Dr. Susan Liautaud, ethics teacher at Stanford University, discusses the importance of ethical decision-making, the habit-forming nature of ethical choices, and the need for a strong ethical foundation in a rapidly changing world. The podcast also explores the components of resilience, the significance of guiding principles in decision-making, and the importance of skilled professionals in trades and healthcare. The speakers discuss impactful books, kids yoga, and express gratitude.
Leading with ethics is crucial in today's world and can positively impact personal, professional, and societal decision-making.
Technology and societal developments have created a complex environment, but adopting an ethical framework can help navigate uncertainty.
Striving for perfection in ethical decision-making is unattainable and can lead to unethical behaviors, instead a balanced approach is needed.
Deep dives
The importance of ethics in leadership
Leading with ethics is crucial in today's world. Dr. Susan Leot discusses the significance of ethics and how it influences decision-making in various areas of life, including personal, professional, and societal contexts. She emphasizes the need for individuals to adopt a framework that considers principles, gathers relevant information, identifies stakeholders, and assesses the short, medium, and long-term consequences of their decisions. The aim is to make thoughtful and ethical choices that positively impact not only oneself but also others and the world at large.
The intersection of ethics and the ever-changing world
Dr. Susan Leot highlights the challenges of applying ethics in a rapidly changing world. She discusses how technology and societal developments have created a complex environment with multiple interconnected issues like AI ethics, climate change, and geopolitical events. Despite the complexity, she suggests that adopting an ethical framework can provide individuals and organizations with a solid grounding to navigate uncertainty. By integrating ethical decision-making into daily life and considering the short, medium, and long-term consequences, one can strive for a resilient ethical approach in today's fast-paced world.
Perfectionism and the importance of realistic decision-making
Dr. Susan Leot addresses the issue of perfectionism in ethical decision-making. She emphasizes that striving for perfection is not only unattainable but can also lead to unethical behaviors and negative consequences. Instead, she advocates for a balanced approach that acknowledges the complexity of decisions and examines the various factors involved. By considering the different principles, gathering relevant information, identifying stakeholders, and assessing consequences over time, individuals can make more realistic and morally sound decisions without falling into the trap of perfectionism.
The role of ethics in individual and collective resilience
Dr. Susan Leot discusses the connection between ethics and resilience. She explains that ethics provides a solid foundation for resilience by helping individuals maintain their balance amidst uncertainty and rapid change. By integrating ethical decision-making into various aspects of life, such as personal practices, movement, organizational conduct, and connection with others, individuals can cultivate resilience. Additionally, she highlights the importance of adopting a diverse range of practices, such as engaging with the arts, practicing self-care, and aligning with personal principles, to enhance overall resilience.
Empowering children with ethical decision-making
Dr. Susan Leot emphasizes the relevance of ethics and decision-making for children. She suggests initiating conversations about principles, consequences, and stakeholders from a young age. By helping children understand the impacts of their decisions on others and encouraging them to consider alternative perspectives, children can develop ethical decision-making skills. The goal is to foster a sense of agency, empathy, and responsibility in children, allowing them to make thoughtful choices and positively contribute to their families, communities, and the world.
Has there ever been a more important time, a more consequential time, to lead with ethics?
That's today's big question, and my guest is Dr. Susan Liautaud. Susan is the author of The Power of Ethics and of the Little Book of Big Ethical Questions.
She teaches cutting-edge ethics courses at Stanford University. She is the Chair of the Council Trustees at the London School of Economics and Political Science. She's the Vice Chair of the Global Partnership for Education, and is Chair of the Stanford University Freeman's Spogli Institute for International Studies Advisory Council.
She also serves with the Stanford Institute for Human Centered Artificial Intelligence, which is obviously really important, and the AI Ethics Advisory Panel. Other boards include Benevolent AI, the Yale Divinity School Advisory Council, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, among many others.
Her work and her frameworks reverberate through so many decision-making apparatuses today. I have been trying to learn from and operate from Susan's work personally and in this work for a long time because it's easy to feel incapable, not skilled enough, or not practiced enough in this moment of big decisions.
This moment, at the intersection of technology and society and personal impact where a better, healthier, cleaner future, however imperfect, is within our hands, will require each of us to adopt and then practice a framework to consider who we want to be and who we see ourselves as, and then what that means in practice in each situation, on a day to day level, and when we're faced with the big stuff.
A framework that interrogates the information available to us, that honestly asks who could be affected by our decisions, including ourselves, and what would it be like to be affected by our decision, now and way down the line.
