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Massachusetts Society of CPAs

South Shore Breakfast Forum,

April 30, 2015, Braintree, MA

Why Good People Do Bad Things: Values, Lenses and Putting Your Own Oxygen 

Mask First as a Leader

Overview

•Why This Subject?

•What we will cover

• Impact on leadership & maximizing the CPA role

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Equilibrium

Insights

• Pausing, noticing, present, mindful 

• Relaxing, Openness, clarity, neutral, purposeful

• Accessing multiple knowing – What I needed emanated from me

• Saw the WHOLE of it

Ethical Overconfidence

Presumes Our Ethicality

• Research – See ourselves as ethical, but may question others

• As if an internal (but static) GPS is running in the background

• Resistance to seeking help dealing with an ethical issue

Obscures Ethical Awareness

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Check in: 

What examples come to mind when you think about “Why Good People Do Bad Things.”

“Why Do So Many Good People Do Bad Things?”*

Recent CPAs Suspended or in Prison 

• James Adams, (CA) Deloitte Risk Officer, borrowed from Casino he was auditing 

• Scott London, KPMG Senior Audit Partner (CA, AZ, NV), insider trading 

• Larry Couchot, pres./co‐owner (OH CPA firm), prepared false tax returns 2006‐ 2010  

• Jonathan Davon (NC), investment fraud conspiracy & Ponzi scheme

*Question asked by Federal Judge Alvin Hellerstein when he sentenced a former managing director of Credit Suisse for fraud December 2013

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Why do so many good people 

do bad things???

Greed

Self‐Interest

Not Transparent

Very StressedExhausted

Can’t be Wrong/Fail

Failed Leadership

Losing one’s way

Invincible

Error/Willful 

Blindness

Self‐Seal

Values not Internalized

Unethical Behavior

Check in:

Know Right Thing to Do but . . . Behaviors (response to triggers) Blinders (lenses internally imposed)Being Blindsided (unpredictable)…..court ethical vulnerability

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How Values Protect Against Ethical Vulnerability

A Leader’s Impact  

Alcoa (1988 – 2000),  Interview with Paul O’Neill (2008)

• Top 4 values (15‐item agenda) O’Neill arrived with as chairman/CEO • “Safety

• Quality

• Respect for Every Individual

• Rethinking everything we do without restrictions to see if there is a better way” 

What Enables Values to Transform?

Mitsubishi Motor Manufacturing of America: Goal = Model workplace • Co‐led values process with Finance involving 4,000 employees 

The Impact of Community

90 % Selected  values

In every group’s business plan

Inspired business 

turnaround

Values in performance 

reviews

Catalyst in culture change

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Check in: 

Values take hold in cultures where a whole‐hearted process creates a “We.”

Values and Culture: Creating a “We”

The Motivation

Gallup Millennial study: motivated by purpose/ making a difference

“Untapped source of motivation is service” (Wharton)

“Purpose can motivate people as powerfully as profit.” (Daniel Pink)

“Enlightened Hospitality” story

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Union Square Hospitality Group

Performance Review 49% technical, 51% EQ in how job done; used in hiring

“The worst mistake is not to figure out some way to end up in a better place after having made a mistake.” --- Danny Meyer, founder

Container Store

7 Foundation Principles & 10 characteristics of great employee (perf. review)

stakeholders treated with respect and dignity; Employees #1 stakeholder

“…a moral obligation to make employees look forward….to going to work in the morning.” ---Kip Tindell, founder, CEO

Zappos

10 core values---used in decisions, hiring

Created library to aid “learning & growing”

1% improvement to make Zappos/me better each day

Annual culture book of employees sharing value most impacting each one

Whole‐Hearted Approach to Values/Standards

• Values owned through  reinforcement

• Common language created

• Decisions made intuitively by  using values/standards

• Owning & fixing mistakes

• Implicit in approach• Sense of “we”

• Openness of communication

• Clarity about expectations

• Focus on growth, development and appreciation for employees

• Resilience in good and bad times

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Check in:

Lenses block influence of values… The narrower the lens, the greater the ethical vulnerability

Self‐Deception 

• Not recognizing a problem 

• In a cycle of self‐betrayal: • Act contrary to own sense of right • Protect self to justify self‐betrayal• Blame others

• Having distorted view of reality• See others as objects, not like us (not with same needs etc.)

• More others are seen as objects….more distorted our reality 

‐‐ from Leadership and Self‐Deception, Arbinger Institute, 2010

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Kathryn Schultz, “On being wrong”2011 TED Talk

Error Blindness 

attachment to own rightness

“…trusting too much in the feeling of being on the correct side of anything can be very dangerous. This internal sense of rightness … is not a reliable guide to what is actually going on in the external world.”http://www.ted.com/speakers/kathryn_schulz

Listen especially from 3:32 to 11:28

Willful Blindness

“In very competitive environments, where you are under a lot of stress…you won’t necessarily even see there is a moral consideration. ….most corruption, I think, starts with an intuitive act, not a deliberate one.” ---

---John Darley, Princeton Psychologist

As long as everything is framed as an economic argument, we don’t have to confront the moral and social effects of our decisions. ---Albert Bandura, Stanford Psychologist

From Willful Blindness: Why We Ignore the Obvious at our Peril, by Margaret Heffernan

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Finding Our Way: Leadership for an Uncertain Time by Margaret Wheatley (2005)

Definition of Self-Seal

“I know that we notice what we notice because of who we are. We create ourselves by what we choose to notice. Once this work of self-authorship has begun, we inhabit the world we’ve created. We self-seal. We don’t notice anything except those things that

confirm what we already think about who we already are….

When we succeed in moving outside our normal processes of self-reference and can look at ourselves with self-awareness, then we have a chance at changing. We break the seal. We notice something new.”

Self-Seal in Action

In Self‐Seal, you feel/are…..?

Rigid

Abrupt

Disengaged

Closed, crossed arms

Dismissive

…

What is the impact on others and how does that increase ethical vulnerability? 

Reluctance to share information

Resentful

Marginalized, loss of dignity 

…

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Breaking Self‐Seal

• Notice when we start to close down and shut out information.

• Identify what triggers us to get out of self‐seal more quickly. 

• Pay attention to how others react to us when we go into self‐seal

We break the self‐seal when we….

• Are present & mindful

• Operate out of our values

• Ask question behind the question

• Seek out diverse/conflicting points of view

• Shift to see the “whole of it”

• Move from “I” to “We” 

How do blinders/lenses relate to the AICPA Ethics Code/Standards?

Looking through the lens of 

• Self‐Deception?

• Error Blindness?

• Willful Blindness?

• Self‐Seal? 

• Stress, Overload and Fatigue?

What happens to decision‐making capability?

• Complacency?

• Vulnerabilities?

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Key Concept: 

How do we cultivate our capacity to access deeper meaning and integrate multiple ways of knowing to enable us to see and solve or resolve the right problems.

Equilibrium Revisited

When we are in “the zone:”

• We access multiple ways of knowing

• What we need emanates out of us

• We see the whole of it

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The Metaphor of the Oxygen Mask

• Being fully present

• Operating out of values/purpose

• Asking question behind question

• Inviting diverse/conflicting views

• Integrating L/R into Whole Brain

• Moving from “I” to “We”

Multiple Intelligences and the Impact on Ethical DecisionsIQ = Analytic Intelligence

EQ = Self Awareness, Self Mastery, Empathy, Motivation, Social Skills. SQ =

IQ EQ(Goleman)

SQ =SQ = Accessing Deeper Meaning and Multiple Ways of Knowing to 

See and Solve or Resolve the Right Problems(O’Brien – working draft) 

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AICPA Values and the Six Attributes 

• Self Governance• Public Interest, Trust, Profession• Independence• Integrity• Objectivity• Competence, Diligence

• Confidentiality, No Contingency• Due Diligence, No Poaching• Accurate Self‐Representation

The Six Attributes 

‐‐Being fully present

‐‐Operating out of values/purpose

‐‐Asking question behind question

‐‐Inviting diverse/conflicting views

‐‐Integrating L/R into Whole Brain

‐‐Moving from “I” to “We”

Implicit in the Flow

Mindfulness

Integrity(Values) 

MeaningKnowingDiversity

Whole‐Brained

Whole of It

Move“I” to “We”

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Mindfulness = Putting Own Oxygen Mask on FirstReducing Stress to be Present

A Key Catalyst in Cultivating Mindfulness:

“People who meditate regularly  appear to undergo changes in parts of the brain that handle perception and attentiveness, a new study suggests.” NYT 11/22/05

“20 Scientific Reasons to Start Meditating Today,” Psychology Today, September 2013

“Mindfulness Helps You Become a Better Leader,” Harvard Business Review, October 2012

“The Morality of Meditation,” NYT, July 5, 2013

Mindfulness Practices

Catalysts in Increasing Conditions for Being Present

Why Yoga, Meditation, Reflection Work:  

Workplace Classes:  General Mills, Google, Aetna, Target, Silicon Valley, etc.

• Training in focus, clarity, compassion to self and others, 85% sr. management said deeper listening skills – General Mills

• Workplace yoga reduced stress and health care costs, increased productivity – Aetna

• Corporate breathing classes to reduce stress  

“Morning Pages” Artist’s Way

The Pause Principle: Step Back to Lead Forward

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Consider:

• In what ways could mindfulness support you in:

• Reducing triggers that lead to self‐seal?• Being present?• Making decisions with more ways of knowing?• Feeling ‘in the zone’ more often? 

• What next step might support a mindfulness practice?

Whole‐Brain Thinking; Integrating Multiple Intelligences

• 11 million Google hits

• Speed Reading

• Mindmapping

• Decision‐making/problem solving

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Mindmapping   Photo from Use Both Sides of Your Brain, Tony Buzan (1989) 

When Equilibrium is Activated

We access deeper meaning and integrate multiple ways of knowing to see and resolve or solve the right problems.*

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Accessing Multiple Ways of Knowing Depends on:

‐Being fully present‐Operating out of values/purpose

‐Asking question behind question

‐Inviting diverse/conflicting views

‐Integrating L/R into Whole Brain

‐Moving from “I” to “We”

‐ Putting oxygen mask on first

‐ Values part of decision‐making  

‐ Active listening

‐ Expanding one’s lenses

‐ Accessing the “whole of it”

‐ Values take hold, decision‐making keeps trust

Summary Thoughts

Our ethical awareness and lenses for decision‐making require ongoing intention.

Part of public trust is ensuring that the CPA code of conduct is made a catalyst for attracting success.  

What would a whole‐hearted process of values taking hold (creating a “we”) look like in your organization?

Seeing what triggers you in narrowing your lens increases your decision‐making effectiveness. 

Cultivating the attributes of Equilibrium transforms leadership, ethical awareness, decision‐making and the impact of values on culture and public trust.

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Final Thoughts

• Taking the Next Step

Selected Resources (1)

• On Blinders/Lenses

Finding Our Way: Leadership For an Uncertain Time, Margaret Wheatley (2007) – mentions self‐seal on pp. 236‐237) 

Leadership and Self‐Deception: getting out of the box, Arbinger Institute (2010)  

TED Talk, “On being wrong,” http://www.ted.com/speakers/kathryn_schulz (2011)

Willful Blindness: Why We Ignore the Obvious at our Peril, Margaret Heffernan (2001)

Blind Spots: Why We Fail to Do What’s Right and What to Do about it, Bazerman & Tenbrunsel(2011) 

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Selected Resources (2)

• Spiritual Intelligence‐‐Thinking With Your Soul: Spiritual Intelligence and Why It Matters, Wolman, (2001)

‐‐SQ: Connecting With Our Spiritual Intelligence, Zohar & Marshall, (2000) and book summary by authors http://www.refresher.com/!spiritualintelligence.html

‐‐Danah Zohar, ”Spiritually Intelligent Leaders,”(2005) http://www.hesselbeininstitute.org/knowledgecenter/journal.aspx?ArticleID=84

Thought Leader interview with Margaret Wheatley on fear, purpose, spiritual discipline and mindful leadership, http://strategy‐business.com/article/11406?pg=0

http://www.forbes.com/sites/barbaraarmstrong/2012/04/26/the‐power‐of‐purpose‐and‐values‐leadership‐lessons‐from‐the‐great‐place‐to‐work‐conference/

Selected Resources (3)

• On MindfulnessJon Kabat‐Zinn, Wherever You Go There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life(1994)

Bill George, “Mindfulness Helps You Become a Better Leader,” http://blogs.hbr.org/2012/10/mindfulness‐helps‐you‐become‐a/

“The Mind Business,” Financial Times, 2012, http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/d9cb7940‐ebea‐11e1‐985a‐00144feab49a.html#axzz2paQlIuYX

http://mind‐revolution.org/2013/11/20/yoga‐mindfulness‐and‐leadership‐with‐aetna‐ceo‐mark‐bertolini‐at‐wisdom‐2‐0‐business/

http://www.wired.com/business/2013/06/meditation‐mindfulness‐silicon‐valley/

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/07/opinion/sunday/the‐morality‐of‐meditation.html?_r=0

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Selected Resources (4)

• Whole Brain, Values, and LeadershipUse Both Sides of Your Brain, Tony Buzan, (1989)

Giving Voice to Values: How Speak to Your Mind When You Know What is Right, Mary Gentile, (2010) addresses gaining ease dealing with conflict by practicing 

The Pause Principle: Step Back to Lead Forward, Kevin Cashman, (2012)  

http://business‐ethics.com/2011/03/17/1709‐leadership‐common‐purpose‐and‐shared‐values/

http://theweekinethics.wordpress.com/2012/05/31/the‐week‐in‐ethicsibm‐global‐ceo‐study‐values‐empower‐employees/

Read/subscribe to The Week in Ethics, http://theweekinethics.wordpress.com