By Linda Fisher Thornton In my Applied Ethics Class, I introduce my students to the Five Whys. This is a simple and valuable tool for getting to the root cause of problems. We may think we understand why something happened but when we “fix” whatever we think is the sole cause we don’t always get the intended result. The reason for that is that problems tend to have multiple causes. They happen in the context of multiple processes. Singling out one “cause” is rarely sufficient for understanding what really happened.
Category: Ethical Thinking
Ethical Thinking: Sifting For Values
By Linda Fisher Thornton Most people think about ethics, at least some of the time. Ethics comes to mind during ethics training, ethics conversations, when people are thrown into ethically complex situations, and when trying to understand current events.
Shallow Thinking
By Linda Fisher Thornton The question of the day is “How does “shallow thinking” lead to ethical mistakes?” By shallow thinking, I mean thinking that is limited in breadth and depth. Think about taking a stroll on the beach as you read the characteristics of shallow thinking below. How do these characteristics describe the kind of thinking that can lead to ethical mistakes and decision gridlock?
How is Critical Thinking Different From Ethical Thinking?
By Linda Fisher Thornton Ethical thinking and critical thinking are both important and it helps to understand how we need to use them together to make decisions. Critical thinking helps us narrow our choices. Ethical thinking includes values as a filter to guide us to a choice that is ethical. Using critical thinking, we may discover an opportunity to exploit a situation for personal gain. It’s ethical thinking that helps us realize it would be unethical to take advantage of that exploit.
The Missing Domain: Ethical Thinking (Part 2)
By Linda Fisher Thornton The first post in this series, “The Missing Domain: Ethical Thinking” explored WHY leaders need to fill the gap and help people develop ethical thinking. This post will begin to unravel HOW to do that.
The Missing Domain: Ethical Thinking (Part 1)
By Linda Fisher Thornton Using the commonly taught types of thinking is very useful in life, and helps us be better professionals and business people. But there’s a catch. Critical thinking can help you understand why a problem happened. It won’t help you find the most ethical solution to the problem once you identify it.
Mindset or Competency: Which is More Important?
By Linda Fisher Thornton This post will explore the interesting relationship between leadership mindset and competency. Which is most important? What happens to our leadership capability when our mindset is out of date? How we think about something impacts what we do about it. Nick Petrie, Center For Creative Leadership, writes in Vertical Leadership Development Part I that “In terms of leadership, the stage from which you are thinking and acting matters a lot. To be effective, the leader’s thinking must be equal or superior to the complexity of the environment.”
Unethical Thinking Leads to Unethical Leadership
By Linda Fisher Thornton As humans, we are flawed thinkers who easily fall victim to biases and traps. The biases and traps we so easily fall into reshape our thinking in ways that can lead us to make bad decisions. As you review the list of leadership traps below, think about how each can lead to unethical thinking and actions.
Self-Check For Sharing Opinions (Responsibly)
By Linda Fisher Thornton Lately we’ve been seeing too much content that is not grounded in understanding. Some of it is intentionally misleading and some of it is well-intentioned but misinformed. What this means is that we have to learn how to recognize misinformation, but also, and even more importantly, carefully tend how we convey our own opinions.
10 Quotes to Inspire Leaders in 2025 (Part 2)
By Linda Fisher Thornton Part 1 of this series included the first 5 Quotes to Inspire Leaders in 2025. This week I'm sharing 5 more:
10 Quotes to Inspire Leaders in 2025 (Part 1)
By Linda Fisher Thornton This series includes 10 quotes (linked to blog posts) to inspire you and help you improve your leadership and leadership development as we head into the new year. Part 1 includes the first 5.
Top Post Series of 2024: Leading in Context Blog
By Linda Fisher Thornton The Top Post Series for last year on the Leading in Context Blog was called "10 Quotes to Inspire Leaders in 2024". It reflected insights for leaders into how to lead in ways that bring out the best in others, and featured specific areas of focus and strategies for living and leading with values.
Top 10 Posts of 2024: Leading in Context Blog
By Linda Fisher Thornton Of the 52 weekly posts published on the Leading in Context Blog in 2024, these 10 were the most popular. See if you notice a theme that connects these new topics that readers accessed most frequently:
Artificial Intelligence and Ethical Accountability: An Action Plan
By Linda Fisher Thornton Managing the ethics of artificial intelligence is only becoming more complex over time, and the stakes are high for finding a path forward. This week I am sharing a special report “AI: Where Are We Now?” published by EDUCAUSE. This timely report includes an article I wrote for the EDUCAUSE Review titled “Artificial Intelligence and Ethical Accountability.”
Leading in the “Figure It Out” Space
By Linda Fisher Thornton Leading in the "figure it out" space is one of the most important roles of ethical leadership. When the way forward isn't clear, and there are ethical issues to be considered, the best leaders admit that the next step is not clear cut and will need to be worked through. They start a conversation with their teams to engage them in the messy process of considering the most responsible way forward.
Leading in Context 