How Networks of Complicity Can Enable Crimes to Go on for Decades

, , ,
Unethical, even criminal, conduct can persist in organizations for long periods of time, often as an open secret and often supported by others. The R&B singer R. Kelly was found guilty of racketeering and sex trafficking charges…

Remote Work and the Strategic Advantage of Culture

, , , ,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q22cclehDjY In this virtual event, hosted by the New York Fed in July, Alison Taylor joined other panelists to discuss, among other things, how norms are transmitted in various work environments, and the…

Companies Should Measure Their Levels of Workplace Bullshit

, , , ,
People’s propensity to bullshit increases when the social expectations of having an opinion are high, the audience is unknowledgeable, and the speakers expect to get away with it. Like cheating in school, bullshitting is a way for people…

How to Have Better Conversations About Ethics in Business

, , , , , ,
The first step is to make conversations about ethics in business safe, interesting, and normal. It is often difficult, many people would agree, to talk about ethics in business. But why? It’s not because people don’t know what ethics…

How to Understand Political Polarization in the Workplace

, , , ,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cg1YIZLaRKA&t=209s In this conversation from the NeuroLeadership Institute, host David Rock speaks with Jon Haidt and Alison Taylor about the social and technological origins of our politically polarized…

3 Ways Companies Can Work with Employee Activism

, , ,
Whether or not purpose is articulated through a coherent vision, and supported by effective platforms for internal and external impact, can make all the difference in how employees respond—to produce change or create the conditions for change. Should…

Courage Is a Competency

, , ,
The truth about courageous action is that you practice regularly. You prepare for that moment. What does workplace courage look like? While some of us may have a clear idea that comes easily to mind, no doubt many others think of it as something…

Good Risk Culture Starts with an Open Conversation

, , ,
"The pandemic certainly has awakened many people to the importance of explicitly reckoning with risk," says Michele Wucker, author of the new book You Are What You Risk. One of the riskiest decisions in my life, I still tend to think, was…

The Entrepreneur Who Wants Us to Rethink What’s Worth Wanting

, , ,
Few people realize that they’re caught up in the kind of mimetic crisis that Rene Girard (above) described while they are actually in it, says Luke Burgis, author of Wanting. A powerful idea, that of mimetic desire, seems to be getting…

What Pirates Have to Teach Us About Leadership

, , , , ,
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…