A few weeks ago, in one of the most meaningful experiences of my life, I traveled with FASPE (Fellowships at Auschwitz for the Study of Professional Ethics) to Berlin and Poland. If you aren’t familiar with the fellowship, you might think it involves Holocaust or Jewish studies. However, the FASPE is an applied ethics program – inviting fellows to consider their personal and professional ethics through the lens of the perpetrator during the Holocaust.
When we think about the Holocaust, we might believe that many people who were complicit were brain-washed or coerced… I know that I did. But the evidence shows that many professionals were partners, collaborators, or beneficiaries. Very few were resisting.
As an example, as part of the business cohort, we studied how businesses responded to the conflicts between 1933 and 1945. While at Schöneweide, we learned that primary documents suggest that every single mid- or large-size company in Germany at the time was leveraging forced labor for business operations (except for perhaps a research institution that studied sugar.) I would imagine, in the early 1930s, that these businesses did not set out to exploit millions of people in what is one of the greatest atrocities in human history. But small ethical trade-offs led to bigger ones, and these were made and justified.
I believe that business has outsized impact on the world – enormous potential to create good for consumers, employees, communities, societies, supply chains, and the environment. But we have to be clear on our values, consider how we operationalize them (our ethics), and scrutinize when we fall short. Ultimately, participating in ethical exploration empowers us to see ethical opportunities and avoid moral pitfalls.
I feel overwhelmed by my gratitude to the FASPE Fellowship for providing us with the space and place to explore these important topics, and examine ethical dilemmas we face in our professions today. To the many people who lead, teach, and fund FASPE, I feel so thankful – meeting this time in our history with this program is such a gift.
If you are interested in learning more about the fellowship, you can check it out here: https://lnkd.in/gbF_8thh
#QuestionYourEthics
