Driving Systematic Ethical Change

Brooks Deterline TEDX transcript

00:16

so I got an email last week from the

00:19

conference organizer said good news

00:21

you're going after Van Jones and I

00:26

thought in whose alternate universe is

00:28

it a good thing to follow then and then

00:31

I remembered I'm here to talk about

00:33

courage our ability to act from our

00:38

hearts in the face of fear and courage

00:41

as a skill that we can build with

00:43

practice so thank you for this

00:46

tremendous opportunity to practice first

00:50

let's take a look at what does life look

00:52

like without courage the Enron fraud is

00:55

the story of synergistic corruption

00:58

there are supposed to be checks and

01:00

balances in the system the lawyers are

01:02

supposed to say no the accountants are

01:04

supposed to say no the bankers are

01:06

supposed to say no but no one who was

01:08

supposed to say no said no so has

01:11

anything changed in the last 10 years

01:12

and please raise your hands when you've

01:15

had enough

01:24

yeah me too and it doesn't have to be

01:27

this way one of the people in these

01:30

circumstances had the courage and the

01:33

skills to act on their values in the

01:35

face of fear I met a man who did in

01:38

exactly one of those types of

01:40

circumstances

01:41

we'll call him Ted he found an illegal

01:44

trading ring in his department and he

01:47

didn't know what to do so he did nothing

01:49

and as the days passed and the stress

01:52

built he decided he would have to quit

01:55

he confided in his friend in another

01:58

department and his friend said to him if

02:00

you went into the system could you find

02:03

the program and Ted said yes and his

02:07

friend said then you have no choice and

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what ted says as he was reminded of who

02:13

he was of his values in that moment

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reflected by his friend so he came

02:19

forward and justice prevail I had my own

02:23

subtle experience with powerful

02:25

situations I was working for a company

02:27

and I found out the CEO was doing

02:30

something unethical and illegal so I

02:33

called a meeting with my boss the CFO

02:36

and his other direct reports in a

02:38

scenario that looks shockingly like this

02:41

stock photo and went to deliver the news

02:46

and I knew he would struggle although a

02:48

very ethically driven man the CEO was

02:52

also a good friend of his

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so I delivered the news and he looked at

02:56

me and he said I think we should do some

03:00

more research and give it a little time

03:02

I was so dumb struck by the answer that

03:05

everything went into slow motion like it

03:07

did when I was a kid playing soccer and

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I looked around and everyone has her

03:13

head down or is slowly nodding and I was

03:17

so perplexed I know these people they're

03:21

good people and the last thing you want

03:24

to do is put more time between when you

03:27

know and when you say in a circumstance

03:29

like this

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so I was confused but the humbling part

03:36

of the story for me is then my thought

03:38

process goes to maybe we don't have to

03:42

do anything maybe it isn't such a big

03:45

deal

03:46

I don't even have to say anything and

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then I was given a gift the CFO was

03:53

called out of the room for a minute and

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in that moment I remembered this is one

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of those moments this man hired me

04:02

because he believed in me he believed I

04:05

would do my job and act on our shared

04:08

values when it was hard so he came back

04:12

into the room I stepped back into time

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and I said we should go to the board and

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he paused and he looked at me and he

04:21

nodded and we did but what I will never

04:25

forget is that I am and we all are

04:30

vulnerable to situational influence all

04:33

the time

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it's just natural human wiring this from

04:38

our founder dr. Phil Zimbardo we found

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this out in 1971 when he conducted the

04:44

famous Stanford Prison Experiment that

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showed that even the most ethical and

04:48

compassionate among us can easily betray

04:51

our values in the face of challenging

04:53

situation I won't make you raise your

04:55

hands for this one but think back over

04:57

the last six months how many of you have

05:00

been in a situation where you thought

05:01

someone should do something or I should

05:05

I should say something and think of the

05:07

subtle ones because those are often the

05:09

ones that get us and you and no one else

05:12

it did anything

05:14

it's natural as a natural human tendency

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to be a bystander to follow a leader or

05:20

a group that we know is doing something

05:23

wrong for a sense of acceptance or sense

05:25

of security the good news is we get to

05:30

choose but it's first it's even harder

05:39

for us in business to do the right thing

05:42

research out of Harvard on ethical

05:44

fading shows that when we're focused on

05:47

operational objectives and you throw

05:49

pressure on top sound familiar the

05:52

ethical implications of our acts will

05:54

fade from our minds pay attention when

05:58

people say this is business find out

06:01

what they mean when they say that so now

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the good news is we get to choose

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between stimulus and response there is a

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space and our work is about using that

06:16

space to get us to reconnect to our

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values to your hearts to our natural

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wisdom to act courageously the kids in

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our program call it the magic pause

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button the way we do that is we use

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something called social fitness training

06:33

it was developed over 25 years by dr.

06:36

Lynn Henderson and the great news about

06:38

it is with practice we can actually

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retrain our brains to override our

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natural fear response to act

06:46

consistently from on our values in the

06:49

face of fear start to think the key

06:52

aspects of her work to remember start to

06:55

recognize your patterns where do you

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stand up easily and where do you not

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once you know your patterns practice the

07:03

situations that scare you we call them

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social flight simulations and just like

07:07

with pilots if you practice with some

07:09

level of fear it creates the muscle

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memory so that when the actual moment

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arises you can act in a way that you've

07:17

practiced you start to use that shot of

07:20

fear or adrenaline as your cue from

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mindful action versus avoidance in

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neuroscience they call it priming the

07:28

brain so how do we foster these

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ethically courageous corporate cultures

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become a pattern interrupter start to

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interrupt your own patterns create your

07:40

own pause button create it for your

07:42

teams in your organizations I think if

07:45

we we can all agree if we look at the

07:48

challenges facing our economic system

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our political system and the world at

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large we're going to need a bigger pause

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button

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what I also know by our work is that

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we're all born with the innate capacity

08:00

for courage it's a choice one I hope

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we'll all make and it matters thank you