Joe Badaracco is Professor of Business Ethics at Harvard and his book DEFINING MOMENTS is one of the best and most enjoyable reads for decision makers, whether they have faced dillemmas or not, because it is based around three real life business cases. In addition it introduces appropriate concepts not only from the more usual Aristotle, Mill and Kant but also the likes of Machiavelli, Sartre, Nietschze and the more recent Peter Drucker.
DEFINING MOMENTS ‘reveal, test and shape’ who we are and what we may become as Badaracco suggests we may never be the same again having faced such a moment, although sometimes being ill prepared we may not even realise when we have faced it.
DEFINING MOMENTS suggests the most difficult decisions are those between ‘right and right’.
Badaracco suggests four steps in evaluating how to take the ‘proper’ decision:
- Carefully analyse the situation.
- Consider your own values and how strongly or weakly you are attached to them.
- Be keenly aware of and sensitive to the values of others who may be impacted.
- Assess the long term effects or results of the variety of options.
EBEN Ireland 