How to Teach Ethics, and Why You Should Care
I recently had the pleasure of attending a panel on "Innovations in Teaching Ethics" at the University of Virginia. The entire experience was a thrill because it affirmed my mission here at JLP Strategy -- to bring ethical wisdom into leadership practice.
First and foremost, here is why execs should care about their employees' (and their own) ethical skills:
Ethical scandals are a PR disaster, to be avoided at all cost.
Ethics and strategy are closely related, particularly for good long-term outcomes.
The millennial workforce desires meaningful work, with ethical impact.
The moral imagination has everything to do with creative capacity (and I know I don't need to convince you to care about creativity!).
Your best contributors will have a strong point of view and the courage to defend it.
These are the ethical skills that academics want to teach for application in professional life:
Knowing the difference between "empirical" and "normative."
The ability to anticipate and recognize moral issues.
The political savvy to see who is acknowledging moral problems and who handles them.
Capacity for ethical thought in the midst of ambiguity.
Here are several pedagogical ideas that surfaced, for teachers and trainers:
Literary discussions have been productive vehicles for considering the ethical dimensions of work.
Classic literature presents many facets of the human condition, which translates seamlessly across diverse professions.
Science fiction is a particularly conducive genre for exercising the moral imagination.
Film clubs offer similar benefits as book clubs and eliminate the difficulty of mismatched reading levels.
An "argument lab," employing both research and debate, is a productive idea for exploring various sides of a complicated issue.
Intrigued? Check out my services to implement these ideas at your organization.
This event took place during a conference to honor the work of philosopher and theologian James "Jim" Childress. Jim was my doctoral dissertation advisor, but that was tiny among his impressive list of accomplishments. I will always be grateful to have studied with him.
“Ethics is too important to be left to ethicists.”