Intentional Integrity: How Smart Companies Can Lead an Ethical Revolution - and Why That's Good for All of Us

Description

'Smart, practical advice for anyone looking to do good and do well.' - Reid Hoffman, co-founder of Linkedin and author of Blitzscaling Silicon Valley expert and General Counsel of Airbnb, Robert Chesnut shows that companies that do not think seriously about a crucial element of corporate culture - integrity - are destined to fail. Defining integrity is difficult. Once understood as 'telling the truth and keeping your word,' it was about following not just the letter but the spirit of the law. However, at a time when workplaces are becoming more diverse, global, and connected, silence about integrity creates ambiguities about right and wrong that make everyone uncertain, opening the door for the minority of people to rationalize selfish behaviour. Meanwhile, trust in most traditional institutions is at an all-time low and there's a dark cloud hovering over technology. And this is precisely where companies come in; as peoples' faith in establishments deteriorates, they're turning to their employer for stability. In Intentional Integrity, Chesnut offers a six-step process for leaders to foster and manage a culture of integrity at work. He explains the rationale and legal context for the ethics and practices, and presents scenarios to illuminate the nuances of thinking deeply and objectively about workplace culture. We will always need governments to manage defence, infrastructure, and basic societal functions. But, Chesnut argues, the private sector has the responsibility to use sensitivity and flexibility to make broader progress - if they act with integrity.

Robert Chesnut was General Counsel and Chief Ethics Officer with Airbnb, Inc. A graduate of Harvard Law School and the University of Virginia, he worked for fourteen years with the U.S. Justice Department where he prosecuted bank robberies, kidnappings, murders and espionage cases. He joined eBay in 1999 as its third lawyer where he founded its Trust and Safety team. He joined Airbnb in 2016, overseeing a team of approximately 125 legal professionals in over twenty offices around the world. It is there that he developed a popular interactive employee program, Integrity Belongs Here, to help drive compliance throughout the culture at the company. He is the author of Intentional Integrity.

Stop talking about bringing your values to work and learn how to actually DO it! -- Kim Scott, author of Radical Candor The ethical expectation for companies is wonderfully changing from 'do no evil' to 'do good'. Companies and their leaders need to put ethics and integrity at the centre of their mission and culture. Rob is an insider who's combined doing good with doing business well in two iconic Silicon Valley companies. His book contains smart, practical advice for anyone looking to do good and do well -- Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn and author of Blitzscaling No one has wrestled with more difficult business integrity challenges over the last twenty years than Rob. His insights will instruct you how to drive integrity into your culture. Now, more than ever, we need someone to lead a constructive, direct conversation about integrity in business, Rob delivers -- Meg Whitman, CEO of Quibi, former CEO of HP and eBay Rob and I were peers at Airbnb and together we helped build a culture and public-facing brand with integrity as a core value. Not only was the work strategically brilliant but under Rob's leadership, it was embedded into the very heart of the company. Rob brings creativity, empathy, credibility and a great sense of humor to this important topic - he makes ethics human and fun -- Jonathan Mildenhall, cofounder and CEO, TwentyFirstCenturyBrand Drawing on considerable experience with the nuances and circumstances of integrity violations at Airbnb, Chesnut offers plentiful examples of common integrity issues . . . He is especially good on such matters as enforcing consequences and handling situations involving violators who are high-performing employees. Valuable reading for companies that want to get serious about workplace ethics * Kirkus Reviews * This is the rare fully realized look at not just what integrity means in the context of business, but how to make it second nature in the workplace. Business leaders should take note * Publishers Weekly *