The Spirit of Liberty – and Ethics and Compliance

Learned Hand – considered by many to be the greatest of all US judges – once famously said:  “The spirit of liberty is the spirit which is not too sure that it is right.”   This is a spirit which sadly seems as distant from us today as it ever has been before.

I believe that – at least for some companies – humility should be a core value.  (I do see it at some companies, but not many.)

First, humility is a logical and arguably inevitable response to the vast body of behavioral ethics research showing “we are not as ethical as we think.”  Thinking and acting with humility is indeed a way of operationalizing behavioral ethics. (Posts on behavioral ethics are cataloged in the index to this blog.)

Second, humility is well suited for addressing ethical challenges that are based not on the purposeful failure to be honest but on the less well-appreciated dangers of being careless.  Recognizing the limits of one’s abilities – which is part of being humble – should help underscore the need for carefulness.

Third, humility has the potential to resonate deeply in our political, as well as business, culture. By this I mean humility can help form part of a broader mutually supporting relationship between business ethics and ethics in other realms.

Finally, humility can support relationships of trust. As described in a recent post, such relationships can be an essential foundation for prosperity in many ways.