S1208 Organizational Ethics, Politics, and Sustainability: Leading Change Toward Sustainability (S1208)

1. Why should we care about economic, social, and environmental sustainability?
- Enlightened self-interest reasons and the mathematics and game theory of sustainability.
- Interdependence among economic, social, and environmental sustainability.
- Social justice reasons.
- Sustainability as ends and means.
- Externalities and Profitability opportunities.
- Aesthetic reasons.
- Kantian expansion of idea of life and living environments as ends in themselves.
- Religious stewardship reasons.

2. Types of sustainability ethics leadership praxis, methods, and sustainability outcomes.
Process methods
- Sustainability arguments and criteria.
- Leadership story-telling and creative/artistic methods for sustainability.
- Win-win solutions to ethics and sustainability problems
- Leading change and transition teams for sustainability.
- Sustainability compliance systems and whistle-blowing methods.
- Alternative governance structures for sustainability.
- Social movement methods.
- Alternative institution building and social entrepreneurship methods for sustainability and sustainability investing.

Outcomes
- negative-sum outcomes
- zero-sum outcomes
- positive-sum quantitative outcomes
- ceative/transformational qualitative outcomes
- Qualitative Change in interests/values driving initial positions.
- Qualitative Change in relationships.
- Qualitative Change in reasons for being relative to ethics situation.

Aristotle and three ways/dimensions/choices of work life:
- Poesis: work as means to an end
- Praxis: developmental work that makes us better people and the world a better place, joined ethics and politics.
- Theoria: study, research, contemplation as ends in themselves.
- Art/aesthetic for arts sake.

Praxis approaches/choices
- Oppose the negative, the unethical
- Rescue/help the victims
- Co-create with the positive, the ethical, build a better world

3. A short sustainability history of alternative political-economic systems, institutional logics, and practices.
- premodern political-economic and institutional logics
- modern political-economic and institutional logics
- postmodern political-economic and institutional logics

4. Obstacles/causes of sustainability opportunities and problems.
- Individual obstacles-causes.
- Richard III
- The Eichmann
- The Sophist
- Socrates' Jailer
- Phaedo
- Faust
- Dr. Suguro

- Organizational Obstacles-Causes
- Performance appraisal and compensation systems
- Communications systems
- Culture of "It's just a game," "We keep score by the numbers," "End of winning justifies the means," "Ethics is for after work, weekends, and charity."

- Environmental Obstacles.
- Competitive pressures
- Corruption systems

5. Sustainability arguments and criteria.

1. Aristotle's (384-322 B.C.) proportionality, mean between blameworthy extremes.
2. Aristotle's (384-322 B.C.) and Machiavelli's (1469-1527, republican, see "Discorsi") common good as joined point/reason for cooperation with
appropriate social organization/process (polis) for cooperatively realizing the point/reason for cooperation
3. Ambrose's (340-397), "When you are in Rome live in the Roman style; when you are elsewhere live as they live elsewhere."
4. Smith's (1720-1790) small family business, "self-interest that does not hurt my neighbor."
5. Kant's (1724-1804) "Treat people as ends in themselves and not merely as means to an end."
6. Kant's (1724-1804) "Right/obligation to participate/express when one has relevant information.
7. Bentham's (1748-1832) utilitarian act cost/benefit, rule cost/benefit.
8. Hegel's (1770-1831) and Marx's (1818-1883) oppressive ("lordship and bondage") large family controlled business sweatshops and dialectic of socially embedded ideas, "relentless criticism", "emergent 'geometric' community."
9. Weber's (1906) large family owned, religiously based business "ascetic" (frugal and orderly) organizational community and social reform.
10. Weber's (1920), Simon's (1945), and Chandler's (1977) positive-sum game (cooperation increases the size of the pie for all) professional, scientific, "Managerial Capitalist" social contract.
11. Kierkegaard's (1813-1855), Yeats' (1865-1939), and Gadamer's (1900-) dialogic "upbuilding" and cultural "reconstruction."
12. W. James' (1842-1910) and Rorty's "pragmatism," experimentation."
13. S. and B. Webb's (1859-1947) "Fabian" communicative social democracy and multiple constituency organizational governance and Habermas' (1929-) "communicative action," and Freeman's (1986) multiple stakeholders.
14. Friedman's (1962) and Jensen's and Meckling's (1976) "Investor Capitalist" optimization of shareholder wealth that derivatively (trickle down) satisfies needs of multiple constituencies.
15. Piaget's (1896) developmental, Kohlberg's (1970) objective principle, and/or Gilligan's caring based developmental stages.
16. Postmodern and liberation theology criticism of histories/rules/laws that are biased in favor of old and/or new powerful.

6. Leadership story-telling and creative/artistic methods for sustainability.

- Roles in stories: individual, socio-economic class, race, gender, ethnic group, religion, nations, regions.

1.Simple desire story. Leader describes case where person who did A act achieved good end B in spite of difficult circumstances.

2.Simple fear story. Leader describes case where person who did not do act A lost good end B when difficult circumstances arose.

3.Simple identity story. Leader describes who we are, where we came from, where we can go: (a) simple desire; (b) simple fear.

4.Simple hero story. Leader describes: (1) good guys and bad guys; (2) bad guy does something bad to good guy and good guy down for a while; (3) good guy wins in the end.

5.Simple tragedy story. Leader describes: (1) good guys and bad guys; (2) bad guy does something bad to good guy and good guy down for a while; (3) good guy keeps losing because of superior power of bad guy.

6.Perseverance/turnaround story. Leader describes: (1) good guys and bad guys; (2) bad guy does something bad to good guy and good guy down; (3) good guy keeps losing for a long time because of superior power of bad guy; (4) after a long time (500 years, Greeks vs. Turks; 300 years, Irish vs. British, Chinese/Indians vs. Europeans), medium term (75 years, Vietnamese against French and Americans; 50 years, U.S. vs. Soviet Union), short term (five years, U.S. colonies vs British; U.S. North vs. South in Civil War; U.S./Europe vs. Nazis, Fascists), "our people good guys drive out "bad guys".

7.Complex tragedy story. Leader describes: (1) our guys, their guys, good characters/behaviors, bad characters/behaviors; (2) our guys and their guys in conflict; (3) our guys and sometimes also their guys losing because of tragic flaws in characters/behaviors.

8.Complex living with struggle of good entangled with bad, developmental story. Leader describes: (1) our guys and their guys with mixed good and bad qualities; (2) our guys and sometimes their guys lose because of character/behavior flaws/circumstances; (3) people are more and less happy, effective, ethical and wiser in struggle depending upon how they deal with continuing character/behavior/circumstance obstacles/flaws.

Creative-Artistic-Entertainment-Symbolic Leadership Methods

1. Speech/talks with literary elements, e.g., Robert Kennedy speech the night Martin Luther King died; Warren Buffet on derivatives as "instruments of mass destruction."
2. Sports metaphors, e.g., Ray Fitzgerald article on violence and "ends don't justify the means," Goldman Sachs training and Tom Brady metaphor.
3. Journalistic article, e.g., article on Israeli "settlements" in Palestinian areas.
4. Novels/plays/movies with embedded influence elements by authors and/or government/business organizations, e.g., Graham Greene novel, The Quiet American, and Joseph Mankiewicz's movie, The Quiet American, Michael Caine's movie, The Quiet American.
5. Embedded and nontransparent social/political marketing/advertising, e.g. cigarette companies and popular entertainment.
6. Direct political advertising for candidates (positive and negative), social movement campaigns (environment, nutrition, voting, etc.).
7. Symbolic boycotts, trials, strikes, street theatre, symbolic funerals, singing, vigils, mock awards.

Creative, symbolic, artistic, innovative, feeling, sympathy based methods.

1. Formal statements.
- public speeches
- letters of opposition or support
- declarations by organizations and institutions
- signed public statements
- declarations of indicment and intention
- group or mass petitions

2. Communicating with a wider audience
- slogans, caricatures and symbols
- banners, posters and displayed communications
- leaflets, pamphlets and books
- newspapers and journals
- music, radio and television
- skywriting and earthwriting

3. Group representations
- deputations
- mock awards
- group lobbying
- picketing
- mock elections

4. Symbolic public acts
- displays of flags and symbolic colors
- wearing of symbols
- prayers and worship
- delivering symbolic objects
- protest disrobings
- destruction of own property
- symbolic lights
- displays of portraits
- paint as protest
- new signs and names
- symbolic sounds
- symbolic reclamations
- reude gestures

5. Pressures on individuals
- haunting officials
- taunting officials
- fraternization
- vigils

6. Drama and music
- humorous skits andpranks
- performances of plays and music
- singing

7. Processions
- marches
- parades
- religious processions
- pilgrimages
- motorcades

8. Honoring the dead
- political mourning
- mock funerals
- demonstrative funerals
- homage at burial places

9. Public assemblies
- assemblies of protest or support
- protest meetings
- camouflaged meetings of protest
- teach-ins

10. Withdrawal and renunciation
- walk-outs
- silence
- renouncing honors
- turning one's back

7. Win-win solutions to ethics and sustainability problems.
- reasonable compromise between extremes (e.g., safety standard)
- reasonable trade of different resources (e.g., bonus for analyst accuracy vs. sales)
- pool/share resources-costs, creating a level playing field with same constraints (e.g., industry pollution standards)
- developmental expansion, positive-sum transformation (e.g., residential- commercial, historical and environmental real estate development)
- to the neediest (e.g., social insurance/security products/systems)
- advanced triage (e.g., union give-backs)
- seniority (e.g., employee relations)
- take turns (e.g., dangerous, difficult work assignments)
- contingency (e.g., plant location in environmentally sensitive area)
- experiment (e.g., new performance appraisal and compensation system)
- random selection (e.g., organ transplants when other things equal)
- combinations

- Performance appraisal and compensation systems that include ethics

- Collaboration, reciprocity, personal appeals.

- Networking: Person 1 helps Person 2; Person 1 asks Person 2 to help Person 3; Person 1 asks Person 2 and Person 3 to help Person 4, continues.

- Cooperative negotiating for level playing field

- Awards, e.g., Financial Times Sustainable Banking Awards, Financial Times Good Governance Rankings.

- Identity transformation method, e.g., Cyprus, Ireland
1. Identity as victim.
2. Introduction of positive-sum political-economic sectors.
3. Membership in larger, prosperous group
4. Identify transformation and win-win peaceful co-existence

- Sharp, Ch. 2, "The dangers of negotiation."
- negotiated surrender
- power and justice
- agreeable dictators
- peace with or without freedom and justice

- Minimal Peaceful Coexistence
1. frame to oneself and other a "difference" perspective.
2. deconstruct to oneself and other negative biases in tradition/system of other.
3. express willingness to negotiate minimal w-w, coexistence working agreement with other.
4. invent options for coexistence.
(It is possible that method can open a way for further dialog after coexistence accepted.)

8. Leading change and transition teams for sustainability.

Foundations of Group Behavior.
- Stages: forming, storming, norming, performing, adjourning.
- Punctuated-equilibrium for temporary groups: direction, inertia, major changes as time runs out, inertia, major changes near the end.
- Sociometry: social networks, clusters within networks - emergent, prescribed; coalitions; cliques; stars with most links; liaisons and bridges; isolates.
- group decision-making techniques: interactive, brainstorming, nominal, electronic.

Understanding work teams.
- types: problem-solving; self-managed work teams; cross-functional teams; virtual teams.
- team effectiveness: work design, composition, context, process.
- team roles: creative, promoter, assessor, organizer, producer, controller, maintainer, adviser, linker.

Communication.
- Barriers: filtering, selective perception, information overload, defensiveness, language
- communication networks: chain, wheel, all channel
- key skills: multiple channels, tailor, empathize, face-to-face, active listening, math words and actions, use the grapevine, use feedback.

Strategies and tactics for arguing and getting along on teams
Strategy 1: focus on issues, not personalities
- tactic 1.1: base discussion on current, factual information
- tactic 1.2: develop multiple alternatives to enrich the debate
Strategy 2: frame decisions a collaborations aimed at achieving the best possible solution for the organization
- tactic 2.1: rally round goals
- tactic 2.2: inject humor into the decision-making process
Strategy 3: establish a sense of fairness and equity in the process
- tactic 3.1: maintain balanced power structure
- tactic 3.2: resolve issues without forcing consensus

Methods for leading a self-managed team:
- Relating: socially and politically aware, building team trust, caring for team members
- Scouting: seek info from managers, peers, and specialists; diagnosing member behavior; investigate problems
- Persuading: obtaining external support, influencing the team
- Empowering: delegating authority; exercising flexibility regarding team decisions; coaching

Active Listening
- Adversarial lawyer: listen for contradictions, irrelevancies, errors, and weaknesses.
- Leader: listen for to help people gain a clearer understanding of their situations, take responsibility, and cooperate
- Methods of active listening: listen for total meaning, respond to feelings not just literal words, note all cues, test for understanding

Mindful communication: "Attending to one's internal assumptions, cognitions, and emotions, and simultaneously attuning to the other's assumptions, cognitions, and emotions."
- Mindful observation
- Mindful listening
- Identity confirmatio
- Collaborative dialogue
- Willingness to communicate

Brainstorming methods:
- no criticism
- freewheeling welcome
- quantity desired
- combining/improving ideas encouraged

Methods for building team creativity
- Intellectual diversity
- Analogical reasoning
- Brainwriting
- Nominal group technique
- Creating organizational memory
- Trained facilitators
- High benchmarks
- Membership change
- Electronic brainstorming
- Build a playground

9. Sustainability compliance systems and whistle-blowing methods.
- Top management and their lawyers write organizational rules and policies with penalties for noncompliance.
- Tow-down demands, threats, frequent checking and reminders.
- Legitimized requirements.
- Conscientiously object, just say no.
- Quietly talk with (blow the whistle to) upper level manager who we think is ethical.
- Secretly threaten perpetrator with blowing the whistle inside or outside the organization.
- Secretly blow the whistle inside the organization.
- Secretly or publicly blow the whistle outside the organization from inside the country or outside the country.
- to regulator/prosecutor
- to media

Win-lose methods used for the unethical.
- Implied or direct threat by more powerful.
- Extreme demands by more powerful.
- Provocation and abusive behavior by more powerful toward less powerful.
- Lying, misinformation, secrecy
- Intimidation, accusation, censorship, pressure, financial rewards, votes, from lobbying groups more focused on special interests than common good.

4.3 Methods for resisting win-lose methods used by more powerful against less powerful.
- Parity building alliance-exposure-transparency inside or outside the organization with powerful manager, media, regulator-prosecutor.
- Networking with other less powerful
- Mirror
- Hard and reasonable
- Research and data based exposure of conflicts of interest between special interest lobbying and common good.

10. Alternative governance structures for sustainability.
- Multiple stakeholders
- Limited Single stakeholder focused, e.g.
- owners
- employees
- "customers"
- State responsibility vs. discretionary sustainability governance
- Separation of chairperson, executive, auditing roles
- Democratic and/or participatory forms

11. Social movement methods.
- Social movement process steps:
(1) triple-loop dialog among friends about biases in traditions-systems that also discover political opportunities for reform ;
(2) double-loop dialog about personal values among reformers and leaders of established, directly shared interest organizations that result in alliances between reformers and
established organization leaders;
(3) triple-loop reframing among the leaders of established organizations and members concerning the meaning of membership in terms of active support for reform of biases in traditions-systems;
(4) single-loop, win-win development of specialized, reform organizations;
(5) selected single-loop, win-lose actions against some opponents to reform; and,
(6) trailing single-loop, win-win development of support of the reform movement through instrumental alliances with external support groups.

- Alvord, Brown, and Letts, "Social entrepreneurship and societal transformation."
- Types of projec ts: local capacities to solve problems, providing packages to solve problems, local movements/groups to deal with powerful actors.
- Methods: innovations that mobilize existing assets of marginalized groups; systematic learning; leaders who can work with different groups; alliance building; investment for expansion.

12. Alternative institution building and social entrepreneurship methods for sustainability and sustainability investing.
- Types of alternative institutions
1. A new business that does what the older business did not do, e.g., Nobel Prize Winner Muhammad Yunus, Grameen Bank (micro-lending institution), mutual funds.
2. A new business that does what an older government organization did not do, e.g., law firms for immigrants, abused people.
3. A new business that does what an older nonprofit organization did not do, e.g., for profit health dare institutions, universities.
4. A new nonprofit (NGO, nongovernment organization) that does what an older government organization did not do, e.g., private universities, health care institutions, American Civil Liberties Union, NAACP, labor unions, arts/culture organizations.
5. A new nonprofit organization that does what an older nonprofit organization did not do, e.g., new religious organizations, Harvard Cooperative Society.
6. A new nonprofit organization that does what an older business did not do, e.g., Dudley Street Neighborhood Association real estate development, consumer protection organizations, credit unions.
7. A new government organization that does what an older government organization did not do, e.g., Norwegian sovereign wealth mutual fund with revenues from oil sales to support social services, peace activities.
8. A new government organization that does what an older nonprofit organization did not do, e.g., U.S. land grant universities in Midwest and West.
9. A new government organization that does what an older business did not do, e.g., state-owned-enterprises (banking, transportation, telecommunications, real estate develoment, public television/film), alternative justice systems (mediation, arbitration, reconciliation).
10. Private-Public partnerships, e.g., Federal Housing Finance Agency (Fannie Mae), Communications Satellite Corporation,

13. Reflection: Toward sustainability praxis and happiness.