"Here's the thing about ethics," Jon Carroll wrote recently in his column in the San
Francisco Chronicle. "There are entirely too many of them these days."

I know what he means, and I'll bet you do too. If you're a speechwriter reading this
column, chances are you've been doing your part to contribute to the avalanche of
speeches, articles, and other corporate communications that are focused on ethics
and values. In these scandal-ridden days, it seems like every pronouncement, every
speech, every public utterance includes an obligatory call to raise our ethical
standards.

I too have grown weary of the way we write and talk about ethics – the cycle of
scandal and redemption and the sanctimonious rhetoric that goes with it. There's far
too much empty language about integrity, values, DNA, tone at the top, restoring
public trust, walking the talk, finding a moral compass, and doing the right thing.
With everybody repeating more or less the same language, using the same tired
metaphors and clichés, it's no wonder everyone's jaded.

Perhaps one reason some speakers have so little new to add on the ethics front is
that they're worried their words will come back to haunt them. After all, there's
plenty of precedent for high-blown rhetoric preceding a downfall. In his book "Writing Effective Speeches: The Ultimate Guide to Making Every Word Count," Henry Ehrlich reprints an entire speech by Dennis Kozlowski, the former CEO of Tyco. It's an eloquent and compelling argument for good governance, delivered in the go-go days of 1995. And as Ehrlich believes, it's rendered hypocritical by what we now know about Kozlowski, who as of this writing sits in a Manhattan courtroom, charged with looting the company of $600 million.

When writing about Bush's Second Inaugural in the Wall Street Journal, Peggy
Noonan bemoaned his lack of "moral modesty." Alas, this is a common pitfall.
Whenever you make a public speech about ethics or morality, you raise the bar for
your own personal behavior and that of your organization. Any subsequent misstep
is also going to raise the hypocrisy quotient.

Case in point: former Education Secretary William Bennett, the outspoken moral
crusader and author of "The Book of Virtues" who happened to have a gambling
problem. Turns out he lost $8 million in Las Vegas. His credibility was shot – not
strictly because of the gambling, but because of his hubris. He set himself up for the fall.

Ehrlich calls ethics and its thematic twin, corporate governance, the two worst
speech subjects in the world. His objection? "The real world of business is inevitably compromised," he says, "and most clients want to brag about their virtues without addressing the compromises."

I've written umpteen speeches about ethics and values for different clients, and I
have to disagree. I like writing about ethics. For me, the satisfaction comes from
helping clients understand that an effective speech must be candid and self-
revealing. It must be nuanced. It must dabble in the grey.

The best speeches about ethics avoid easy formulation. They acknowledge that in
the realm of human behavior, not all mistakes are due to greed and mendacity. In
daily life, people make bad choices because they're trying to balance the short-term
against the longer-term. Immediate needs trump more abstract ones. In the
corporate arena, it all too often comes down to meeting the quarterly earnings,
versus longer-term objectives such as protecting your organization's reputation.
When I was writing speeches for the chairman of a British cell phone company, his
most memorable speeches acknowledged that management wasn't sure how to
handle every problem. What should the company do, for instance, about the
possibility of pornographers or pedophiles enticing or abusing children on cell
phones? What about the mining of a mineral ore essential to making cell phones that was damaging a gorilla habitat?

These are tough problems. They require compromises. In both cases, management
had to weigh one set of needs against another. The chairman spoke candidly about
the marketplace, his cutthroat competition, his narrow profit margins, and his
obligation to keep the investment community happy. He also spoke about his fears
for the well being of vulnerable children and his deep respect for the environment.
The result? He put a human face on an ethical dilemma. He showed the company
had a conscience. He won kudos from the press, and the company is wildly popular
with young people.

My previous job was writing speeches for executives at Deloitte, the accounting firm - a profession that has been at the epicenter of the business scandals. Every leader of that organization who spoke in public affirmed the centrality of values and ethics.

They understood the best policy is to acknowledge that the profession has gone
through dark days, that the experience has prompted soul searching, and that the
organization is committed to ethical standards.

But they did more. They made it specific. They made it personal. They admitted that
decisions are often difficult, and that there are often no easy answers. Executives at
Deloitte don't talk about privileged client matters, but they do talk about their own
lives. The Chief Ethics and Compliance Officer recently spoke to a university audience about an ethical choice he faced when he was in the Army and uncovered some bogus bookkeeping. Afterwards, he was mobbed by students at the podium who wanted to share similar experiences.

Wasn't it George Carlin who said business ethics is an oxymoron? I'm sorry, I just
don't buy it. To abuse another oxymoron, I don't find it incredibly convincing.
Business leaders have to make tough decisions every day. They should be talking
about them – honestly and explicitly. They should talk about what's really at stake,
for their organizations and for themselves personally. If they talk in those terms,
people will listen.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Dana Rubin writes speeches for the president of the Rockefeller Foundation in New York City. She is responsible for preparing speeches and presentations for internal and external events and for helping to develop key messages on philanthropy, global development, public policy, and leadership. Previously she was an executive speechwriter at Pfizer and Deloitte, and before that she worked as a freelance executive speechwriter in London, England. You can contact her at drubin@rockfound.org.

This article first appeared in the Speechwriter's Newsletter in February 2005.

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