Build Those Ethics Muscles Now

Sometimes it takes me longer than it should to get through the weekend's New York Times newspapers and magazines, which is why it's taken me until now to draw your attention to an article published Saturday -- but, thanks to the magic of the Internet, at least you don't have to go rooting through the recycle bin for that edition!

No one expects to get physically fit, and especially to stay that way, without working at it regularly, whether at a gym or at home.

So why do we expect that we can be "morally fit" without working at it? We "know" that we would do the right thing in a tough situation.

Except that we often don't.

On Saturday, the Times' Alina Tugend wrote about the upcoming launch of a new website, Ethical Systems, whose goal is "business integrity through research" (Tugend's full article is here).

The site is the first to pull together extensive research and resources on the subject of business ethics with the aim of making the vast trove available to schools, government regulators and businesses — especially their compliance officers.

Because it's not enough just to say, "Do the right thing." We have to understand why so many people do the wrong thing.

Probably the single most important factor is our amazing ability to fool ourselves. I've written about that a lot (e.g., here), so I'm already on board with the concept.

Like pilots who use flight simulators, people need to work on situations that cause them anxiety before they occur.

Because when you're anxious, you're not thinking clearly. And when you're not thinking clearly, you're not likely to be thinking about ethical ramifications.