There's a great article by Jonah Lehrer in the New Yorker from June 12 that talks about decision making.  In it, he discusses how people have a tendency to take shortcuts when faced with uncertainty.  How do you act when faced with uncertainty?  Do you make the right choice on purpose or are you just lucky?  

Read the article HERE.

By Peter C. DeMarco

What does it mean to tolerate? What are the ethical implications of tolerating misconduct? Peter DeMarco offers a compelling reason to deepen one's understanding of the "WHO and the WHAT of tolerance." 

Growing up, my friends and I would swear to each other not to tell our parents, teachers, police or someone in authority on a questionable deed one of us had committed. Anyone who told on their buddy was a snitch, a tattle-tale, a rat, or an informer. From the playgrounds and streets of our youth, many of us learn that the ethics of tolerance means not telling on a friend for what he or she has done wrong.

That ethic, “don’t snitch!” still pervades a part of our mindset even in our most powerful and sacred institutions. We tend to tolerate WHAT we know should not be tolerated based on WHO the person is, especially a friend. Because of cowardice, sophisticated rationalizations or the artful ignorance of plausible deniability, we avoid doing the right thing and fail to recognize our cooperation in something bad.

Jenn Bergin of the Rochester Business Journal writes about the increased interest among senior citizens in living a healthy lifestyle. Local retirement communities are incorporating more and more trendy exercise programs, including the Nintendo Wii, Zumba, and others.  She points out that prioritizing a healthy lifestyle adds a youthful aura to an otherwise aging populace.  

Click HERE to read the full article at the Rochester Business Journal.

Peter DeMarco's latest article discusses the problematic view about greed prevalent in today's market.

Is it possible to make too much money? Is it possible to have too much ambition? Is it possible to be too successful?¹ And so, President & CEO, part-time philosopher and full-time capitalist, Lloyd Blankenfein, lectured the public in 2009 about the success of Goldman Sachs while acknowledging that “people are pissed off, mad, and bent out of shape” Greed and Goldman Sachs were back in the news with the very public resignation by former employee, Greg Smith. (Click here to read his March 14, 2012 letter).

The Greek Poet Archilochus wrote: “The fox knows many things; the hedgehog knows one big thing.” You may recall in his book, Good to Great, Jim Collins uses the metaphor of the fox and the hedgehog to explain how some companies become not good but great:

Those who built the good-to-great companies were, to one degree or another, hedgehogs. They used their hedgehog nature to drive toward what we came to call a Hedgehog Concept for their companies. Those who led the comparison companies tended to be foxes, never gaining the clarifying advantage of a Hedgehog Concept, being instead scattered, diffused, and inconsistent (page 92).

Collin’s hedgehog has a certain seductive appeal. We want our employees to “just do their jobs.” But real leaders need the mentality of the fox too. Click below to continue reading.

By Peter C. DeMarco

Peter DeMarco talks about the relationship between ethics and transparency in this article.  

Ethics is built on trust. Transparency is a key enabler to trust and thus to ethics. Political candidates commit to transparency during their campaigns. Leaders talk about its importance to achieving a healthy culture.

What does transparency mean to your organization? Please click on the link below and take our short EthicsPoll and provide us with your views. Transparency is the visual side of ethics. When we can see what is going on, we have more confidence that things appear to be as they really are and the less we question the reasons behind what we are being told or what we are telling each other. Transparency is a structural aid to assessing the ethical fiber of a person or organization. There is a certain kind of equality at work that puts a check on unbridled authority. 

By Peter C DeMarco

Exercising our conscience is important to ethical fitness. The language we use, particularly in moments of moral failing, can provide insights into the health and activity of our conscience. Recent events offer provocative and instructive examples. Imagine for a moment that you are surfing the news channels.

Click. A disturbing image appears of the cruise ship, Costa Concordia capsized off the shore of Giglio Island, Italy. In his first court appearance the Captain, Francesco Schettino, explains that he conducted a ‘close pass’ to shore (giving life to the cliché, show-boating), explaining that he did not intend to steer his ship into the rocks. We hear a recorded conversation by an angry Italian Port Authority official, who properly senses that passengers have perished ". . . with 100 people still on board, you abandon ship? [expletive]," then Schettino explains "I had no intention of escaping. I slipped . . . fell in the life boat . . . could not go back.”

Change channels, oh, this is interesting,...

Click the link below to continue reading.

Read Peter DeMarco's Article on Business Ethics:

About thirty years ago, a hearty laugh would follow the combination of the words "military" and "intelligence." “That’s a contradiction in terms!” was the reflexive reply, masking the scars that the atrocities of the Vietnam War had inflicted on the country.

No longer an option of last resort for young people, the military (according to surveys conducted by Harris and Forbes) is one of our most admired institutions. The modern warrior is a highly intelligent and effective ambassador of war and peace.

Today, the combination of the words "business" and "ethics" elicits more of a cry than a laugh. While the atrocities and stupidity of a few marred the reputation of the military in the past, the greed of many – consumers, bankers, politicians, and Wall Street titans to name a few – fueled the destructive forces of the Great Recession ravaging the country in the present.

Business, unlike the military, is not a profession. Anyone can go into business and participate in economic activity. To understand what business ethics really is, we need to explore this unique combination of words.

Click Below to Read More.

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