“The ultimate aim of ethics is not to enhance ethical understanding but to improve how people live.”
Hugh LaFollette, The Practice of Ethics.
When to Confer
WHEN YOU WANT INFORMED INDEPENDENT ADVICE: Ethics is not easy. Ethical decision making is often complex, messy, and confusing. Informed, experienced, and unbiased advice from someone outside the institution can help the process and improve the outcome.
WHEN YOU BELIEVE YOU CAN DO BETTER: Fulfilling an institution’s vision and mission requires results- oriented ethical leadership and decision making at all levels of the organization.
WHEN YOU WANT TO SECURE THE FUTURE: In a time of positive leadership and a healthy ethical climate, it is important to take steps to reinforce and to secure what has brought the institution to this time and place.
WHEN INVESTING IN LEADERSHIP MATTERS: Every institution should have a small number of individuals who are on the leadership track. Ethics and leadership education can play a role in shaping the future for these individuals and for the institution they serve.
WHEN YOU MUST DRAIN THE SWAMP: If an ethical crisis hits, institutional leadership can be consumed by the alligators that surround them on a daily basis. Under these circumstances, it is hard to focus on the long term objective of draining the ethical swamp and starting over.