Introduction

Better Action

“How selfish soever man shall be supposed, there are evidently some principles in his nature, which interest him in the fortune of others, and render their happiness necessary to him, though he derives nothing from it except the pleasure of seeing it.”

—Adam Smith, 1759

Somewhere in corporate America, a discussion like this is occurring.

SITUATION #1 Less Is More

Ever since the upstart Greek yogurt companies Chobani and Fage came along, the big dogs in the yogurt industry have been hurting. For years, profits soared as they sold smaller and smaller containers of yogurt at ever higher prices. As soon as one company reduced the size of its yogurt containers, the other companies followed suit. As a bonus, they could claim to have reduced the number of calories per unit of their product, which was accomplished by making the portions smaller.

Today, one of the old-line yogurt companies is considering challenging the upstarts by introducing its own Greek yogurt at a lower price and with fewer calories. The trick is to fool consumers into thinking that its product is less expensive and less fattening simply by giving them less product per container. It worked before, so why not again? But someone in the room asks, “Is it right to compete by fooling our customers?” To which another person responds, “We never tricked anyone. We simply helped our customers do something they should do in any case, which is to control portion size.”

Whether it is yogurt or another product, discussions of this kind occur in business every day. Formulate the advice you would give to the old-line yogurt company. At the end of this chapter, you can compare your advice to the advice actually given. The tools introduced throughout this book will help you find the right path in just such situations.

Make an Ethical Difference is about having confidence that we can make sound ethical decisions—and that we can act on them. And it is about making ethical actions effective in the groups and organizations in which we participate.

When it comes to today’s ethical problems, it is up to us to do something about them. We do not trust our political, economic, religious, and social institutions to meet today’s ethical challenges. These institutions have served us for years, and they often served us well. As much as this is true, we sense that these institutions are not up to today’s ethical challenges. Just as a virus can evolve more rapidly than our immune systems, many of our problems, particularly those involving ethics, have evolved beyond the reach of our institutions. If our institutions cannot meet today’s ethical challenges, it is time for us to act as ethically concerned individuals and groups.

Many ethics books invite you to agree or disagree with the author, who is pretty sure about what other people should believe and do. This is not such a book. To benefit from Make an Ethical Difference you need not agree with me about any issue of public controversy. This book is about how to make ethical decisions and act on them. I am not going to tell you which decisions to make or how I, or anyone else, expect you to act.

Make an Ethical Difference is partly based on my experience as an ethics advisor to hundreds of organizations of every kind and size—and in some of the worst ethical situations of our time. From this experience, I have learned a lot about why people make poor ethical choices and how to stop this from happening. I have also learned the value of action over opinion. One thing that gives ethics a bad name is that ethical issues never seem to be resolved. Ethics often seems to be oriented more toward critiquing what has happened than toward influencing what will happen. In Make an Ethical Difference, our view is firmly forward on the future we can create through ethical action.

YOUR ETHICS SENSE

Make an Ethical Difference is built on a radical theme, which is that individuals have an innate ability to see what is right and do it. I sometimes call this innate ability to see what is right “the ethics eye,” and this book will help you recognize this ability in yourself. Once you acknowledge your native ability to see what is right, it is comparatively easy to sharpen this ability. Trusting your ability to see what is right will give you the confidence to take actions that make an ethical difference.

A basic question is, “If I have this innate ethics sense, why don’t other people agree with me?” In fact, if we have this innate ability, why are there broad, fight-to-the-death disagreements among religions, political ideologies, and whole societies about right and wrong?

It may seem like this is the knockout punch for the whole idea of an innate ethics sense, but it isn’t. The kinds of disagreements cited above exist in all branches of knowledge, including those based on the evidence of the five recognized senses. There are exactly analogous disagreements in physics, psychology, mathematics, and aesthetics. Would anyone argue that we cannot do physics because there are endless arguments about the basic components of matter?

Deep, recalcitrant disagreements are common to such fields as physics and astronomy. The disagreement between Copernicus and Ptolemy about the position of the Earth in the Universe was profound and not easily resolved. Because both viewpoints made the same predictions about the then observable movements of the planets, the eye—visible observation—seemed unable to decide between the theories. This disagreement did not lead us to distrust the human eye. Eventually, that selfsame human eye was able, with the use of more powerful instruments, to decisively support the Copernican viewpoint. In the same way, the tools provided in Make an Ethical Difference are designed to sharpen your ethics sense. They are instruments for sharpening your vision of right and wrong.

Some would point out that at least some scientific disputes are eventually settled—and in ethics nothing ever seems to get settled. But one of the reasons that some scientific disputes are settled is that we are willing to count them as settled. Some people still believe in astrology, which is a version of Ptolemaic astronomy. This does not lead us to conclude that the Earth might really be at the center of the Universe. In physics, there is dispute over whether the basic components of reality are waves or particles or strings or something else for that matter. We do not conclude that we will never settle anything in physics.

It is a theme of Make an Ethical Difference that the fact that people disagree about ethics does not show that we lack an ethics sense. It shows that ethical issues are as complex as the problems in other branches of knowledge. Once we understand the causes of ethical disagreements, we will be better able to settle them.

TOOLS FOR BETTER ACTION

One reason for today’s pessimism about ethics is that a decline in ethical expectations is a self-reinforcing, downward spiral. The lower my expectations of ethical conduct from others, the less likely I am to enter into relationships with them based on honesty and trust. Instead of shaking hands over a simple transaction, I will “lawyer up.” Others, in turn, have less reason to be honest with me and trust me, since my behavior toward them is cagey and untrusting. This downward spiral of expectations can only be reversed through focused action to break the cycle. Make an Ethical Difference is about just such action.

In order to take action to stop the downward ethics spiral, we need tools to sharpen our ethics sense. It is possible to learn to be an effective ethics change agent through the use of proven tools. These tools have been developed over a forty-year period and have been tested in many challenging situations. To build confidence in these tools, we apply them to situations in which an ethical action is required.

I believe that individuals can take constructive action on ethical issues. Sometimes it seems that issues are called “ethical” just to put them in a locked box labeled “insoluble.” This is a self-defeating way to think about ethics because it blocks all possible action. If you wonder where this kind of thinking leads, just take a look around. On the other hand, if you want to stop wringing your hands about ethical decline and do something about it, we have a journey together.

SITUATION #1 Less Is More (continued)

Here is the advice I gave to the old-line yogurt company.

“You got into this predicament by using trickery to increase profits—and it worked for quite a while. However, you also made yourself vulnerable to the upstart Greek yogurt companies and now you are paying the price. Even if you challenge the upstarts with more of the same trickery, there is no guarantee that you will succeed. Now that you have feisty competitors, they may reveal your strategy for what it is. You should at least match the quality and portions of the upstarts while working hard to out-market them. You are still the familiar brand and you have enormous advantages in commanding shelf space. This is the ethical way to compete, and it will also ensure that any customers you regain will stay loyal to you.”

As we gather tools in the coming pages, you will be able to see why I gave this advice and decide whether or not you agree with it.