What were the three conversations that I had in Austin Texas?

Q #1
What did James Owen have to say that bears repeating?

James is the author of two of the textbooks that I use in my ethics courses these days: Cowboy Ethics & Cowboy Values. He is a former Wall Street investment banker who became more than disenchanted with his peers over their excessive greed and lack of concern for their clients. He left and established his own investment firm, focusing on ethical practices. Eventually he retired and wrote his first book (Cowboy Ethics).

This all led to him becoming a frequent speaker on the circuit as many found his book a quick but compelling read. I had met him several years ago over breakfast and our relatively brief conversation then centered mainly on my use of the book and his introducing me to his second book (Cowboy Values). This time while we again met for breakfast, we spent almost two hours in conversation about our respective journeys in getting people to more intently address the need to “get to better”. James has established a foundation and is working with people especially in Wyoming to enhance the delivery of applied ethics within the business and not-for-profit communities. He is passionate about the need to get leaders to realize that ethics must be front and centre in their work if long term success is to be achieved. He also has become very committed to getting into good physical shape as he feels it is an essential aspect of good leadership. Good physical health is foundational to good mental health, especially for people over the age of 60.

It was good to hear him as energized about ethics, mental and physical wellness all within the context of leadership. When I shared with him some of my thinking that is going to be in my book, he was genuinely excited and very supportive. I’m not sure how many people have vigorous conversations over breakfast about ethics and leadership; but I sure am glad I got up early on Monday morning to meet with James. His books are definitely worth purchasing and he has a new version of Cowboy Ethics — a tenth anniversary edition — that is slightly expanded. It is better than the original in that it fleshes out his thinking a bit more. I will do a “re-read” on the plane ride home this weekend and I’m sure that it will become the new textbook for my professional courses. I will also provide a reference as to how to get a copy directly from his foundation — the price is only $25 US.

Q #2
What did Robert Prentice have to say that bears repeating?

Robert is the brains behind the Ethics UnWrapped video series of vignettes that are available from the McCoomb School of Business at the University of Texas. While most of our conversation was more personal than my discussions with James Owen, there were several things that I would like to share with you. Robert was able to gain access to a significant donation which enabled the funding of all these video moments as well as the feature video on Abramoff (the big influence peddling lobbyist scandal in Washington DC of a few years ago). Due to this contribution of funds, the School is able to make the vignettes available to anyone who wants to log into their web-site. What I found most fascinating though is Robert’s very deep commitment to installing ethical thinking within his students. Here is a guy that grew up in Kansas, eventually studied law and clerked for a senior judge in the state, then was recruited to the U of Texas to develop some courses in business and the law. But he saw that there was more to being a good business person than keeping out of legal trouble. He then began to pursue the design and development of courses with greater emphasis on ethics — once again the idea of helping his students “get to better”!!

He has a couple of very bright and technologically competent colleagues who have helped make the program more contemporary through the addition of the vignettes. By being in a position to share these literally across the world he really is paying it all forward. We talked quite a bit about today’s students and how, if given real challenges in their courses to address moral dilemmas with thoughtful and applied ethical perspectives, they will respond and they will grow. It is interesting that all this has taken place at the U of Texas where Robert has been located for over three decades. Certainly there are lots of people at many universities working at expanding the amount of attention to applied ethics; but at the U of Texas, they have actually designed and developed and shared willingly, some very useful learning aids. If you are ever in Austin, look Robert up — he is a great conversationalist and a devotee of good ethical practices.

Q #3
What happened at the DoubleTree Bar when three people were asked if they voted for Trump?

No matter where I was on Monday, whenever I was near a flat screen tv, the news channels all were fixated on President Trump. Maybe it was because it was Presidents’ Day?! So when I sat down for a nice glass of 12 year old Macallan as the news channel did not move off the Trump theme I didn’t learn if there was anything else going on in the world. Therefore, I decided to ask the guy sitting beside me if he voted for Trump. He said that he was really from San Francisco and had grown up in Philadelphia so no he did not vote for Trump. Then the next two guys were invited to share their answers to the same question. Even though they were from Texas, they too denied any tendency to vote for the president either. We had a pleasant but lengthy conversation on politics and life in the USA and the gist of it was that they actually have been doing quite well for some time and they are not sure how Trump actually won, except perhaps because Hillary was not as attractive a candidate as she might have been (the Clinton Foundation has not won universal acclaim in some parts of the populace). It was interesting to spend the entire day in the capital city of Texas and not find one person who voted for Trump — when I suggested this was strange, the three told me that I needed to go to a Trump rally. There the crowds get very animated, perhaps because they feel a sense of security. Unfortunately there was no rally in Austin to attend, so I will have to let the question continue to float…

The three conversations made the trip to Austin more than successful, more than interesting…I learned something — actually I learned a lot!!

g.w.