Katie Halper: October 2008 Archives

The Awearness Blog was in full effect at the National Service Summit held a few weeks ago in New York. Not only did Awearness bloggers cover the event, but the man behind the blog, Kenneth Cole, was part of it! I got to hear Cole at the "Partners in Service: The Role of the Private Sector" panel, where he was joined by Jean Case from the Case Foundation, James Quigley from Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu; Laysha Ward from Target, David Eisner from CNCS and John Rice from GE. Cole highlighted his company's collaboration with the Innocence Project. Towards the end of the panel (see 1:07:00) a woman* asked a very interesting question about the way corporations can make sure they practice the values that they preach.

Laysha Ward replied with a frank, thoughtful response (see video at 1:07:38):

I think that's leadership you have to live you values and that definitely starts at the top. Target has been named one of the most ethical companies... And that's because we have standards and values and we all talk about those values... and you make sure that your words and actions align. And when they don't, you hold yourself accountable and ensure that you're making those... corrections in a way that's very honest and authentic. We're all human and when you are human there are certainly mistakes but they should be exception to the rule, not the rule... We have trainings and courses around it [ensuring ethical behavior]. We ask people if something unethical happens do you know how to report it? ... It's something you have to articulate, live and breath and make people pay the consequences when they're not doing what they're supposed to do.

Kenneth Cole followed up (1:09:01):

You can only do what you can do and you only know what you know and you put in place mechanisms to monitor that which you can. There's a lot of third party transactions and overseas subcontracting and sub sub contracting and you do what you can and you hope for the best because at the end of the day I don't think you can cover all bases.

But there's still hope. As Cole himself says minutes later (1:16:30), "We cannot heal the world alone, but together we can be an accessory."

*In the interest of full disclosure, that woman was me.