Bad Corporate Conduct - Don't Be Like This

 If you have a company, you have an obligation to NOT kill your customers. If your business model requires you to kill people, you are a horrible person who should NOT be in business.  And I can't believe this has to be said out loud!!!!!

I live in Florida and we have a LOT of crazy stuff that happens here. Recently, my part of FL had a company responsible for a multi-state listeria outbreak that killed one person and hospitalized 22 others. One woman lost her fetus as a result of the infection. The company? Big Olaf.  

Now, having a contamination problem is bad enough. If you aren't putting effort and money into making sure your manufacturing is clean, you can run into problems that can kill people. People running food businesses have a moral obligation to make sure they take precautions to make sure their food is indeed safe and doesn't kill people. Big Olaf failed here. So - part 1 is - something happened that shouldn't have. 

Part 2 is how you respond if a mistake is made. Clearly a mistake was made, people got sick and died. Big Olaf, upon learning that their ice cream had killed someone - and a fetus, responded so badly, I honestly think they should no longer be in business. They insisted for a couple of weeks - after the outbreak was traced to them, that, they were being unfairly targeted by the FDA. They were not. They were the source of the outbreak.  But because they refused to admit it, they refused a voluntary recall of the contaminated product. For over 2 weeks, they continued to sell product that they knew was making people sick and killing people. 2 frigging weeks!!!! It was only after the FDA got a legal order to issue the recall, that the recall occurred.

Most food companies, issue voluntary recalls when they find out there is a problem with their product that can cause injury or death. This is because MOST companies are run by reasonable people who actually care about their fellow humans. This is the hallmark of humanistic leadership and humanistic business management. You take care to do good and do no harm and if you err, you fix it quickly!  This is how trust is created. 

This is NOT what Big Olaf did. They stuck their heads in the sand, claimed they were the victim and continued to harm people. Some of their franchises are now refusing to do business with them because they no longer trust the company. Act in an egregiously untrustworthy way - that's the consequence. No one wants to do business with you. 

I don't give an F who you are. Our government agencies overseeing commerce for our safety and benefit are not the enemy. They are our allies. If they tell you, your restaurant isn't clean or your food service facility has a problem, clean it up!!!! Your first obligation is to do no harm to your customers.  If your ego is such that you are willing to risk the lives of your customers to make some money, you don't deserve to be in business! 

We all have the ability to choose our response. If your business makes a mistake, own it, fix it and move on. Don't continue to do harm and pretend it's ok or pretend that you are the victim. If you've killed a customer and killed a customer's baby - you have a problem. If you refuse to acknowledge that, you don't belong in business. 

Rant Over.

10 responsibilities for humanistic managers

The European Journal for Work and Organizational Psychology - recently published a manifesto outlining 10 responsibilities we have to create better work environments and a better world.

Here are the responsibilities:

And here is a link to the full article: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1359432X.2019.1602041

This list of responsibilities reads like a humanist manifesto and I do think everyone could benefit from adopting and integrating this concept of responsibility into their daily life and decision making. Think how much nicer the world and work would be if we all kept our full responsibilities in mind. 

1) we have responsibilities towards individuals

2) we have responsibilities towards ourselves

3) we have responsibilities towards reducing inequalities

4) we have responsibilities towards our community

5) we have responsibilities as supervisors and managers

6) we have responsibilities towards how work is organized 

7) we have responsibilities toward how the publication system is organized (or promotion system)

8) we have responsibilities towards how our financing is organized

9) we have responsibilities towards society

10) we have to integrate our recommendations into our teaching

The Challenge of Corporate Governance

I was recently asked by a reporter to talk about corporate governance from a humanist perspective. I was told it was one of the best answers they had every received on any topic.

1. What is your experience with Corporate Governance?

I have served on several non-profit boards, been an executive director for a non-profit organization and provided training for the board.


2. What do you see as the biggest challenge for Corporate Governance?

The biggest challenge is always oversight. There is a desire to trust staff, but the job of the governance board is not just to set the direction of the organization, but to oversee the work.  Where boards run into trouble is when the staff are unethical and they don’t property do their oversight work.

Boards that do this well figure out when staff is lying to them within a few months and they take corrective action.  My sister and I were discussing this the other day in relation to the democratic party. Why did it take the governance board 7 years to find out the finances were crap and that they were deeply in debt and that their executive director was fudging the numbers and moving things around? The boards I have been on and my sister has been on – would not have allowed that to be the status quo for more than a few months!  The oversight board of the DNC failed in their basic duties.

A board decides direction and provides oversight. Oversight is a trust but verify job. Failure to verify means dereliction of duty.  This is and will always be the biggest challenge for any board in any organization. It’s the reason I don’t accept board appointments unless I feel like I have the time to dedicate to the task.


3. What do you see as the future of Corporate Governance?

Technology makes it easy to meet and discuss and make decisions, but the basic job hasn’t changed and won’t change anytime soon. The function of corporate governance is necessary so that more than one set of eyes is watching to ensure that ethical decisions are made as to direction and expenditures.  The need for that will never go away.

What it would be nice to see is boards taking and enforcing a more humanistic approach to the business of business.  Meaning – ensuring that the business is ethical, responsible and that corporate social responsibility isn’t just a buzz word to gloss over the bad aspects of the business, but that the point of the business itself is to provide return for shareholders while also providing a good return for the community in which the business operates.   We need to eliminate the greed motive and replace it with humanistic motive. Think of this as corporate enlightened self-interest. Our business interests are forwarded and we make more money by engaging in ethical business practices that take into account our needs, our employees needs, and the needs of the communities we operate in. In other words, incorporate more than just shareholders needs into the decision-making process.

This is the point of Humanistic Management and it’s a necessity now. Short sighted decisions that harm the company and the community but enrich a small group of owners – is not good business. We need more longer-range thinking and the way to do that is to incorporate humanistic ethics into the operation of the business itself.  This has to be done at the governance level.


4. If you could speak directly to directors, investors, and/or corporate boards, what advice would you give them on this topic?

I would say several things.

First – make sure you all receive training on what exactly your responsibilities are. This is not just about making money – you are supposed to be involved in oversight functions and it’s your job to make sure the company is run in an ethical, responsible sustainable way and that the company does good as a company for everyone involved in the company – shareholders, employees, customers and community.

Second – If you aren’t already oriented or familiar with humanistic management – learn about it and start integrating humanistic management philosophy into your oversight duties. Take this seriously. You can use the business to make the world a better place and get rich at the same time. This is not an either or decision – you can do both and should be trying to do both. This is a philosophic mindset. Adopt it, integrate it and make decisions accordingly.

 Third – trust but verify. Do not allow your personal feelings for the staff to prevent you from doing your job. Make sure that the company’s directors and leadership are behaving ethically. And if they aren’t take corrective action.

Finally – stop tolerating sexual harassment and assault. Seriously – if they were embezzling funds – you would get rid of them – even if they were your best salesperson!  Stop tolerating criminal behavior because the crime seems social to you. It still affects you bottom line and more importantly – your ethical bottom line. If you want an ethical well-run company – you have to put ethics first. Period. Allowing someone to abuse your staff or customers isn’t ethical. Period.

If you want to learn more about the principles of humanistic management - https://humanistlearning.com/principles-of-humanistic-management/

Business as Community

Unless you are a solo-entrepreneur, your business includes people.

Your company is built by people for people and people matter. Those people who intersect with your business are your community. Whether they are employees, bosses, or customers.

This understanding of business as community is the foundation on which humanistic business management is built. Smart leaders recognize and accept the responsibilities and opportunities that comes with being part of a community.

Business should be both about opportunity and about responsibility. Exploitative capitalism exploits the opportunities, but doesn’t take responsibility for the outcomes of their behavior. It’s irresponsible.

Humanistic capitalism grasps opportunities in a way that is responsible to the communities in which they work and operate.

Isn’t it time we start rejecting exploitative business models and promote more humanistic ones?

To learn more check out:

• Why Humanistic Management
• Principles of Humanistic Management

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

How a more humanistic approach to business can help create a more effective business and make the world better at the same time.

I founded my company, Humanist Learning Systems as a for profit company with non-profit goals. My intention is to reinvest profits into non-profit activities consistent with the goals of my company. I eventually hope to establish regional centers for Humanist Learning that can be used as community centers to support the growing community of Humanists nationwide.

What are my goals? Teaching people how to live ethical lives of personal fulfillment that aspire to the greater good of humanity.

I provide online courses for personal and professional development focusing primarily on humanistic leadership/management. My core courses are about how to eliminate bullying/harassment/discrimination and retaliation in the workplace using science. Using science to solve social problems is a radical idea, right?  

I had considered setting up my business as a non-profit but eventually decided to go with a for profit model instead. Here is why. I know how to get bullies to stop using the science of operant conditioning. The problem is that not many people know how to do this so I kind of have a moral obligation to teach people this.  The problem is that advertising is expensive.  It’s not enough to have a solution that actually works if no one knows you have it.

I have a problem and it’s a problem that requires money to solve. Here’s my solution.  I plan to use the workplace training knowledge dissemination pipeline to disseminate my knowledge and to fund getting it done!

Here is how it works. I REALLY want to reach parents of kids so that I can teach them these skills so that they are able to teach their kids these skills in real time as they encounter bullies.  Where are the parents? In the workplace.  If I can reach them in the workplace I can simultaneously teach them how to deal with workplace bullying, harassment, retaliation and discrimination AND how to help their children with school bullies at the same time.

I created my business around a core line of sex harassment programs that are compliant with state and federal harassment training guidelines as a way to help not only satisfy legal requirements but to use those requirements to get this REALLY important information out into the world to the people who need it and want to learn it.

And if I succeed? Imagine what society would be like if a whole generation of kids were never bullied because they knew how to get it to stop!  That’s not a pipe dream – it’s doable – with education.

A humanistic approach to business isn't just about treating the people you work with as fully human. It’s also about using business to make the world a better place by harnessing the money that is generated by business to create social good.

Business interests and human interest are not mutually exclusive.

To learn more about the courses we offer at Humanist Learning Systems visit: https://humanistlearning.com