When people ask me what I do at work, I often respond that my job is to answer the question “Should we?” after others have answered yes to the question “Can we?”
It’s a short and flawed answer.
It would be more accurate to say that I am part of a team that creates a robust compliance program and an ethical culture by supporting the work of 500 ethics & compliance officers and the decisions of 25,000 supervisors and 200,000 employees.
The first answer is easier to process at a cocktail party.
Ultimately, an organization does not want its employees to turn to an ethics guru every time they face an ethical dilemma. It wants a system where employees know to ask the right questions and with values to support the right answers.
My job, as part of a larger team, is to create that system.
Not a bad gig.
