What Pirates Have to Teach Us About Leadership

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Pirates, it turns out, were forward-thinking in a number of surprising—and instructive—ways. In the deep heat of an 18th-century summer, a crew of pirates was sailing off the Virginia coast when a lookout spotted a merchant ship to the…

Why a Basecamp Founder’s Blog Post Blew the Company Up

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Basecamp sought to transcend the messy, fraught political discussions—particularly about racism—that surround all of us with the quick fix of stifling speech on those topics in their chat forums. In 2018, Jason Fried and David Heinemeier…

The Tricky Role of Loyalty at Work

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The downsides of fostering loyalty don't mean that promoting loyalty is too dangerous. But leaders should proceed with caution. It’s fair to say that, overall, organizations can benefit from loyal employees. Loyal employees stay with their…

How Investors Can Lead the Shift Toward Stakeholder Capitalism

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The overwhelming focus on correlating highly imperfect ESG metrics with financial performance risks drowning out more promising avenues of research on how to meaningfully encourage a broader and longer-term approach to value creation. It’s…

Why Corporate America Should Oppose the National Effort to Suppress Voting

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American corporations have been great beneficiaries of our two-century-old democratic experiment. As Republican politicians in states across the country move to restrict voting rights, corporate leaders are faced with an uncomfortable choice.…

Survey: Business Leaders See Ethics as a Competitive Advantage

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Business leaders, according to the study, “feel a growing responsibility to exert their influence on broader societal challenges, from climate change to deforestation to racial and gender equality.” ESG is turning out to be an abbreviation…

Why Promotion Is a Moral Hazard

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"When leaders very publicly fail due to ethical lapses, some people are inclined to say, 'See, that’s just how business is,' instead of learning a more inspiring lesson." Jessica Kennedy gets frustrated when people—often academics—try…

The Real Test for McKinsey After Rejecting CEO Kevin Sneader

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McKinsey’s pitch is that it helps clients compete at the leading edge of business innovation. It should apply this model to its own operations. Last month, McKinsey’s 650 global partners turned down CEO Kevin Sneader’s bid…

Why Do We Always Think We’re Right? A Conversation with Jon Haidt

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In this episode of The Good Fight podcast, host Yascha Mounk speaks with Ethical Systems Founding Director Jonathan Haidt about the psychological differences between the political left and right, the human tendency to discriminate in…

Insurance Companies Can Help Phase Out the Fossil-Fuel Industry

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Listen to "#25 - Insurance Companies Can Help Phase Out the Fossil-Fuel Industry" on Spreaker. In this episode of the Breaking the Fever podcast, the second in our miniseries on climate finance, we speak with Peter Bosshard and Elana Sulakshana…