I was at a meeting where Harvey McKay spoke about the need to incorporate Fun and Creativity into our daily worklife. Hooray! I’ve been promoting this concept for my ethics training for more than 5 years and everybody told me I was nuts! Take “fun” out of ethics training! How can ethics training possssssiblllly be fun???!
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Happy New Year everyone! I hope you had a joyful holiday season and 2014 is getting off to a great start for you! It’s going to be a fantastic year – can you feel it? I was reading a book the other day (gasp, actually having time to read a book??) and came across this question: Which matters more: intention or action? It stopped me in my tracks, and I had to stop reading to ponder this question for a while. The main character in the book was dealing with a crisis where he and the people around him were fighting for their lives. These folks were tricked into doing something they knew was wrong, but they were tricked by →
Whining alert! Whining alert! I’m watching the news the day after Christmas. And people everywhere are moaning about not getting their Christmas packages on time. Ok, so I understand the wonderful experience of giving family and friends presents and enjoying their reactions as they open your carefully selected gifts. It is, after all, why I choose to give presents only when I get the chance to go home and visit my family in person. But come on, people! Let’s have a little accountability check here! If you purchased a gift at the last minute and it required shipping, you KNEW you were taking a chance it wouldn’t arrive on time. Last minute means the last week before Christmas. Never mind →
I was just interviewed last night on a radio show called I am U Radio. The topic was the Energy of Ethics. I was a little nervous, not having done much with radio, tv or broadcasting very recently. But the hosts, Dagny and Beth, started off the conversation by sharing some of their thoughts and experiences with ethics and ethical behavior. They could have been delivering my workshop – they were saying a lot of the same words I use in my own workshops and lunch-and-learns. As I listened I thought to myself – well this is going to be easy!! And I was right. It was just like having a conversation with old friends on a topic near and →
I get these SmartBriefs that update me on topics of interest, like ethics, leadership, entrepreneurship etc. It’s how I keep up with things and manage to stay current on business news and world events. On April 16 I got a Social Media SmartBrief that talked about the impact of social media related to the Boston Marathon bombing. The title was “Social Media provides comfort, information after Boston bombing.” The titles are what usually grab me or influence me to open the email. This time was no different, but another sentence in the summary just absolutely shocked me. And got me thinking again about the decline in ethical values of our society today. This snippet of information said that people flock →
The day before election day I saw on the national news a segment on voter fraud. What?? Here in the US?? Really?! The news segment mentioned a series of activities such as “robo-calls” providing incorrect polling place addresses, putting the wrong election date on voting mailings, closing early voting early, throwing away authentic voter applications or questioning the validity of citizenship. I do not know if all of these are true, but if they are, how Far we have Fallen…! I’ve lived in places like Mexico, where the ballots boxes were made of clear plastic to prevent ballot stuffing and where the US sent watchdogs to ensure “clean” elections. I happened to be in Haiti on business when they had →
How many times have we heard this phrase? And how many times do these words get us into trouble? When I hear this sentence lately I start running to the door, biting my tongue to avoid saying something I’ll regret later. That’s usually because what is easy for some is rocket science for me. The latest example of my long list of frustrations with these words relates to technology. And for me, technology is definitely rocket science! I’m still trying to figure out how to record programs using my DVD player and yes, until recently I thought a tablet was a pad of lined notebook paper. Ok, stop laughing. If my methods aren’t broken I don’t fix them. And ask →
Ethics – it’s a topic on everyone’s mind these days. If you’re still watching the news or listening to the radio or tweeting on Twitter you can’t avoid hearing about the consequences of unethical behavior. It is all around us; related to the cars we drive to the banks we put our money into, to the value of our homes. Why, then, when someone mentions the word “ethics” do people roll their eyes or start running for the door? Let’s explore. Ethics is fascinating, at least for me. Ok, so call me a weirdo, an oddball, a freak. These descriptors are ok, but less polite terms are unacceptable. And No – “ethics police” is NOT an acceptable descriptor! But reactions →
Here in Arizona we’re having a debate. Ok, so we’re having a lot of debates here and sparking a few big nasty national ones as well lately. Arizona is definitely subscribed to the Wild Wild West mentality. But the debate I’m writing about relates to ethics, and whether our elected officials should have immunity from prosecution while the legislature is in session. Ethics is actually being Debated here??! It was a crazy incident that sparked this debate. The state majority leader of the Arizona state Senate and his girlfriend were arrested after having a fight in their car on the highway. The girlfriend was arrested and charged with assault. The state majority leader claimed immunity because the state Senate was →
I will cherish this memory. A unanimous vote in the US Congress. A rare thing of beauty it was, although the reason for it was heart wrenchingly sad. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords submitted her last piece of legislation before resigning as a US representative of the state of Arizona. Watching her complete this task, take her last vote, and submit her resignation was much harder for me than I anticipated. And yet, it was truly one of those profiles in courage that we’re seeing less and less these days. It was something I felt I absolutely had to rearrange my schedule to watch, recording for history my own memories of the good things in life. The memory of her walking up →