Please enable JavaScript.
Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.
Module 6: How should we act to influence positive change? - Coggle Diagram
Module 6: How should we act to influence positive change?
Moral integrity beyond self-interest
Ethical behavior requires individuals to act according to genuine moral principles rather than allowing personal advantage, reputation, or external rewards to determine what is right
Cicero argues that morally wrong actions cannot be genuinely advantageous. In the Rhodes grain merchant case, the seller's deliberate withholding of mportant information for profit violates his obligation to others, even without an explicit lie.
Laozi distinguishes genuine virtue from performed virtue, suggesting that people who consciously pursue recognition for their goodness may lack authentic moral character. Chapter 38
Laozi uses water as a model of virtue because it benefits others without competing for recognition, and suggests that generosity and non-contention are more valuable than personal accumulation. Chapter 8 and 81
Intellectural humility
and the limits of certainty
Good judgment requires recognizing the limitations of our knowledge and remaining willing to reconsider our assumptions without abandoning our values
Adam Grant explains how confirmation bias, the totalitarian ego, and the first instinct fallacy make people resistant to changing their beliefs.
Adam Grant introduce the BlackBerry Base where leadership failed to reconsider the assumprions behind its earlier success, demonstrating how past achievements can create intellectual rigidity and prevent adaptation.
In Lily Zheng's Overwork case, executives initially resisted abandoning excessive working hours even after research challenged the assumption that longer hours indicated greater productivitiy , partly because overwork bad become a maker of professional status
Psychological safety creates constructive disagreement
Ethical and effective leadership requires and environment where individuals can question authority, admit mistakes without fear of personal punishment
Amy Gallo's hospital research suggests that high-performing teams may report more errors because employees feel safer acknowledging mistakes, allowing organizations to learn rather than conceal problems.
Adam Grant also distinguishes task vs. relationship conflict. His study of teams suggests that high-performing groups engage in task conflict early without allowing disagreements to become personal
In the video, Philips explains that diverse groups can outperform homogeneous groups because differences in backgrounds and perspectives encourage members to consider more information, question their assumptions, and engage in deeper thinking
Note that psychological safety should not be confused with comfort or the absence of criticism.
Excessive emphasis on harmony may discourage the constructive conflict necessary for organizational improvement
systemic accountability over
symbolic good intentions
Lily Zheng's FAIR framework argues for outcomes over intentions. She also criticizes one-off DEI training for failing to address the institutional practices that produce inequality
Cicero argues that civial law cannot encompass everyform of dishonesty, suggesting that organizational or legal rules alone cannot fully define ethical responsibility
Amy Gallo argues that leaders must do more than verbally encourage openness.
But some situations involve genuinely limited resoucres or competing interest. Can systemic fairness always be achieved without requiring trade-offs?