A few days ago I was with a friend from my University in a cafeteria in Milan, Italy.
He was talking about his projects and his technical knowledge; he is indeed one of the smartest and brilliant minds I know.
Then, he referred to a possible ethical dilemma he felt, and his ability to act right away.
Let me quote Albus Dumbledore in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets:
“It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities,” I told him.
He laughed out loud: “Are you really quoting Harry Potter? And what’s that all about”?
I explained to him the personal meaning I give to this quote; one of the essential abilities a manager has is not only what he/she knows and does, but the choices made.
A recent HBR study(1) showed that most of the people are quicker to judge than they think, and they use lesser information than needed.
This can be especially critical when facing an ethical dilemma: you need to make sure to have all the facts and approach it in a structured way.
The ethical decision-making process is a cognitive process where people consider ethical rules, principles, and guidelines when making decisions.
PMI has developed a tool to support and guide all the project managers for critical thinking throughout the ethical decision-making process.
You can find the process in the image below:
And the full tool with supporting questions (in 15 languages) is here: https://www.pmi.org/about/ethics/code
As you can see, taking the right decision needs time: to collect all the fact, to consider the choices, to identify and test the candidate decision, to make a decision.
Even Harry Potter takes bad decisions when he doesn’t take time to think!
In the Potter-world, it is often cited the fact that he could have saved himself a lot of dread if he had just taken a moment to think and asked Ginny for help. In the book “Harry Potter and Order of the Phoenix” he isolates from the one person nearby who knew what it was like to be possessed by Voldermort.
Ultimately, ethical choices diminish risk, advance positive results, increase trust, determine long term success and build reputations (2).
Leadership is absolutely dependent on ethical choices.
“... and that’s why I quoted the book”.
He smiled at me and said that two espressos were on him. That was the real magic because he is usually a bit stingy.
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DISCLAIMER: The photo was taken by myself to a toy I own
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