than others. It is impossible to "exclude nothing."

It takes courage to articulate and stand on a set of values that influence action. It takes purposeful, informed thought to adopt some beliefs and weed out others. I agree with McGee that we must have an open mind - to weigh and consider the myriad viewpoints and ideas that come at us, but an open mind is not the end. An open mind is a stance we take to help us adopt a firm foundation for our actions.

Ethics is, among other things, a discipline in that it takes work to define that firm foundation and to choose the practical application of our beliefs.

On Sticking to the Limits

2009-07-07T11:57:00.006-05:00

I had a great Fourth of July weekend, fishing with my brother-in-law in Northern Minnesota. We caught so many fish, we actually had to dump the basket out in the boat to count and be sure we weren't going over the limit. (We weren't). It got me to thinking about limits - fishing limits, speed limits, spending limits, social limits, etc.

Limits define the social mores of our culture. They may be written or unwritten, spoken or tacit. They tend to be proxy measures of our values. For example, fishing limits suggest a value of protecting the balance of nature, yet they also suggest that catching and eating fish is an acceptable value. Limits on children talking to strangers communicate a cultural norm that strangers are potentially dangerous and that people we know are essentially safe (not true statistically, by the way).

Some limits seem to be always obeyed, like not making dangerous comments while at an airline terminal. Some limits seem to be obeyed, but not necessarily as written. For example, speed limits are posted at, say 70, but the unwritten norm is that it's okay to go as much as 10 miles over the limit. And some limits seem to be ignored altogether, like walking across a non-busy street against the red light.

So, how do we know when to obey a limit, when to bend a limit, and when to ignore a limit? The point is, we can't. If sticking to limits is always situational, always left up to our interpretation of their importance or the likelihood of enforcement, then they are not limits at all.

Repeat after me, all limits must be stuck to, Starting With Me.

On Making the Most of Freedom

2009-07-02T22:57:00.004-05:00

In the USA, we pride ourselves on our freedoms, we remember those who paid dearly for gaining them and honor those who protect them - with our words. But what does our behavior say? Do we merely act like someone who has been freed FROM, or do we make the most of our freedoms to make America a better place for all?

"Live as free men, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil." And yet news stories are filled with those who have done just that. Shame on them. Ah, but it's easy to point fingers at the mighty who have fallen by abusing their freedoms. It's much harder to be honest with ourselves.

How many of us break the laws of our land because of our own self-centeredness, or just because we can? Does that truly honor our forefathers? Our men and women in uniform?

This holiday weekend, give some serious thought and sincere discussion to the topic of honoring and respecting our freedoms. Take a close look at your daily behaviors and ask yourself if you are proud of each of those actions. Imagine yourself explaining to the families of those who have died for our country how you are making the most of the freedoms their loved ones bought. Picture yourself taking a policeman along for a ride in your car; a pastor along at work; a social worker home with your family. Compare your freedom to make money with your freedom to give; your freedom from persecution and harassment with your freedom to help and comfort.

Repeat this: Freedom will always be highly valued in word AND behavior, Starting With Me.

On the Ethics of Buying Things

2009-06-26T09:33:00.003-05:00

It used to be such a simple decision: Do I need this or not? Can I afford it or not? The ethics were fairly simple - that is, does buying this item line up with my values or not?

Actually, it was never that simple. There have always been ethical questions connected to our buying behavior. There may be a few more to be aware of now, but I maintain there is almost no action we can take, or word we can speak that does not have ethical considerations, and always have had.

A few things to consider before you decide to buy that next item on your list:

Does buying it mean not buying something else that is more important to you or your family or business?

Does buying it distract you from accomplishing something of higher value in your life?

Does buying that particular item violate one or more of your values? For example:
Does the manufacture, distribution or use harm the environment?
Does the manufacturer use unfair labor tactics or employ child or coerced labor?
Do you believe it is better to buy locally; or buy union-made; or buy used; or buy from small sellers over large; or buy things exported from free trade zones; or buy things from minorities?

Does buying it have collateral ethical consequences, that is, while there may be nothing unethical about the product itself, does it communicate values that are contrary to what you want to convey? E.g. The small business owner who buys luxury items while paying minimum wages to employees.

Buying is not a simple decision. Our buying behavior is closely tied to many ethical issues.

Repeat this: Buying decisions will always support and further positive values, Starting With Me.

On Creating an Ethics-Friendly Environment

2009-06-23T09:53:00.004-05:00

We've all read them: "The Statement of Organizational Ethics" in most well-run corporations, public and private, government and not-for-profit. Many are very well crafted and are vital to articulating company values as they relate to employee, community, customer and shareholder alike. Mandatory orientation and training press home both the details and the spirit of those statements.

But in practice, employees in some of the best run orgnizations I know compain of the chasm that exists between the official ethics statement and the daily process of making ethical decisions.

Why? What's going on? How can such carefully researched, well-written documents, backed by intense ethics training fall short in guiding day-to-day behavior? I maintain that the missing element is modeling and support at the operational level. An ethics training study I ran across at EthicsWorld.org gives credence to that thought. Some of the conclusions of the study say this:

"-- In terms of the outcomes studied, organizational support for ethics is more important than any aspect of training. Whatever training method is employed, however frequently it is offered and by whom, developing a culture that is perceived to support ethics is the most important thing an organization can do to influence ethics-related outcomes."

"-- Perceived organizational support for ethics (from leadership and coworkers) contributes much more to favorable ethical outcomes than does any type of training method."

I applaud boards and executives for the time and effort put into developing corporate ethics statements, but I urge them to spend at least as much time and effort into building an ethics-friendly environment - that is, one in which ethical discussion and decision making is supported and encouraged at every level. I believe the result will be healthier ethics throughout the entire organization.

SWiM® Starting With Me™

On Judging Others

2009-06-16T20:02:00.005-05:00

I know a lot of entrepreneurs, and I find they cover every imaginable kind of personality type, social and economic class, race, creed and culture. So, why is it that I can still make the rookie mistake of judging someone by his or her looks, or style, or dress or ????. Everytime I think I've matured past judgementalism, I get surprised by finding that I've done it again!

I believe it is part of our DNA. Judging others is, in some primitive part of our brain, a defense mechanism. We scan others to see if they are a danger, or if they are prey, or if they are simply part of the landscape. This presents us with an ethical dilemma.

Judging people is almost always done on inadequate, incomplete and incorrect information. (I remember my father often asked, "On what do you bias your opinion?") I value diversity, creativity, and individualism - all things that could be easily mistaken as threats to my values of self-preservation and protection of my family, my friends, my business and my possessions. The mistake I make isn't in judging others, but in PRE-judging them without sound insights into who they really are and what they value and what they represent.

I choose to always consider others as better than myself, therefore keeping a teachable spirit about me. I choose to live out the Golden Rule, treating others as I myself would like to be treated. I choose to seek out as complete a picture as possible of people before I make my judgments.

Repeat this, "Seeing others first as allies is less likely to establish them as enemies - Starting With Me."

On Seat Belts as an Ethics Issue

2009-06-10T10:43:00.006-05:00

Beginning this month in Minnesota, seat belt laws were tightened up. It is now the law that everyone in the car be belted in and that for the first time, law enforcement officers can stop and ticket on that offense alone.

Minnesota is reported as having an 87% compliance rate for seat belt usage and this law is expected to nudge it up to 92%. So, what about those 8% who still will not be belted in? Is this a legal issue only, or an ethics issue in addition?

What are the values decisions involved in a decision on whether to wear a seat belt or not?

What value do you place on your own life?
What value do you place on the lives of those in your vehicle?
What responsibility do you have as a driver in keeping yourself physically restrained during an accident so that you have a chance to maintain or regain control?
How does increasing risk of injury or death affect health care, auto insurance, availability and cost of emergency services, etc.?
What is your responsibility to your surviving family members, friends, work associates, etc.?
What value do you place on authority and the laws of your municipality, state, etc.?

(As an aside, I posit that any legal issue is also an ethics issue. How one interacts with laws is based on what and how one values the government's authority in our lives. By definition, ethics is choosing behavior based on one's values, so how we behave in relation to any rule or law is an ethical decision.)

Seat belt usage, then is a great launching point for discussions on our values. Don't let this news item go by without entering into discussions with others. It will help you define and strengthen your own values as well as challenge others to do the same. (Scroll down a few blog entries to May 19 and listen to the short Power Point on Proactive Ethics).

Repeat this, opportunities to examine and mature value based decisions will not be wasted, Starting With Me.

On Humility - A teachable heart

2009-06-02T10:45:00.003-05:00

I began thinking about humility as a business asset. True humility is having a teachable heart; recognizing it isn't all about me; being willing to see the value in other people and ideas. I don't imagine the subject comes up real often in business schools, but perhaps it ought to.

Humility positions a company, a board, a CEO, a manager, an employee to grow and improve. It creates a sense of openness to others' viewpoints and activities as having some value for one's own. It invites sincere inquiry and fosters constructive conversation and collaboration. It validates others while expanding and strengthening self.

Purposefully putting oneself in a position where we expose ourselves to those viewpoints, beliefs, and opinions is only useful if we do so with an attitude of humility - having a teachable heart.

Peer advisory boards, business roundtables, professional organizations all have greater value when entered into with an expectation that we will learn, grow, be challenged, even corrected.

Having said that, be forewarned against false humility, which is really pride in disguise. False humility projects an image that is unteachable and unchangable and positions us to hold on to the present.

Repeat this, from now on, humility will be added to the necessary tools in my business, Starting With Me.

On Becoming Aware of Your Values

2009-05-22T07:46:00.002-05:00

Lawrence Kohlberg, a researcher in ethics, taught that moral maturity comes as a result of being exposed to different values and having to work through our own reactions to them based on our own beliefs. (Admittedly, that's an oversimplification of Kohlberg's work!) I think you will find that to be true, though.

Try this. Expose yourself to new and diverse situations. Plan to put yourself in situations in which you will experience people outside of your usual circles. Step out of your comfort zone over the next month. Work at a food shelf, visit a shut-in, mentor a troubled teen, teach a budgeting class at a prison, become a big-brother or big-sister. If you live in the suburbs, volunteer to work at an inner city agency. If you're from the inner city, do the opposite. Look for a cultural celebration in a culture unlike your own and participate in it. If you are not a church attender, choose one and go four weeks in a row.

By purposefully exposing yourself to new and varied belief sets, you will begin challenging your own values. You will either change and adjust them or you will strengthen and more fully appreciate them. Either way, ethics will become a more central part of your thinking and decision making.

Repeat this: Discovering and acting on moral truths will become an integral part of life, Starting With Me.

2009-05-19T12:01:00.001-05:00

Proactive Ethics Slideshare

View more presentations from Bob Ryan.

On the Paradox of Pro-Life and Pro-Choice

2009-05-16T12:33:00.003-05:00

Item: Judge orders a 13-year-old Minnesota teen to undergo chemotherapy for cancer, even though the toxic treatment contradicts the spiritual beliefs of him and his family.
Item: A Wisconsin woman is accused of manslaughter for praying while her daughter died of undiagnosed diabetes.
Item: The Supreme Court has unanimously ruled that there is no constitutional right to physician-assisted suicide, but requires all states to "not obstruct the provision of adequate palliative care."
Item: Roe v. Wade holds that a mother may abort her pregnancy for any reason, up until the "point at which the fetus becomes viable.’

Does anyone else not see a paradox of epic proportions here? On the one hand the government disallows individuals and families from making decisions about prolonging their lives and treating disease, while giving mothers the legal right to terminate pregnancies within the first 7 months.

In the first item, a family is required to use painful and unwanted treatment to keep a boy alive.
In the second item, a woman is held responsible for not seeking medical treatment for her daughter, even though she did seek treatment she felt was viable.
In the third item, physicians are required to provide palliative care, but are enjoined from physician-assisted suicide, ending a life that is clearly not viable.
In the fourth item, a life that would be viable with a mere 7 months of in-vitro care, is allowed to be ended with physician-assisted abortion.

There are different ways to describe this paradox:
Life is valuable, except for when it's not.
Treatment is required, except for when it's not.
Individual choice is sacred, except for when it's not.

This inconsistent application of values and core beliefs is not about ethics. It is about politics - making decisions based on competing perceptions of "rights" and prevailing opinions and popularity.

Repeat this: Ethical decisions will always be based on responsibility to core values, not rights, Starting With Me. SWiM®

On The Rewards of Honesty

2009-05-14T21:16:00.003-05:00

True story. My wife spotted a special teacup that she likes to collect at a garage sale marked 10 cents. Knowing that it was truly worth $28-$48, she suggested the owner reconsider selling it. The owner explained her mother left her a collection of teacups, but she didn't recognize this one as being special. She did reconsider and decided to add it back into the collection.

To see the happiness on my wife's face when she told me the story said a lot about the rewards of honesty. Where most people would have quietly bought the cup for ten cents and gained something that would be all but lost on a shelf for years, my wife gained the satisfaction of having added to that woman's life. The woman gained back a piece of her mother to pass on to who knows whom.

Repeat this: many and great rewards will be reaped from doing the right thing, Starting With Me. http://www.swimstartingwithme.com

On Teaching Morality

2009-05-14T09:44:00.004-05:00

On an old rerun of The Golden Girls, Blanch bought a new dress, planning to wear it once and return it as new. When Dorothy challenged, "You can't do that," she answered, "Well, yes I can honey, I'm just going to put it on for a few hours and take it off again."

While the behavior itself was unethical, what struck me more was that she didn't see it as unethical. Either she wasn't taught what is moral and what is not, or she was taught that this behavior was moral.

How do we teach morality? What are our employees, our kids, our co-workers learning? One of the Greek philosphers is credited with saying, "The teaching of virtue is the asking of questions." We must create an environment of endless inquiry; a mileiu in which challenging the status quo and examining our motives and behavior is not only tolerated, but encouraged. We must equip ourselves, our children, our workplaces, our schools and our government to ask questions respectfully, yet relentlessly.

There will always be immoral behavior, but it never need be because someone didn't know it was immoral. Repeat this, motives and behaviors will always be questioned - Starting With Me. - SWiM®

On Price Shopping

2009-05-07T07:43:00.006-05:00

There is a whole culture built up around shopping for the best price. There are descriptors deemed positive for people who industriously hunt down the lowest prices. "Thrifty" is clearly a desirous character trait, but what are the ethics involved in price shopping?

On the positive side shopping for the lowest price may seems like good stewardship, protecting the very resources entrusted to us. We make our family's or our company's dollar stretch.

On the negative side, shopping for the lowest price may challenge some even deeper held values without our realizing it. Here are some examples to think about the next time you begin checking out prices for the best deal.

Does the lowest price represent a decrease in quality?
Does the lowest price indicate a sacrifice of safety?
Does buying at the lowest price sacrifice a valuable relationship with a long-standing vendor?
Is the lowest price attained by use of unfair or abusive labor practices?
Does the lowest price separate you from some of the benefits of warranty, service, availability of parts, etc.?

Ethics is all about asking questions of yourself and your values and how your behavior fits those values. What seems like a "no-brainer" on the surface, may in fact be fraught with all sorts of ethical dilemmas.

Repeat after me, "Buying decisions must be made with an eye toward values and beliefs, as well as price - Starting With Me."

On Adding Value to My Workplace

2009-05-04T08:13:00.003-05:00

There've been a number of blogs lately questioning the ethics of employees using social networking sites at work. I own my business, but it poses a dilemma for me, too.

What if we all asked ourselves this question: "How does my activity bring value to my workplace?" After all, that's why we were hired or that's why we started our businesses. If we were to weigh each of our actions (and our words) against that question, what kind of difference could we be making? What kind of an impact would we have for our customers, co-workers, and our community?

Repeat this, "With every thought, word and deed, my workplace will be improved, Starting With Me." www.startingwithme.com