Podcasts about keystone center

One in five American adults – about 48 million individuals – are considered caregivers. In observance of National Caregiver Month, this episode of the MiCare Champion Cast explores how the caregiving landscape has evolved and what resources are available to support caregivers in clinical and non-clinical settings. The episode features Diane Mariani, LCSW, CADC, program manager for the department of social work and community health program at RUSH University Medical Center and Joshua Suire, MHA, BSN, RN, senior manager of safety & quality at the MHA Keystone Center. The Keystone Center is partnering with RUSH's Center for Excellence in Aging to create an online learning series for hospitals interested in exploring how their staff can better integrate caregivers into a patient's care team. To access the MHA-member module for implementing a caregiver navigation program, visit: https://bit.ly/3Oj3Kvf To access the Michigan Caregiver Navigation Toolkit, visit: https://bit.ly/491kMY2 To learn more about RUSH's Caring for Caregivers (C4C) program, visit: https://bit.ly/415a3Kx

The Dr. Rod Berger Show with Gary Grappo Join us for a deeply engaging conversation with Ambassador Gary Grappo, as we travel through his illustrious career and profound experiences from his early days in the Air Force to his impactful years in diplomatic service. Gary Grappo is a former US ambassador and a distinguished fellow at the Center for Middle East Studies at the Korbel School for International Studies, University of Denver. He possesses nearly 40 years of diplomatic and public policy experience in a variety of public, private, and nonprofit endeavors. As a career member of the Senior Foreign Service of the US Department of State, he served as Envoy and Head of Mission of the Office of the Quartet Representative, the Honorable Mr. Tony Blair, in Jerusalem. Grappo held a number of senior positions in the State Department, including Minister Counselor for Political Affairs at the US Embassy in Baghdad, US Ambassador to the Sultanate of Oman, and Charge d'Affaires and Deputy Chief of Mission of the US Embassy in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. From 2011–13, he was President and CEO of The Keystone Center. He currently serves as CEO of Equilibrium International Consulting, providing analysis and policy guidance on foreign affairs to businesses, institutions and the media. Grappo is the former chairman of the Board of Directors at Fair Observer.

Chris Holman welcomes Sarah Scranton, Executive Director of MHA Keystone Center, Howell, MI. MHA Keystone Center Overview As the quality and safety arm of the Michigan Health & Hospital Association (MHA), the MHA Keystone Center serves a critical role in advancing the health of individuals and communities. For the past two decades, the organization has worked alongside healthcare leaders, patient caregivers and safety, quality and risk practitioners to create life-saving programming and processes for the most pressing healthcare delivery challenges. Questions 1. Can you describe how the MHA Keystone Center works alongside hospitals for our audience members that aren't familiar with the association and how it supports the healthcare community? 2. Can you provide us with a high-level overview of a few areas your team is prioritizing with healthcare leaders? 3. Why is your work so important, both for patients and the business community? 4. The MHA Keystone Center has been a catalyst for collaboration amongst healthcare leaders and workers for the past twenty years – how do you plan to bring additional voices to the table over the next twenty? 5. How can business leaders support the work the MHA Keystone Center is doing? » Visit MBN website: www.michiganbusinessnetwork.com/ » Subscribe to MBN's YouTube: www.youtube.com/channel/UCqNX… » Like MBN: www.facebook.com/mibiznetwork » Follow MBN: twitter.com/MIBizNetwork/ » MBN Instagram: www.instagram.com/mibiznetwork/

On episode 27 of the MiCare Champion Cast, Adam Novak, director of safety & quality at the MHA Keystone Center, joins host Lucy Ciaramitaro during Patient Safety Awareness Week to provide a refresh on the work of the patient safety organization (PSO) along with resources that are available to Michigan hospitals and health systems through the Keystone Center. To learn more about the upcoming Keystone Center Safe Patient Mobility and Handling Conference on April 13 (2023), visit: https://www.mha.org/newsroom/registration-available-for-mha-keystone-center-safe-patient-handling-conference/ To learn more about the MHA Keystone Center, visit: https://www.mha.org/MHA-Keystone-Center-Patient-Safety-Organization/About-the-MHA-Keystone-Center

Abstract: “You don't want to wait until you already know that there is a culture problem to really understand the culture of your organization. You should constantly be a student of the culture of your company, because we all know nothing can destroy an organization faster than a toxic culture.” - Dottie Schindlinger Culture is top-of-mind in the boardroom. How do you manage it and measure it? What does it look like to act decisively on culture, and what ethical implications come from those decisions? In this episode of the Principled Podcast, host David Greenberg talks about the critical role of boards in shaping ethical corporate culture with Dottie Schindlinger, Executive Director of the Diligent Institute and co-host of The Corporate Director Podcast for Diligent Corporation. Listen in as the two dig into the relationship between boards and ethics and compliance teams and discuss how that can inspire good governance. The key to success? Empathy.   Additional Resources: Report: LRN Benchmark of Ethical Culture   Featured guest: Dottie Schindlinger is Executive Director of Diligent Institute, the global corporate governance research arm of Diligent - the largest SaaS software company in the Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) space.  She co-authored the book, “Governance in the Digital Age: A Guide for the Modern Corporate Board Director,” and co-hosts, “The Corporate Director Podcast.” Dottie was a founding team member of the tech start-up BoardEffect, acquired by Diligent in 2016. She is the Board Vice Chair of Alice Paul Institute and is a Fellow of the Salzburg Global Seminar.  She graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, and lives in suburban Philadelphia. Dottie Schindlinger is Executive Director of Diligent Institute, the global governance research arm of Diligent Corporation. She co-authored the book, Governance in the Digital Age: A Guide for the Modern Corporate Board Director and co-hosts The Corporate Director Podcast. She helped launch and grow the start-up BoardEffect, acquired by Diligent in 2016. Dottie is Vice Chair of the Alice Paul Institute and is a Fellow of the Salzburg Global Seminar, and she is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania.   Featured Host:  David Greenberg serves as Chair of the Governance and Risk Assessment Committee and a member of the Audit Committee of International Seaways (NYSE: INSW), one of the largest global crude oil and petroleum tanker companies.  Mr. Greenberg's previous board experience (2006 to 2016) was as the independent director – and member of both the Audit and Compensation Committees --of APCO Worldwide, a private communications and government affairs consultancy and as a director (2013 to 2016) of Clean Tech Group, which creates opportunities for industrial companies to invest in innovative, clean technology.  He also served for 5 years as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of The Keystone Center, a Colorado non-profit that brings together oil, chemical and pharmaceutical companies with leading NGOs to find solutions to complex public policy challenges at the federal and state levels. Greenberg is currently Managing Director of Cortina Partners LLC, a private equity firm that owns companies in the air medical, addiction treatment, bedding, textile and outdoor recreation industries and is CEO of Acqua Recovery, a residential drug and alcohol addiction center.  He also advises boards and executive teams on strategy, compliance, leadership and culture as a Special Advisor for LRN Corporation, and from 2008 through the end of 2016 was a member of LRN's Executive Committee. For 20 years prior to 2008, Mr. Greenberg served in various senior positions overseeing government affairs, corporate affairs, communications and strategy at Altria Group, Inc. – then the parent company of Philip Morris USA, Philip Morris International, Kraft Foods and Miller Brewing – culminating in his role as Senior Vice President, Chief Compliance Officer and a member of the Executive Committee.  As one of five senior vice presidents of the corporation, he served on the Management Committee, which oversaw all strategy and company operations.  He was also a principal architect of the company's very successful efforts to end the ‘tobacco wars' which threatened the company's very existence.  Earlier in his career, Mr. Greenberg was a partner in the Washington D.C. law firm of Arnold & Porter and also served as Legislative Director and General Counsel of the Consumer Federation of America.  He attended Williams College and has JD/MBA degrees from the University of Chicago.  Greenberg has testified before the U.S. Congress, the European Union, the Israeli Knesset and other governmental bodies over two dozen times and has appeared on ABC Nightline, the CBS Morning News, BBC Morning, and the PBS News Hour, and has spoken at leading events for CEOs and boards.    

Abstract: CEOs and former CEOs are a dominant force on the boards of major companies. They are also the most sought-after candidates when boards search for new directors. How do these company leaders, so accustomed to being the principal decision-makers in their companies, adapt to the more limited strategic oversight and advisory role that boards play? In our last episode of season six on the Principled Podcast, host David Greenberg explores the lessons that CEOs and former CEOs can bring to boards about purpose, culture, and values. Listen in to his conversation with Walt Rakowich, the former CEO of global real estate organization Prologis and current board director and audit committee chair for organizations including Host Hotels and Resorts, Ventas, and Iron Mountain, Inc.   Featured guest: Walter C. Rakowich is the former CEO of Prologis, a leading provider of distribution facilities and services with over $50 billion in assets and operations in the Americas, Europe and Asia. He joined Prologis in 1994 and was the Senior Vice President/Director of the company's Mid-Atlantic region where he was responsible for expanding the reach of Prologis to the leading logistics markets in the Midwest and Atlantic states. From December 1998 to January 2005, he served as Managing Director and Chief Financial Officer and served as the President and Chief Operating Officer from January 2005 through November 2008.  Walt currently serves on the board of directors of Host Hotels & Resorts, where he is the company's audit committee chair and member of the governance committee; Iron Mountain Inc., where he is chairman of the audit committee and member of the governance and investment committees; and Ventas Inc., where he is chairman of the audit committee. He also serves on the advisory council of Gender Fair. He has served as a member of the executive committee and the board of governors for the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts (NAREIT), the primary industry group for REITs in the United States. Walt earned his MBA from Harvard Business School and his BS, with distinction, in Accounting from The Pennsylvania State University. Featured Host:  David Greenberg serves as Chair of the Governance and Risk Assessment Committee and a member of the Audit Committee of International Seaways (NYSE: INSW), one of the largest global crude oil and petroleum tanker companies.  Mr. Greenberg's previous board experience (2006 to 2016) was as the independent director – and member of both the Audit and Compensation Committees --of APCO Worldwide, a private communications and government affairs consultancy and as a director (2013 to 2016) of Clean Tech Group, which creates opportunities for industrial companies to invest in innovative, clean technology.  He also served for 5 years as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of The Keystone Center, a Colorado non-profit that brings together oil, chemical and pharmaceutical companies with leading NGOs to find solutions to complex public policy challenges at the federal and state levels. Greenberg is currently Managing Director of Cortina Partners LLC, a private equity firm that owns companies in the air medical, addiction treatment, bedding, textile and outdoor recreation industries and is CEO of Acqua Recovery, a residential drug and alcohol addiction center.  He also advises boards and executive teams on strategy, compliance, leadership and culture as a Special Advisor for LRN Corporation, and from 2008 through the end of 2016 was a member of LRN's Executive Committee. For 20 years prior to 2008, Mr. Greenberg served in various senior positions overseeing government affairs, corporate affairs, communications and strategy at Altria Group, Inc. – then the parent company of Philip Morris USA, Philip Morris International, Kraft Foods and Miller Brewing – culminating in his role as Senior Vice President, Chief Compliance Officer and a member of the Executive Committee.  As one of five senior vice presidents of the corporation, he served on the Management Committee, which oversaw all strategy and company operations.  He was also a principal architect of the company's very successful efforts to end the ‘tobacco wars' which threatened the company's very existence.  Earlier in his career, Mr. Greenberg was a partner in the Washington D.C. law firm of Arnold & Porter and also served as Legislative Director and General Counsel of the Consumer Federation of America.  He attended Williams College and has JD/MBA degrees from the University of Chicago.  Greenberg has testified before the U.S. Congress, the European Union, the Israeli Knesset and other governmental bodies over two dozen times and has appeared on ABC Nightline, the CBS Morning News, BBC Morning, and the PBS News Hour, and has spoken at leading events for CEOs and boards.    

Abstract: “As things are changing in the world in which we live, they are changing in the boardroom as well. If you are going to be successful as a company or board, the culture plays such a mission critical role in that for the long term.” - Pat Condon Audit committees play a central role in ensuring the financial integrity of public companies and consequently serve as a backbone for overall board governance. They also provide a great deal of the oversight for boards on issues like corruption, fraud, and cybersecurity. But how do audit committees impact the culture, ethics, and compliance of major companies? In this episode of the Principled Podcast, host David Greenberg explores this question with Pat Condon, Audit Committee Chair and board director of Entergy Corporation. Listen in as the two discuss the various priorities of board committees and how they help shape a board's impact on corporate culture.   What you'll learn on this episode: [2:40] The overall architecture and role of audit committees. [4:30] How the roles of the audit community have evolved during Pat's time in the field. [5:20] How corporate culture informs Pat's decisions as a board member and audit chair. [8:05]  Advice for ethics and compliance officers to build a stronger relationship with the audit community. [11:32] Can audit communities pay enough attention to corporate ethics and compliance discussions? [16:39] How can culture be measured? [20:00] The evolving expectations of stakeholders of major companies. [22:15] What do boards need to change to keep up with evolving expectations?   Featured guest: Pat Condon joined Deloitte & Touche LLP as a partner in 2002, where he provided various consulting and attest services to clients and held a number of regional and national leadership positions until his retirement in 2011. Prior to joining Deloitte & Touche LLP, he was a partner at Arthur Andersen LLP where he provided similar services to clients and held similar leadership positions. In addition to serving on the board of directors and chairing the audit committee of Entergy Corporation, a Louisiana-based integrated energy company, Pat also serves on the boards of Urban Gateways, a Chicago-based 501(c)(3) organization whose mission is to educate and inspire young people by delivering high-quality, accessible arts experiences that advance their personal and academic growth; and the Brother Rice High School Foundation, also a Chicago-based 501(c)(3) organization. From May 2012 until its December 2015 sale to The Kroger Co., he also served as an independent director and chair of the audit committee of Roundy's, Inc., a leading Midwest grocery company located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. And from March 2012 to May 2017 he served on the board pf directors and chaired the audit committee of Cloud Peak Energy, a Wyoming-based coal producer.   Featured Host:  David Greenberg serves as Chair of the Governance and Risk Assessment Committee and a member of the Audit Committee of International Seaways (NYSE: INSW), one of the largest global crude oil and petroleum tanker companies.  Mr. Greenberg's previous board experience (2006 to 2016) was as the independent director – and member of both the Audit and Compensation Committees --of APCO Worldwide, a private communications and government affairs consultancy and as a director (2013 to 2016) of Clean Tech Group, which creates opportunities for industrial companies to invest in innovative, clean technology.  He also served for 5 years as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of The Keystone Center, a Colorado non-profit that brings together oil, chemical and pharmaceutical companies with leading NGOs to find solutions to complex public policy challenges at the federal and state levels. Greenberg is currently Managing Director of Cortina Partners LLC, a private equity firm that owns companies in the air medical, addiction treatment, bedding, textile and outdoor recreation industries and is CEO of Acqua Recovery, a residential drug and alcohol addiction center.  He also advises boards and executive teams on strategy, compliance, leadership and culture as a Special Advisor for LRN Corporation, and from 2008 through the end of 2016 was a member of LRN's Executive Committee. For 20 years prior to 2008, Mr. Greenberg served in various senior positions overseeing government affairs, corporate affairs, communications and strategy at Altria Group, Inc. – then the parent company of Philip Morris USA, Philip Morris International, Kraft Foods and Miller Brewing – culminating in his role as Senior Vice President, Chief Compliance Officer and a member of the Executive Committee.  As one of five senior vice presidents of the corporation, he served on the Management Committee, which oversaw all strategy and company operations.  He was also a principal architect of the company's very successful efforts to end the ‘tobacco wars' which threatened the company's very existence.  Earlier in his career, Mr. Greenberg was a partner in the Washington D.C. law firm of Arnold & Porter and also served as Legislative Director and General Counsel of the Consumer Federation of America.  He attended Williams College and has JD/MBA degrees from the University of Chicago.  Greenberg has testified before the U.S. Congress, the European Union, the Israeli Knesset and other governmental bodies over two dozen times and has appeared on ABC Nightline, the CBS Morning News, BBC Morning, and the PBS News Hour, and has spoken at leading events for CEOs and boards.   Transcript: Intro:     Welcome to The Principled Podcast, brought to you by LRN. The Principled Podcast brings together the collective wisdom on ethics, business and compliance, transformative stories of leadership and inspiring workplace culture. Listen in to discover valuable strategies from our community of business leaders and workplace change makers. David Greenberg: Audit committees play a central role in ensuring the financial integrity of public companies, and consequently serve as a backbone of overall board governance. They also provide a great deal of the oversight for boards on issues like corruption, fraud, and cybersecurity. But how do audit committees impact the culture, ethics, and compliance of major companies? Hello, and welcome to another episode of The Principled Podcast. I'm your host, David Greenberg, LRN's former CEO and now special advisor. I also serve as a board member, governance committee chair, and sit on the audit committee of International Seaways, one of the largest global oil tanker companies. Today, I'm joined by Pat Condon, audit committee chair and board director of Entergy Corporation, an integrated energy and utility company serving millions of customers in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas. We're going to be talking about the various issues and priorities of board committees and how they help shape a board's impact on corporate culture. Pat is a real expert in this space, having served as a director and audit committee chair for both Roundy's, a leading grocery company, and Cloud Peak Energy, a major U.S. coal producer. A former Big Four accounting partner, Pat has also served on the boards of 501(c)(3) organizations such as Urban Gateways and the Brother Rice High School Foundation. Pat, thanks for coming on The Principled Podcast. Pat Condon: David, I'm happy to be here. As you and I have talked, the role of the audit committee has certainly evolved over the years. I go back long enough that when the audit committees first started, the role was a very narrow one. And we're here to talk about some of the nuances that have evolved over the years, so I'm happy to be here. David Greenberg: That's great. And before we dive in too deep, let's just set the stage. Why don't you describe, based on your experience, the overall architecture of what audit committees do and the role that they play? Pat Condon: Well, the role is oversight of financial reporting and the related internal controls behind all of that, the review of filings, earning releases, et cetera. A major role that's evolved is risk oversight, and we have oversight of the independent auditor. Ethics and compliance taking on a greater role than it probably had years and years ago. Oversight of internal audit, a mission critical role. Interactions with the other committees of the board, as well as the management of the company. And some of the committees these days, there are overlaps and responsibilities, and so that's an important part of the job. And then any kind of external communications that we might do, which is typically in filings with the SEC or otherwise. All of that, by the way, and we're here to talk about culture. And all of that plays a role in company culture, as you can well imagine. Just a simple thing like internal controls, well, culturally is the company weak or strong? So it's a mission critical role, is the assessment of company culture as it relates to these and many other things. David Greenberg: Pat, how have you seen the role of the audit committee and the chair change over the time you've been doing that kind of job? Pat Condon: As I said, it's become much broader in scope than it was originally, and it's also much more overt, in a sense, with things like organizational health. When we look at ethics and compliance, for one. We look at organizational health, workplace violence, employee relations. And you get down to things like what's happening as a result of changes in the workplace? Which there have been over the last two years, as we all know, very significant changes. David Greenberg: You've mentioned culture and ethics a couple times. You and I were both participants in the recent Tapestry-LRN Summits on ethics and culture. Tell us how you think about corporate culture and how that informs what you do as a board member and audit chair? Pat Condon: I think it's a critical role of every board member to do his or her assessment of company culture. Not only while you're a board member, but you think about going onto a board, I think an important part of your deliberations is what does the culture feel like? But to me, it's a very mission critical part of a company's existence. Things like the new workplaces they talk about at the future of work, for example, they are part of an evolving culture which I think we all have to pay pretty close attention to. And while that was changing some over time, I think the pandemic has accelerated the change. We can certainly see that in who's in the office when and who's doing what and how. Introduction of robotics and other things into the workplace, really changing... They call that the future of work, but it's pretty real and it's happening now. David Greenberg: Would you say that from when you started as a board member until now, we've moved to a point where there are more discussions about culture, ethics, and the outside world, than when you began? Pat Condon: I think we talked about it when I began. And again, I spent a lot of time in boardrooms back in my old profession as well, so I can include that. But the volume is much louder now than it was before. There are any number of reasons for that, but you can see it in society as well. And most companies, they do reflect society. To be successful, you better reflect society. And so as things are changing in the world in which we live, they're changing in the boardroom as well. Again, you come back to if you're going to be successful as a company, as a board, et cetera, et cetera, the culture plays such a mission critical role in that for the long term. You can be short term successful with what I'd call less desirable culture, but I don't think you'll last long. David Greenberg: So one of the biggest parts of our audience for this podcast are chief ethics and compliance officers and their teams. As an audit chair, what's your advice to them on how best to build a strong relationship with the audit committee and its chair? Pat Condon: Relate. So, I'm not a shy, retiring wallflower, nor or I think most of... So the key is to talk. And maybe it's me, but... And of course in my capacity, I need to avoid being management. On the other hand, healthy discussions with the officers, including the chief compliance officer, I'm pretty frequent in that. And again, I come back to this two dimensional world we're living in right now. It's much tougher to make some assessments, and therefore my conversations have probably picked up the pace a little bit because of the lack of face-to-face time that we could spend together. Whether it's over dinner or lunch or anything, those are times when you can get a good three dimensional judgment of character, culture, et cetera. David Greenberg: When you think about the chief ethics and compliance officers you've worked with, how's the board view them? Do they have the status of other senior officers, or more importantly, do they have the status they need to be effective? Pat Condon: I can't speak for the world, but I can tell you that my experience right now is yes, without question. The relationship to the C-suite... In fact, sitting in the C-suite is probably a good way to put it. And then the board is very, very, very, very interested in what they report out. And whether it's the results of employee health surveys or anything else, they all play a role in that. And so I would say that... Well, certainly every one of our board meetings, we get a report, and I will have looked at it closely beforehand, had a discussion about it. David Greenberg: Do you have a relationship with the chief compliance officer in between board meetings and committee meetings? Pat Condon: Probably not as much as the internal auditor, but yes, I am not afraid to pick up the phone, and I've certainly told her that if she has any reason whatsoever to call me, to pick up the phone. So it's a good relationship, and I think it needs to be. I mean, it needs be a crystal clear two-way street. David Greenberg: Do you see, for example, good level of cooperation between say internal audit and ethics and compliance, or can you tell from where you sit? Pat Condon: Yes, absolutely. I mean, I think it's, where necessary, there's parts where the roles overlap and become... Collaborative is the wrong way to put it, but each has a role to play. So at least in what I'm observing, yes, there's a relationship and it's a strong one, as well as with the other members of the C-suite. David Greenberg: So, Pat here's what I think is one of the tougher questions for audit chairs and audit committee members. I sit on the audit committee at International Seaways, and the agendas are just crushing in terms of absolutely mandatory, legally required things that have to be done. So my question is can audit committees pay enough attention to corporate ethics, culture, and compliance? And if your experience with that says the answer is yes, talk a little bit about how you've accomplished that. Pat Condon: Well, I try to leverage as best I can all of those things, so I'm pretty active when it comes to pre-meeting material interactions, but we don't have... The agendas are busy, and especially depending on the time of year. But there's a lot of prep that goes into the meeting on both sides, and optimizing the prep certainly helps, as well as making the reports tell the story they need to tell, but do it in a succinct way. And that frankly, is evolving. Whether you're dealing with ERM or compliance, the nature of the way the reporting is going is I would say evolutionary and probably always will be. But the nature of, for example, corporate risk has become much more sophisticated. Part of it's technology, part of it's the work. So you know as well as I and pretty much any other director, how much more education we do these days than we did maybe before. But it's incumbent upon the director, in my view, to keep himself or herself current when it comes to rules, regulations, and the state of the art as it relates to all of those roles. David Greenberg: You said that the reporting in this area and other areas is evolving. Are you feeling like it's becoming more strategic in nature and the board members are getting a deeper sense of what's going on, or not? Pat Condon: I believe so. And again, I think the fact that we all... There aren't many shy, retiring wallflowers at the board level, and so where anybody feels... Sometimes the board, somebody will call me directly and ask about things. But I think everybody's invited to weigh in on the nature of the reporting that's done. And the questions, you can tell by the questions, that the interest level is high in this area. David Greenberg: One of the series of letters that I hear from almost every board member I talk to is are the leters ESG? So how is your board dealing with ESG? Is it an audit committee matter, a full board matter, someplace else? Pat Condon: E, all the above. And from things like... Just take an example: what's reported in the 10K. Typically, that would not have fallen anywhere in the... So sorting out who's going to review it. What, for example, the external auditor might do with some of that. Because the nature of a lot of that reporting is it's things that weren't there before, so all of a sudden it was how do we know that what's going in there is correct? Who's looking at it? So we know that's been parsed out and that it's being done. But part of it is... I come back to what does your company believe its mandate is? So for utilities right now, all of that stuff is incredibly relevant. So whether it's how are we producing every kilowatt hour, whether it's interactions with the regulators, whether it's what's the nature of our workforce, what's the composition? How is it by level of the organization? I mean, we do look at every one of those things. And so I think that at least the companies with which I'm familiar, they had all... Before it became a public mandate, it was evolving in the boardroom anyway. David Greenberg: So you and I have been involved in a bunch of conversations about corporate culture, and particularly how hard it is for boards to get a feel for it and how hard it is for companies to have good measurement and metrics. What's your view on how boards can play a role to focus management's attention on this so that when we talk about culture, we're not just guessing at it, but we have have some measures that can be tracked and management can influence them over time in the right direction? Pat Condon: I think when it comes to the measures, we are at an evolutionary point, because they've been squishy at best historically. I do think that more and more companies are having independent reviews of their culture. Having said that, there's so many different aspects to it. Again, I come back to as a board member, I would take every opportunity I had to, whether it was a corporate lunch, a dinner, and thank goodness the companies with which I've been involved would invite folks who were not part of the C-suite. And in addition to the social part of it, I would do my best to ask and gauge the responses about are we culturally directionally correct? Whether it's safety, employee relations, any number of things that embody culture, that was my way of assessing it. I don't think the metrics are... How would I put this? We have generally accepted accounting principles. I don't think there are any generally accepted ethics principles that you can say that you would... On the other hand, there are companies who do go in and make those cultural assessments. So I think it's evolutionary. I think all you can do is make sure that... And you can listen to the management team and draw your own conclusions about whether culture's important in the C-suite. In my case, fortunately it is, and we do frequently have conversations about culture itself. But you get into things like... And you know this as well as I. When you got a lot of contractors, you can set the ground rules, but they better be reflective of your culture, and you better be prepared to impose disciplines when things evolve in a way other than you would like them to. And most companies do use a lot of contractors, but they can influence culture if you're not careful. And if it's positive, it's great. If it's negative, that's something you really need to look for. David Greenberg: So stepping back a bit and reflecting, how do you see the evolving expectations of stakeholders as it relates to major companies, and what's that mean for boards? Pat Condon: The question is, the first thing is, who are your stakeholders? And I think that's also in an evolution, because corporations are more and more considered, I'll call them citizens, than they might have been before. And so I think the world of ESG, people who might not hold a share of the company still have a reaction, and they can influence you either in your stores or... On the other hand, if you're a necessity, whether if you're a power company or... The stakeholders, the customer side of it's mission critical. So I think the stakeholder evolution, if I can put it that way, is healthy for society, but it's imposing burdens we haven't experienced before. But having said that, I am watching mostly positive reactions to that. Now, it doesn't mean that everybody who says something about your company is going to portray their perspective. They're not necessarily going to be factual in what they have to say. And so there are times when you're out there talking about, maybe indirectly, that message and what's incorrect about it, or just sometimes you got to be direct. How would I put this? Social media's probably created a lot of perspective that didn't exist before, because pretty much anybody can have an expert opinion now, and that's sad, but true. David Greenberg: Yeah. Thinking about all that, what do you think boards need to change to keep up with these evolving expectations? Pat Condon: I think you just got to have your ear to the ground at all times, as well as your hands, and make sure that you're in sync. I think you can look at other companies and what they're doing. Certainly, you need to be in communication with your stakeholders virtually continuously. And evolve as you need to, because just as human nature has evolved, so has the corporate nature, and it will continue to do so. David Greenberg: Pat, have you seen on your boards pressure, expectation, for the CEOs to take a position on social issues and things going on in the outside world? Pat Condon: I think my experience is maybe a fortunate one, but the answer to that is yes, and I believe it's as it should be. And it can be a real strength to a company where you've got a CEO who's not just aware, but is a believer, if I can put it that way. David Greenberg: So, Pat, any closing thoughts you want to leave with our audience about directors, boards, audit committees, how to work with them? Pat Condon: The world of cyber is not going to go away, and it's something we all need to be tuned into. And you see it every day on the news about invasions of your personal space, but the corporate side, it's no different. ESG, mission critical, and I think we just need look to excel in that area. I forget who it was, eternal vigilance is forever the price of freedom, but eternal vigilance is something that you just got to be tuned in. I think the future of work, and we didn't talk about the intergenerational differences as it comes to that, but those are all things that are very, very relevant. And there's lots of things published on it. There's lots of things you can attend on it. But I do think it's something you need to tune into, because the pandemic and the change in the workplace environment, and I continue to add in the introduction, almost the virtual concurrent introduction of robotics in certain parts of the business are really going to change the future of work in a way that we need to stay close to. David Greenberg: Well, I think that's a great place to wrap up for now. Pat, it's been really great having you on the podcast. We thank you and hope you'll come back again, because you certainly outlined a number of issues that are worth talking about. Pat Condon: I'm happy to, and I have to say I enjoyed preparing for this with you, so look forward to doing it again. David Greenberg: That's a wrap. Outro: We hope you enjoyed this episode. The Principled Podcast is brought to you by LRN. At LRN, our mission is to inspire principled performance in global organizations by helping them foster winning ethical cultures, rooted and sustainable values. Please visit us at lrn.com to learn more. And if you enjoyed this episode, subscribe to our podcast on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, or wherever you listen. And don't forget to leave us a review.    

Abstract: “You don't want to wait until you already know that there is a culture problem to really understand the culture of your organization. You should constantly be a student of the culture of your company, because we all know nothing can destroy an organization faster than a toxic culture.” - Dottie Schindlinger Culture is top-of-mind in the boardroom. How do you manage it and measure it? What does it look like to act decisively on culture, and what ethical implications come from those decisions? In this episode of the Principled Podcast, host David Greenberg talks about the critical role of boards in shaping ethical corporate culture with Dottie Schindlinger, Executive Director of the Diligent Institute and co-host of The Corporate Director Podcast for Diligent Corporation. Listen in as the two dig into the relationship between boards and ethics and compliance teams and discuss how that can inspire good governance. The key to success? Empathy.   What you'll learn on this episode: [1:52] What was on the minds of those at Diligent Institute during their recent corporate culture roundtable? [5:32] Boards' and Directors' struggles to measure culture and progress. [8:25] Underlying driving factors of conduct. [14:13] - Discussion of cancel culture and reputation preservation. [17:38] - The importance of identifying your company's purpose.  [19:52] - The key ethics issues challenging boards right now. [24:28] - The looming threat of cyber crime. [27:46] - The shifting relationship between boards and ethics and compliance teams.   Additional Resources: Report: LRN Benchmark of Ethical Culture   Featured guest: Dottie Schindlinger is Executive Director of Diligent Institute, the global corporate governance research arm of Diligent - the largest SaaS software company in the Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) space.  She co-authored the book, “Governance in the Digital Age: A Guide for the Modern Corporate Board Director,” and co-hosts, “The Corporate Director Podcast.” Dottie was a founding team member of the tech start-up BoardEffect, acquired by Diligent in 2016. She is the Board Vice Chair of Alice Paul Institute and is a Fellow of the Salzburg Global Seminar.  She graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, and lives in suburban Philadelphia. Dottie Schindlinger is Executive Director of Diligent Institute, the global governance research arm of Diligent Corporation. She co-authored the book, Governance in the Digital Age: A Guide for the Modern Corporate Board Director and co-hosts The Corporate Director Podcast. She helped launch and grow the start-up BoardEffect, acquired by Diligent in 2016. Dottie is Vice Chair of the Alice Paul Institute and is a Fellow of the Salzburg Global Seminar, and she is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania.   Featured Host:  David Greenberg serves as Chair of the Governance and Risk Assessment Committee and a member of the Audit Committee of International Seaways (NYSE: INSW), one of the largest global crude oil and petroleum tanker companies.  Mr. Greenberg's previous board experience (2006 to 2016) was as the independent director – and member of both the Audit and Compensation Committees --of APCO Worldwide, a private communications and government affairs consultancy and as a director (2013 to 2016) of Clean Tech Group, which creates opportunities for industrial companies to invest in innovative, clean technology.  He also served for 5 years as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of The Keystone Center, a Colorado non-profit that brings together oil, chemical and pharmaceutical companies with leading NGOs to find solutions to complex public policy challenges at the federal and state levels. Greenberg is currently Managing Director of Cortina Partners LLC, a private equity firm that owns companies in the air medical, addiction treatment, bedding, textile and outdoor recreation industries and is CEO of Acqua Recovery, a residential drug and alcohol addiction center.  He also advises boards and executive teams on strategy, compliance, leadership and culture as a Special Advisor for LRN Corporation, and from 2008 through the end of 2016 was a member of LRN's Executive Committee. For 20 years prior to 2008, Mr. Greenberg served in various senior positions overseeing government affairs, corporate affairs, communications and strategy at Altria Group, Inc. – then the parent company of Philip Morris USA, Philip Morris International, Kraft Foods and Miller Brewing – culminating in his role as Senior Vice President, Chief Compliance Officer and a member of the Executive Committee.  As one of five senior vice presidents of the corporation, he served on the Management Committee, which oversaw all strategy and company operations.  He was also a principal architect of the company's very successful efforts to end the ‘tobacco wars' which threatened the company's very existence.  Earlier in his career, Mr. Greenberg was a partner in the Washington D.C. law firm of Arnold & Porter and also served as Legislative Director and General Counsel of the Consumer Federation of America.  He attended Williams College and has JD/MBA degrees from the University of Chicago.  Greenberg has testified before the U.S. Congress, the European Union, the Israeli Knesset and other governmental bodies over two dozen times and has appeared on ABC Nightline, the CBS Morning News, BBC Morning, and the PBS News Hour, and has spoken at leading events for CEOs and boards.   Transcript: Intro: Welcome to the Principled podcast brought to you by LRN. The Principled podcast brings together the collective wisdom on ethics, business and compliance, transformative stories of leadership and inspiring workplace culture. Listen in to discover valuable strategies from our community of business leaders and workplace change makers. David Greenberg: Culture is top of mind in the boardroom. How do you manage it and measure it? What's it look like for boards to act decisively on culture? And what are the implications of those decisions? Hello and welcome to another episode of the Principled podcast. I'm your host, David Greenberg, LRN's former CEO and now special advisor. I'm also on the board and chair the governance committee of International Seaways. Today, I'm joined by Dottie Schindlinger, executive director of the Diligent Institute and co-host of Diligent's podcast, The Corporate Director. We're going to be talking today about the critical role of boards in shaping ethical culture. We'll be touching on the relationship between boards and ethics and compliance teams and how that can promote good governance. Dottie is a real expert in this space. She brings over 20 years experience in governance related roles, including serving as a director, officer, committee chair, senior executive, governance consultant and trainer for public, private and nonprofit boards. Dottie, thanks so much for coming on the Principled podcast. Dottie Schindlinger: It's my pleasure, David. It's great to be with you. David Greenberg: Dottie, Diligent sponsored a recent round table for directors on corporate culture. What was on their minds? Dottie Schindlinger: Well, thanks for asking, David. Listen, culture has been a top issue on the minds of corporate directors for a few years now but really very much so in the past two years during this pandemic. It's been really fascinating in our conversations with directors all throughout this period of time, the word that keeps coming up over and over again is empathy. That empathy has now become a key skillset for directors and senior executives of organizations to really make good decisions. And I think corporate culture in particular has been a little bit in the crosshairs because of all the rapid change and the seismic type of change that organizations are going through. Think about back in March of 2020, when basically every company that could had to move to 100% remote operations with no advanced warning and with no planning and think of the impact that it had on corporate culture. When what seemed to be a two week hiatus from the office turned into, in some cases, an 18 month long hiatus from being together in the office. I think the directors are really watching corporate culture very closely. And then of course you have other pressures taking place, everything from ESG, what's happening in terms of our workforces, the huge talent crunch that we are under right now that the competition for talent at an all time high. Culture is definitely on the minds of corporate directors and we spent a lot of time talking about that in this round table. David Greenberg: Speaking of all the time out of the office, what are the directors saying about there are companies and boards being back in the office? Dottie Schindlinger: Well, it's very uneven. For some organizations they've been fully back in the offices for a long time. And by the way, I feel like it's really fair to point out that even during the pandemic, something on the order of 62% of jobs in the US cannot be performed remotely. And so I feel like we have to just call that out for a moment and acknowledge that being a remote worker was really kind of the reality for a privileged few in the workforce and not the many. But having said that, it's still very uneven the experience. We're seeing a lot of interest on the part of workforces when they can perform jobs remotely to continue doing so. And then we're seeing also a lot of desire from people together that they miss each other, that they miss the kind of give and take that happens when you get together physically in a space and you have the opportunity to run into somebody you haven't seen in a long time. Someone who's maybe not on your team but an adjacent team and just have those impromptu water cooler conversations that I think we all treasure. It's a very mixed experience. For some people it's better to stay remote, especially if, for example, you're the parent of young children and childcare continues to be an issue. You may want to have the flexibility that being a remote worker brings to your schedule. It's definitely not a universal and because it's not universal and because this all full disease of COVID just keeps rearing its ugly head and we have new variants happening, it's hard to plan. If you're in any position of leadership and you're having to plan, when should we go back to the office? And what should be the protocol to keep the workforce safe? These questions don't have simple answers and the answers themselves continue to evolve as the disease evolves. It definitely is requiring everyone to be a little bit creative and to stay on their toes. David Greenberg: Got it. Going back to the discussions on culture, did measurement come up? How are boards and directors struggling with trying to measure culture and make real metrics on culture so that progress can be measured? Dottie Schindlinger: Yeah, it's a hard thing to measure, isn't it, David? Trying to measure cultures a little bit like saying we're going to measure love. How do you actually approach that? But we also know that when there is a toxic work culture, it is palpable. People recognize when there's a toxic work culture, you can almost see it in the faces of the people on the team. There are some measurements that are quite helpful. I don't know if you're familiar with a project that was put together by a group called Glassdoor in combination with the MIT Sloan School, something called the Culture 500. And what they basically did was use some AI tools to investigate hundreds of thousands of submissions from Glassdoor reviews of employees to look for patterns. And then they measured companies on the S&P 500 on nine different variables trying to determine the health of culture. And kind of work, I think is really very interesting. If you haven't checked it out, I'd recommend that you look at the Culture 500 and just take a look at that website and see how they approached that. It's that kind of measurement that I think is going to make the difference. When you can really see big data sets and look with AI fueled tools for patterns and try to uncover what can we really learn from all these reviews? You're not looking at individual reviews and reacting to individual reviews but you're looking for commonalities and themes and patterns across thousands of entries. That then does give you a fairly accurate picture of what's happening with culture within a company. I think if you're a director these days, you should be paying attention to these kinds of tools. These are the kinds of things that are going to make it easier for you to provide that kind of oversight on culture, especially because that is so hard to do. I can say this from personal experience, I'm on the board of a small nonprofit organization that recently had some challenges around culture. And we've been meeting remotely for a year and a half because of COVID. We haven't been physically on site at the nonprofit organization and frankly, we didn't really have a good sense for what was happening there day to day. And so it took having some conversations with the staff to try to understand what is actually happening here? And it's just really hard to get the tools that you need to have that visibility if you're not boots on the ground every day. And frankly, that's just not the reality for board members, even outside of the pandemic. We're not boots on the ground every day at the organizations that we oversee. Having these kinds of tools that give us better insight, I think are going to be increasingly important as we start to think about how to measure culture. David Greenberg: The other thing I've seen some boards turning their attention to is kind of trying to capture some of the underlying drivers of conduct, both good and bad. Things like trust, fear, belief that management acts on its values. And if boards can get underneath the surface like that, you were talking about empathy. I think those are the kinds of things that we're going to have to be able to measure and assess because otherwise we're just asking people in engagement surveys how they're doing, whether they go out to lunch with their boss, whether they can bring their dog to work and that's not really what's driving behavior. Dottie Schindlinger: It's really true. And David, one of the recommendations that came out of this round table that I think gets at that question of trust is look, I think boards are very used to evaluating the performance of their C-suite executives and especially of the CEO and really understanding, do we have a feeling of trust with this individual and with this team? Do we have trust in their capability as leaders? But it can be incredibly powerful for the board to get some reports from skip level employees. Not the C-suite and not even their direct reports but one level down and really kind of getting a sense from that layer of the organization, how do they think the C-suite is doing in terms of whether they can be trusted to lead the organization in the right direction? That kind of an approach, sort of that 360 degree evaluation can be so helpful to understanding the culture of the organization, especially if that kind of information is coming anonymously and is done regularly. You don't want to wait until you already know that there's a culture problem to understand the culture of your organization. You should constantly be a student of the culture of your organization because let's face it, we know nothing can destroy a company faster than a toxic culture. Truly. We just see every example of that ripped from the headlines. We know that to be true. And so if you're maybe once a quarter, two times a year doing a big 360 degree pulse check of the whole company to understand the culture, really asking people culture specific questions, that's going to give you, I think, a very good sense for how things are going within the company and just it's not necessarily the only data point that you'll use but it does give you a very different view than what you're hearing just in conversation with the C-suite executives. David Greenberg: Yeah. You mentioned toxic cultures. Do you have any recent examples in your experience of a board acting decisively on corporate culture where there was a problem like that? Dottie Schindlinger: Well, there's many as you know but I'll share just one. And I feel comfortable sharing this one because it has been very widely publicized and we've also featured the executive vice president and general counsel a couple times at events that we've held at Diligent. And that's the story of Wynn Resorts. I think everybody remembers a few years ago that there was a very well publicized #MeToo campaign around Steve Wynn, who was the founder, chairman and CEO at the time and he was found to be guilty of sexual misconduct and he was ousted from the company. What may not be as widely known is as part of that process, about half of the board was also ousted from the company because as they began to do their investigation, what they learned was that it wasn't just a matter of there being one bad apple but it was truly endemic in the culture. There was a culture of intimidation and harassment almost at every level of the organization. It absolutely was the tone at the top playing out through the entire organization. And so they felt that they really needed to kind of start fresh and they brought in many more women onto the board. They brought in much more diversity onto the board and that was true throughout the leadership of the company as well. And they began to really work from the frontline employees all the way up to the top of the organization to really get to know what that culture had been like and what would be the things that they really needed to work on and correct. And one of the things I think is quite remarkable is that when we think now about what was happening during the pandemic, so all of this happened at Wynn a few years ago but then came the pandemic. And at the beginning of the pandemic, Las Vegas was shut down completely and as you can imagine for a company like Wynn Resorts, this was an existential crisis. If they couldn't operate their business at all, it might have very quickly spelled the end but because they'd been doing all this hard work around culture, they knew that one of the most important things that they could do would be to retain their workforce for as long as humanly possible. And so they made cuts every possible little place they could without cutting staff. And they actually did not furlough staff, I think, longer than any other resort or casino in the Las Vegas area. And that's really saying something. Now, eventually they did have to make some adjustments as the pandemic continued month after month. But I think they've now hired back basically everyone that they furloughed. They really just focused so much on retaining their workforce, protecting their workforce and really making sure the workforce knew how valued and how trusted they were. And I think that speaks to the hard work that they did around culture. I don't know that that would've been their priority in years past but they knew moving forward, this had to be priority number one for them and it really showed in the choices that they made. David Greenberg: Very interesting. And I'm speaking to you from one of the Wynn hotels right now, where I'm having some strategy meetings. The service is great, the place looks great so they seem to have weathered the storm. Dottie Schindlinger: That's great to hear. David Greenberg: How are you experiencing and talking to boards, their dealing with all of the issues related to reputational risk and cancel culture? Dottie Schindlinger: Yeah, it's a great question. And I think we hear about cancel culture and the concerns there. I think it certainly is a bigger concern for certain industries, rather others. If you are a consumer products company, obviously this is a huge concern for you. It's something that can absolutely spell the difference between success or failure and really on either side. You can have a social campaign go extremely well as in the case of Nike a few years ago, in terms of their support of Colin Kaepernick, that that actually ended up paying huge dividends for the company and really put them in a strong position. And it can go exceptionally poorly. I think of an example like United Airlines when the video of them dragging a passenger off the plane went viral. And quite frankly, even than three years after that incident, their stock price really was continuing to underperform their peers. You can really see how these things can light a fire and go very, very broadly. We do this report every month at Diligent Institute called the Director Confidence Index. And back in February, we were curious to know, how did directors feel about reputational risk? And in particular, we wanted to know, how did they feel about the fact that CEOs were becoming much more public faces of companies and taking to the podium to speak on issues that are kind of unrelated to corporate performance but are related more to social issues. Things that they felt might be of concern to their key stakeholders. And what we thought was pretty fascinating was that 54% of the directors we asked said that their CEO had made a public statement to address a social or political event occurring in 2020. And that was more than double the rate that we found four years ago. It is absolutely true that there is more happening around reputation management and reputation generation for corporate leaders. But only 16% of the directors that we surveyed said that they encouraged their CEO to speak publicly on any issue he or she deems appropriate. 42% say they would encourage the CEO to speak out but only to the extent that the issue relates directly to the company's mission or values. And about 32% said CEOs should always stay silent on social issues. It's clear that there's not a lot of consensus among directors about the best way to do this. What I would say is I think a lot of directors that we speak with are telling us, "Look, it doesn't matter whether you like it or not, you may have to enter the fray because to be silent can sometimes do more damage than to say something. And so you do have to really think about how are you guarding your reputation? What are you aligning your reputation too? And I think probably the best true north is how does this relate to your company's values? What are the things that you are trying to put out to market as your core values? And how does this relate to what you value? I think that's really the best way to approach when to speak out, how to speak out and who should speak out. David Greenberg: I think it also helps when companies have a clear sense of purpose, why they're on this planet and what their relationship is with society. If they can define that and understand that, then it may help them understand the issues where really there's very little choice and a lot of need to actually speak out because it connects to who they are and why they're here. Dottie Schindlinger: Well David, I completely agree. And I would say in that same survey, 57% of directors told us they're more concerned about reputational risk today than they have been in any prior year. And I think that is because there has been this pressure being placed on companies by institutional investors, by the business round table, by just societal opinion. Again, going back to the fact that we're in this talent war, you've got to attract and retain top talent. And the way to do of that is to make sure that you have a clearly stated company purpose, that that purpose of your company is tied to something broader than generating positive returns for shareholders and that it's something that your workforce, your customer base, your partners can all buy into and sort of see a role for themselves in. And I think that's just a much taller order than we've had in years past. I think that the job of a director is getting precipitously harder but if you can have that stated company purpose, it can make other things easier to say no to and make it a little clearer what you have to say yes to. David Greenberg: And one of the things that I've taken to the boardroom from my experience as a senior executive at what at the time was a Fortune 10 company, is that the truth is making a return for shareholders and all of the compensation bells and whistles that comp committees have ever created, you add all that up and it wasn't enough to get a lot of us up in the morning. If there wasn't a greater purpose to what we were doing the company was really missing something in terms of getting discretionary effort even out of its most senior leaders. Dottie Schindlinger: Yeah. I think that's very true. That connects to sort of what makes us human, doesn't it? That we're all, we're purposeful beings, human beings and we want to know that we're connecting to some broader purpose. It's not just we're doing it for the sake of doing it. And I think that's true for board members too. I think board members feel far more motivated to maybe go on a limb and tap into their personal networks and express empathy and have compassion for things that they feel they connect to. I think everybody wants to feel they belong. David Greenberg: For sure. When we drill down a little bit, what are some of the key ethics issues you see challenging boards? Dottie Schindlinger: Well, first of all, just the number of ethics issues challenging boards has exploded. There's many more things that board members have to keep their eyes on these days. I would say some of the big ones, issues around the pandemic dealing with sort of public health issues, making sure that local regulations and workplace safety are being managed correctly. Again, those are not easy issues, but they need to be thought through. Diversity equity and inclusion is a big one. I think there's been so much energy being put into this area ever since the murder of George Floyd and the many corporate commitments that were made to try to change the nature of systemic racism and really address historic inequity. And these things require ongoing attention. This is not something that gets fixed in a couple of months. We're talking about a system that goes back 500 years, so it's going to take some time to get this right but it needs for us not to take our foot off the gas, to really kind of keep going. Also issues related to sexual harassment, those continue to be things that we see plague companies and just continue to need to be addressed. Those are things I would say are really top of mind over the past couple of years but I would also add there, there's sort of a huge ethical dimension to climate change. Right now we're just finishing up the COP 26 conference that's happening in Glasgow. And there's a lot of concern out there that we're not going to be able to meet the climate commitment that we need to meet to keep the ocean temperature level down to 1.5 degrees Celsius above where it was. And I think that has huge, huge implications for every company. Everything from global supply chain, to workforce, to our ability to just conduct business in this new unknown future with bigger, more horrifying storms. And there's some ethical dimensions there. If we're not making choices that are in the best interest of the planet, not only can they be really harmful to our business and our balance sheets, but they're harmful to our own ability to exist. I would call that a bit of an ethical conundrum and that is a huge issue that I think boards are going to have to get better at addressing, frankly, just better at being able to have those conversations at a strategic level in boardrooms. It really does connect to the ability for the business to exist and thrive. We have to just get better at making sure we're talking about these things all the time. David Greenberg: You've just made a pretty good case that the issues that boards confront and discuss are changing. Do you see a related change in the profile of public company board members? Dottie Schindlinger: We've started to see that. We did a report in July called Beyond the C-suite and it was looking at the changing trends of the profile of new director hires of public companies. And what we saw is that while the vast majority of new hires of directors are still current and former CEOs, CFOs and COOs, there is year over year, a growing number of new director hires that are coming into the boardroom with different skillsets. We're talking about people that come into the boardroom with technology backgrounds, legal backgrounds, ESG, HR, sales and marketing. Just kind of nontraditional profiles for board member hires. And this is not an accident. We are seeing this wide array of areas of risk that boards are now being asked to tackle and really have no choice but to tackle. Things like cyber risk, for example. 10 years ago, I think you'd be hard pressed to find a board meeting that spent a very much time talking about cyber risk outside of a very small number of companies. Now, I think you'd be hard pressed to find a board meeting that doesn't touch on cyber risk probably at least a little bit of every board meeting at most companies. And so we're seeing this big shift in the kinds of things that directors have to deal with. And as a result, you need different talent. You need people that come from different areas of expertise and bring fresh perspective into the boardroom conversation. David Greenberg: Yeah. I can tell you that cyber risk comes up on the board at International Seaways very regularly and every time it does, it scares me to death because it's very hard to deal with. It's very hard to know and you have very good people inside and outside the company who can help but it's really fast moving and it's just one of those things that keeps you up at night. Dottie Schindlinger: And I hate to say it but probably should. Probably should keep you up at night. The terrifying numbers that I hear, I believe that now cyber crime as an industry, if you look at it as an industry, has top $6 trillion a year, which Larry Clinton who's the president of the Internet Security Alliance always has this great line, which is, "If cyber crime was a country, it would be big enough to qualify for entrance into the G7." Thinking about any individual company trying to tackle such a behemoth is kind of outrageous. I think what we need to think about is how are all of us as companies, as governments, as citizens banding together to fight this insane criminal enterprise. It's the largest criminal enterprise on earth. It's I think at this point, something like double the size of the illicit drug trade. It's massive. We all have to play our role in fighting this and none of us are going to be successful alone but of us can take our eye off the ball. We all have to pay attention. We all have to be a little bit paranoid all the time for bad things not to happen. David Greenberg: Yeah. One of the things that worries me, you've referenced the war for talent a few times and I wonder if the good side is winning the war for talent in the cyber area? Dottie Schindlinger: Not even close. Not even close, David. Right now, the estimated number of unfilled cybersecurity professional jobs globally is three million. And there's just not even a pipeline to fill that many roles. Unfortunately this is a definite area of concern. I would say any of you listening to this podcast, if you have a young person in your life who's trying to figure out what career to go into, suggest they go into cybersecurity, we need them in the fight. David Greenberg: One of the things I've seen in terms of the changing profile of directors is that I would say three years ago, you would have been hard pressed to find even one or two members of public company boards who had spent a major part of their time as working chief ethics and compliance officers and now I've identified about a dozen. There's a little boomlet in that area that I hope will continue. Dottie Schindlinger: That's a tiny little boomlet. David Greenberg: I know, I know. Well, you got to start somewhere. Dottie Schindlinger: You got to start somewhere. I would agree with you. I think that's a positive trend. I'd love for it to actually be large enough to be a trend but it's positive to see that we definitely saw that there are more individuals with legal expertise being welcomed on to boards. And hopefully that means that they come in the door with some deeper understanding of ethics and compliance issues maybe than others. And I think we definitely could see more of that because as we've been speaking through this whole podcast, the ethical and moral dimensions of business, I think are getting far more complex. And so you need people who sort of understand ethics and compliance in a real way to be able to help guide strategic decisions that have ethical and compliance dimensions to them, which I think is all of them. I think we could all do with an ethics and compliance expert on our boards. David Greenberg: Here, here. A lot of this audience listening to this podcast today, come from the ethics and compliance community so I wanted to be sure to ask how you see the relationship between boards and the ethics and compliance teams out there and whether it's changing and how it may need to change more. Dottie Schindlinger: Great question. I do think it is changing and I would be disingenuous if I said it was changing everywhere at the same pace. That's not true. It's fits and starts. But I do think that there's a greater recognition on the part of many companies that the ethics and compliance team is not the team to call in when things have already gone wrong but that in actual fact, they can be very strong strategic partners in future decision making. You can bring in the ethics and compliance team to help you think through investments that you're planning to make. You can bring them in to help you think through ways that you could potentially be greening your business to potentially add to the bottom line. You can bring them in to talk through workforce issues and the fight for talent, and retaining and attracting of top talent. What are some ways to think about that from sort of the ethical dimension? Frankly, I think it behooves you to use that team in a strategic way to just help make better, more nuanced decisions and play out in advance what are the ethical dimensions of this decision that we're going to make? Again, business now moves at the speed of a tweet. Never forget that every decision you make is going to be scrutinized and it's going to be scrutinized in the marketplace of Twitter. And so if that's going to be the case, it probably makes sense for you to check in with the ethics and compliance team about what might be some things we should be prepared for as we make this decision? And I don't know that that's been the traditional way that those teams have been leveraged. I think more so they've been brought in after the fact to help fix something that's gone wrong or they've been brought in when there's some check the box exercise around training that needs to happen. And I just think that's an under utilization of a really great resource in your company. David Greenberg: Dottie, that is a fantastic place to end today because we're just about out of time. It has been an enormous pleasure to talk with you about the evolution of boards in shaping culture, ethics and compliance and the role of boards in what is an ever changing world. Thank you for joining me on this episode and I hope we can continue our conversations. Dottie Schindlinger: Thank you so much, David. It's been such a pleasure. David Greenberg: And thank everyone out there for listening. I'm David Greenberg and we'll see you next time on the Principled podcast by LRN. Outro: We hope you enjoyed this episode. The Principled podcast is brought to you by LRN. At LRN, our mission is to inspire principled performance in global organizations by helping them foster winning ethical cultures rooted in sustainable values. Please visit us at lrn.com to learn more. And if you enjoyed this episode, subscribe to our podcast on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Podcasts or wherever you listen and don't forget to leave us a review.

Abstract: How are expectations of global companies changing? How do leaders from the non-profit world contribute to corporate boards—and what can companies learn from directors who come from that sector? In this episode of the Principled Podcast, host and LRN Special Advisor is joined by Helene Gayle, the President and CEO of the Chicago Community Trust. The two discuss how board directors can continue to evolve and improve their oversight of and engagement in corporate culture. Listen in as David and Helene explore the similarities and differences between corporate and non-profit boards, and how global companies are faring throughout the pandemic.   Featured guest: Dr. Gayle has been president and CEO of The Chicago Community Trust, one of the nation's oldest and largest community foundations, since October 2017. Under her leadership, the Trust has adopted a new strategic focus on closing the racial and ethnic wealth gap in the Chicago region. For almost a decade, Dr. Gayle was president and CEO of CARE, a leading international humanitarian organization. An expert on global development, humanitarian and health issues, she spent 20 years with the Centers for Disease Control, working primarily on HIV/AIDS. She worked at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, directing programs on HIV/AIDS and other global health issues. Dr. Gayle was born and raised in Buffalo, NY. She earned a B.A. in psychology at Barnard College, an M.D. at the University of Pennsylvania and an M.P.H. at Johns Hopkins University. She has received 18 honorary degrees and holds faculty appointments at the University of Washington and Emory University. She serves on public company and nonprofit boards, including The Coca-Cola Company, Organon, Palo Alto Networks, Brookings Institution, Center for Strategic and International Studies, New America, ONE Campaign, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, and Economic Club of Chicago. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Council on Foreign Relations, American Public Health Association, National Academy of Medicine, National Medical Association, and American Academy of Pediatrics. She has authored numerous articles on global and domestic public health issues, poverty alleviation, gender equality, and social justice. Featured Host:  David Greenberg serves as Chair of the Governance and Risk Assessment Committee and a member of the Audit Committee of International Seaways (NYSE: INSW), one of the largest global crude oil and petroleum tanker companies.  Mr. Greenberg's previous board experience (2006 to 2016) was as the independent director – and member of both the Audit and Compensation Committees --of APCO Worldwide, a private communications and government affairs consultancy and as a director (2013 to 2016) of Clean Tech Group, which creates opportunities for industrial companies to invest in innovative, clean technology.  He also served for 5 years as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of The Keystone Center, a Colorado non-profit that brings together oil, chemical and pharmaceutical companies with leading NGOs to find solutions to complex public policy challenges at the federal and state levels. Greenberg is currently Managing Director of Cortina Partners LLC, a private equity firm that owns companies in the air medical, addiction treatment, bedding, textile and outdoor recreation industries and is CEO of Acqua Recovery, a residential drug and alcohol addiction center.  He also advises boards and executive teams on strategy, compliance, leadership and culture as a Special Advisor for LRN Corporation, and from 2008 through the end of 2016 was a member of LRN's Executive Committee. For 20 years prior to 2008, Mr. Greenberg served in various senior positions overseeing government affairs, corporate affairs, communications and strategy at Altria Group, Inc. – then the parent company of Philip Morris USA, Philip Morris International, Kraft Foods and Miller Brewing – culminating in his role as Senior Vice President, Chief Compliance Officer and a member of the Executive Committee.  As one of five senior vice presidents of the corporation, he served on the Management Committee, which oversaw all strategy and company operations.  He was also a principal architect of the company's very successful efforts to end the ‘tobacco wars' which threatened the company's very existence.  Earlier in his career, Mr. Greenberg was a partner in the Washington D.C. law firm of Arnold & Porter and also served as Legislative Director and General Counsel of the Consumer Federation of America.  He attended Williams College and has JD/MBA degrees from the University of Chicago.  Greenberg has testified before the U.S. Congress, the European Union, the Israeli Knesset and other governmental bodies over two dozen times and has appeared on ABC Nightline, the CBS Morning News, BBC Morning, and the PBS News Hour, and has spoken at leading events for CEOs and boards.

Abstract: How are boards of directors of major companies coping in 2021 with the increasing expectations of so many stakeholders?  How can directors help companies manage their way through myriad changes in the competitive environment, advances in technology, and new mandates from government and regulators? And how are boards able to oversee critical non-financial issues like corporate culture, ethics, cybersecurity and ESG? In this episode of the Principled Podcast, David Greenberg—LRN's former CEO and now special advisor—continues the conversation about board engagement with Jonathan Day, CEO of Tapestry Networks. Listen in as David and Jonathan discuss the current issues facing boards of directors and how they impact board oversight of corporate culture, ethics, and compliance.   Featured guest: Jonathan Day is an advisor and coach to chairs, CEOs, and heads of major government agencies. He has worked extensively with groups of senior leaders (boards, top executive teams, etc.) tackling difficult and potentially divisive questions, developing a global reputation for expertise in organization and governance, strategic problem solving, and complex team interventions. He has deep academic experience, including collaborations with top research professors, and is an expert at translating leading-edge theory into practical action programs that build institutions. “I have been exposed to a lot of different academic disciplines: psychology (clinical and cognitive), sociology/anthropology, theology and philosophy, economics and finance, engineering. The broad range has given me an eclectic set of mental tools.” Before Tapestry, Jonathan was a practice managing partner, EMEA, at Heidrick & Struggles, where he worked in leadership consulting and executive search in the CEO/Board and higher education practices. Prior to joining Heidrick & Struggles, he spent nearly two decades in leading management consulting firms, first as principal at McKinsey & Company from 1990 to 2004 and then as managing director at Monitor Group from 2004 to 2008. “I think the consulting process is much more like a therapeutic process than it is a science or engineering. It means someone is helping the clients, individuals, or groups confront the outside world.”  Jonathan has a MA in divinity from the University of Chicago, a BA and MA in psychology from Johns Hopkins University, and did PhD studies in cognitive psychology from Stanford University. Jonathan is married with three children. He speaks, reads, and writes French and enjoys chamber music, sailing, cookery, writing, and travel.   Featured Host:  David Greenberg serves as Chair of the Governance and Risk Assessment Committee and a member of the Audit Committee of International Seaways (NYSE: INSW), one of the largest global crude oil and petroleum tanker companies.  Mr. Greenberg's previous board experience (2006 to 2016) was as the independent director – and member of both the Audit and Compensation Committees --of APCO Worldwide, a private communications and government affairs consultancy and as a director (2013 to 2016) of Clean Tech Group, which creates opportunities for industrial companies to invest in innovative, clean technology.  He also served for 5 years as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of The Keystone Center, a Colorado non-profit that brings together oil, chemical and pharmaceutical companies with leading NGOs to find solutions to complex public policy challenges at the federal and state levels. Greenberg is currently Managing Director of Cortina Partners LLC, a private equity firm that owns companies in the air medical, addiction treatment, bedding, textile and outdoor recreation industries and is CEO of Acqua Recovery, a residential drug and alcohol addiction center.  He also advises boards and executive teams on strategy, compliance, leadership and culture as a Special Advisor for LRN Corporation, and from 2008 through the end of 2016 was a member of LRN's Executive Committee. For 20 years prior to 2008, Mr. Greenberg served in various senior positions overseeing government affairs, corporate affairs, communications and strategy at Altria Group, Inc. – then the parent company of Philip Morris USA, Philip Morris International, Kraft Foods and Miller Brewing – culminating in his role as Senior Vice President, Chief Compliance Officer and a member of the Executive Committee.  As one of five senior vice presidents of the corporation, he served on the Management Committee, which oversaw all strategy and company operations.  He was also a principal architect of the company's very successful efforts to end the ‘tobacco wars' which threatened the company's very existence.  Earlier in his career, Mr. Greenberg was a partner in the Washington D.C. law firm of Arnold & Porter and also served as Legislative Director and General Counsel of the Consumer Federation of America.  He attended Williams College and has JD/MBA degrees from the University of Chicago.  Greenberg has testified before the U.S. Congress, the European Union, the Israeli Knesset and other governmental bodies over two dozen times and has appeared on ABC Nightline, the CBS Morning News, BBC Morning, and the PBS News Hour, and has spoken at leading events for CEOs and boards.   Transcription:  Intro: Welcome to the Principled Podcast brought to you by LRN. The Principled Podcast brings together the collective wisdom on ethics, business, and compliance, transformative stories of leadership, and inspiring workplace culture. Listen in to discover valuable strategies from our community of business leaders and workplace change makers. David Greenberg: How are boards of directors, of major companies coping with the increasing expectations of so many stakeholders? How can directors help companies manage their way through myriad changes in the competitive environment, advances in technology, and new mandates from government and regulators? And how are boards able to oversee critical non-financial issues like corporate culture, ethics, cybersecurity, and ESG? Hello, and welcome to another episode of LRN' Principled Podcast. I'm your host, David Greenberg, LRN's former CEO and now special advisor. And today I'm joined by Jonathan Day, CEO of Tapestry Networks, which is at the center of many important discussions on boards of directors and the issues confronting them. Jonathan and I have been working together on a major initiative related to board oversight of corporate culture, corporate ethics, and corporate compliance. So I'm really looking forward to digging in on the subject of boards. Jonathan is a real expert in this space based on his leadership of Tapestry and past work with McKinsey, Heidrick & Struggles, and Monitor. Jonathan, thanks so much for coming on the Principled Podcast. Jonathan Day: Thanks, David. It's great to be here. David Greenberg: So Jonathan, first, tell our listeners about the core of what Tapestry Networks is about. Jonathan Day: Well, we're here to help the women and men who lead the world's most complex companies, do their work better and do their work with more confidence. And most of that involves working with non-executive directors whose roles have become really complex in the last few years. We do all of this through peer learning. So the leaders are learning from one another, rather than from professors, or consultants, or us. It's an unusual model, but it works. Now just to make this concrete, in 2020, we conducted about 130 meetings, most of them virtual, and we held around 500 very confidential director conversations individually, in small groups, in large groups. And these are directors of companies like JP Morgan, Walmart, Microsoft, BlackRock, GM, Apple, Facebook, Nestle, Zeeman's, SAP, large complex global companies. And all of this has given us a view of the anthropology of the modern boardroom. David Greenberg: Terrific. In that regard, Jonathan Tapestry and LRN just wrapped up a major study and summit meeting on board oversight of ethics, culture, and compliance. What to you are the major takeaways from this effort? Jonathan Day: Well, the study was a lot of fun. We talked to many directors, many chief ethics and compliance officers, and the companies involved had a combined capitalization of just under $5 trillion and they operate on six continents. What I think makes this study different is that you could say it offers the voice of the director. Even those chief ethics and compliance officers were also directors of other companies. So these are perspectives straight from the boardroom. And David, for me, there were three big findings. First, boards can see the critical importance of culture and they are taking responsibility for shaping it and for shaping compliance in their companies. This is not easy. Walmart, for example, has 2.3 million workers around the world. Their board has a total of 12 members, and yet their boards are taking on this challenge. Of course, they rely on the CEO and the top management to drive a lot of the work, but they themselves feel responsible and the world is holding them responsible when violations occur. That's the first finding. The second is that many directors don't feel that they're in a very good position to sort of re-culture or to give management practical guidance and moving it in the right direction. They get lots and lots of data, but they often struggle to filter out that clear signal from noisy data. One director said culture is harder. You know it when you see it. You can use surveys, but they're not as helpful as actually knowing people. And another director said, we need a more direct pipeline to the workforce and decision makers in the field. As a director, you need to have your ear to the ground. Well, that sounds great, but let's go back to Walmart. Those 2.3 million workers are in 10,500 stores in 24 countries. That's a lot of ground for 24 ears of those 12 directors to cover. Third, a big part of this comes down to trust. How can we get to a place where senior management feel very comfortable saying in a board meeting, we have a bad culture or an ethics problem in this part of the company. And here's what we're doing to fix it. There are a lot of incentives for that executive to say everything is just fine. One director in fact said that when she sees a drop in the number of speak up calls, she worries that there's a problem. And equally when management does bring problems forward, does the board say, okay, we're going to work with you to put this right, or is bad news really unwelcomed in the boardroom. David Greenberg: Jonathan, let's step back a bit from that. You and colleagues at Tapestry are in dialogue almost every day with dozens and dozens of board members. What are some of the most pressing issues they want to talk about today? Jonathan Day: Well, ethics and culture are very high on that list. For example, how to tie compensation to culture, ethics, and compliance. You can do this for safety, deaths on the job leading to bonus cuts or cancellations, but it's not so easy to financially reward executives for creating positive trust filled cultures. You could do this, but it's a subjective judgment and making that judgment requires not only wisdom, but immersion in the culture. A lot of time, maybe a lot of travel. Not so easy these days. Boards are also intensely worried about how they are overseeing cybersecurity, mostly because pretty much every company has become digital, maintaining privacy and security for the millions of customers that a large enterprise can have. This can be a multi-billion dollar task. As airplane controls become entirely digital, as cars become more and more autonomous, as power grids are digitally controlled, lives could be at stake. And yet directors of some of the most digitally sophisticated companies in the world tell us, we may be doing a good job in our oversight of digital risk, but we may not. We have no easy way even to tell how well we're doing. Cybersecurity is also a function of culture and trust. Are employees comfortable coming forward to talk about a weakness that they've come across? Do employees trust company policies on cyber and not seek work arounds? So cybersecurity, a big concern for directors. And finally, David, you mentioned ESG and this exploding call for companies to deliver financial profitability and great performance on the environmental, social, and governance agenda. Well, this has board members awake at night and working hard. Providing reliable data on financial performance isn't easy, but they know how to do that. They've been practicing it for decades. Providing reliable data on past environmental impact like carbon emissions, that's a lot harder and the standards for doing that are in flux all around the world. But providing trustworthy of how the company is going to transition to zero emissions over the next 20 to 30 years, that's really hard. And I'll just note that every one of these challenges that I mentioned, ethics, cybersecurity, and ESG requires a strong culture, requires trust. Culture is at the root of every one of these challenges. David Greenberg: So Jonathan, you've outlined some of the things that are on the minds of board members. What do you think are some of the hardest parts of the job of being a director these days? Jonathan Day: So one is this idea that the board can be, as they say, noses and fingers out. Well, if that was ever true, it's dead today. Boards have got to engage very intensely in some cases. And they've got to look for the areas where they're not engaging intensely, but should be. Sometimes you'll even see the word intrusive engagement or intrusive oversight. And yet if the board gets too intrusive, senior management is going to feel maybe correctly that the board doesn't trust them. And they'll start pushing every decision up to the board or they'll act out in some other way. And that's not good. Trust inside the board is also critical. Are board members having the tough conversations they need to have with one another. Second, trust is hard to maintain on the outside. Board members are under intense scrutiny these days. Rating agencies and proxy advisors maintain scorecards on every individual director recommending to institutional investors, whether to vote them in for another year or kick them out. And institutional investors are very open that they're willing to vote out directors who are not working in the ways that they think they should. Once upon a time, a director's job was almost entirely private, not really subject to intense scrutiny, no longer. A compensation committee members said the Wall Street Journal knows the conclusion of our meetings even before we get a copy of the minutes. Society expects that transparency and society has ways of getting it and society reacts to what it learns. Consumers vote with their pocket books, talent moves to companies that have purposes beyond profit. And I would say a board member who isn't ready for that intense public exposure is going to have a rough time. David Greenberg: Yeah. So that leads to the question from your point of view, is the modern board up to the task of these multiple challenges or maybe better said more positively, what capabilities and experiences are boards most in need of today? Jonathan Day: Well, David, the women and men who serve on these boards have my intense admiration. They work very hard. I think in many cases they're not paid enough and they bare more and more risks almost by the week, but they are struggling to balance a massive set of responsibilities against the limits of a group of part-time directors who meet maybe six times a year. That's not much. What I'm about to say is a personal view, but I think we will see more examples of full-time or near full-time board service, non-executive service. The governance pundits in the US talk about the value of separating the chair's role from the CEOs. And they point to countries like the UK, where this is done. Well great, but some of those public company, non-executive chairs in the UK are paid well into seven figures and they work full time often with staff to support them.                In the financial sector, especially there are audit chairs who are full-time, not even board chairs, but audit chairs are nearly full-time and paid accordingly. So time I think, is the first of the capabilities. I think another capability is a connection with younger employees and customers. In one of our networks, the average age of directors is well into the 70s. Now I've never met a collectively wiser group. They're truly amazing, but in many cases, their customers could be their great grandchildren.                And so there's a point of connection there that's hard to forge. Boards are working very hard to increase their own diversity, but there's still a long way to go. And the digital universe that's driving many of these companies is evolving so quickly that it's tough for many directors to know even where to begin as they master it. I'm going to add one capability that is just over the horizon, but it's approaching fast. Most of us learned corporate finance based on concepts of the capital markets that took form starting roughly in 1960 and concepts based on assumptions, for example, that all equity shareholders have identical preferences, but most of those assumptions no longer hold. We're driving around a city based on a map that doesn't reflect most of the huge changes made in the last 50 years. And sometimes we're wondering why we're getting lost. And so I think boards need to catch up on these changes as well. David Greenberg: I think it would be interesting, Jonathan, for you to talk a little bit about why you say all equity shareholders don't have identical preferences anymore. In other words, I think what you're saying is the theory was all equity shareholders care about the same thing, which is the growth and the value of their shares. Jonathan Day: Well, I could drone on about this for much time than we have, but let me give just two examples. When is the time horizon? You have shareholders, if you want to call them shareholders that are really algorithms that are trading in and out of companies, not in hours or minutes, but in fractions of seconds. So they have very, very short term time horizons and traders that are seeking a short-term volatility in the companies.                And then on the other hand, you have the big index funds and their managers sometimes describe themselves as almost shareholders in perpetuity. So the time horizons for shareholding are all over the map. The second is the simple assumption that what everybody wants is measurable economic value profits, but over and above the risk adjusted cost of capital. It just not the case any longer. You have very sophisticated investment managers that are saying we are prepared to trade some profitability for higher performance on climate, or social goals, or better governance. We talked about ESG. So the simple assumption that all investors have the same preferences are no longer a fact. Those are just two examples, but there are others that we could provide. David Greenberg: So one of the consequences of what you're saying really reflects the mushrooming expectations on companies today. They seem to be growing by the day. How do you make sense of that? And what are you hearing about that from directors? Jonathan Day :   Well, yeah, the expectations are definitely there and there's even this idea out there that governments have become incapable of taking action and making changes and that companies should do it all. And you get this idea both from the left and from the right that companies should solve all the problems of healthcare, and climate change, and inequality. And I would say that no company, no matter how clever, or large, or powerful can set social policy for the world. Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk may have spaceships, but I really don't think we want them to be controlling nuclear missiles or tanks. So I think companies need to find ways to work more effectively with governments and with regulators so that each can play its part. The biggest companies really are playing multi-national roles and they have to think about issues like diplomacy and statecraft, and yet they can't step in and displace the governments that ultimately have responsibility for that. So all of this I think is going to require a lot more work on the part of boards. And a lot of that comes right back to culture, and ethics, and trust. Can't get away from that. It keeps coming back into the conversation. David Greenberg: Jonathan, clearly this is a conversation we could be having all day, but we're out of time for now. Jonathan Day of Tapestry Networks, thank you for joining me on this episode. My name is David Greenberg, and I want to thank you all for listening to the Principled Podcast by LRN. Outro:   We hope you enjoyed this episode. The Principled Podcast is brought to you by LRN. At LRN, our mission is to inspire principal performance in global organizations, by helping them foster winning ethical cultures rooted in sustainable values. Please visit us at lrn.com to learn more. And if you enjoyed this episode, subscribe to our podcasts on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, or wherever you listen. And don't forget to leave us a review.  

Abstract: Evidence is mounting that corporate culture eats corporate strategy for breakfast. In this episode of the Principled Podcast, LRN Special Advisor David Greenberg, who is also on the board of International Seaways, is joined by Dr. Marsha Ershaghi Hames, Partner at Tapestry Networks, to talk about recent findings in their joint survey of board members from major corporations on ethics, culture, and compliance. While board members agree that activating culture and ethics from the boardroom is important, there is less clarity around how to make this happen. Listen in as Marsha and David discuss the genesis of the study and key themes that emerged from these candid conversations with corporate directors. Featured guest: Marsha is a partner with Tapestry Networks and a leader of our corporate governance practice. She advises non-executive directors, C-suite executives, and in-house counsel on issues related to governance, culture transformation, board leadership, and stakeholder engagement. Prior to joining Tapestry, Marsha was a managing director of strategy and development at LRN, Inc., a global governance, risk, and compliance firm. She specialized in the alignment of leaders and organizations for effective corporate governance and organizational culture transformation. Her view is that compliance is no longer merely a legal matter but a strategic and reputational priority.  Marsha has been interviewed and cited by the media, including CNBC, CNN, Ethisphere, HR Magazine, Compliance Week, The FCPA Report, Entrepreneur.com, Chief Learning Officer, ATD Talent & Development, Corporate Counsel Magazine, the Society of Corporate Compliance and Ethics, and more. She hosted the “PRINCIPLED” Podcast, profiling the stories of some of the top transformational leaders in business. Marsha serves as an expert fellow on USC's Neely Center for Ethical Leadership and Decision Making and on the advisory boards of LMH Strategies, Inc., an integrative supply chain advisory firm, and Compliance.ai, a regulatory change management firm. Marsha holds an Ed.D. and MA from Pepperdine University. Her research was on the role of ethical leadership as an enabler of organizational culture change. Her BA is from the University of Southern California. She is a certified compliance and ethics professional. Featured Host: David serves as Chair of the Governance and Risk Assessment Committee and a member of the Audit Committee of International Seaways (NYSE: INSW), one of the largest global crude oil and petroleum tanker companies. His previous board experience (2006 to 2016) was as the independent director – and member of both the Audit and Compensation Committees --of APCO Worldwide, a private communications and government affairs consultancy and as a director (2013 to 2016) of Clean Tech Group, which creates opportunities for industrial companies to invest in innovative, clean technology. He also served for 5 years as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of The Keystone Center, a Colorado non-profit that brings together oil, chemical and pharmaceutical companies with leading NGOs to find solutions to complex public policy challenges at the federal and state levels. Mr. Greenberg is currently Managing Director of Cortina Partners LLC, a private equity firm that owns companies in the air medical, addiction treatment, bedding, textile and outdoor recreation industries and is CEO of Acqua Recovery, a residential drug and alcohol addiction center. He also advises boards and executive teams on strategy, compliance, leadership, and culture as a Special Advisor for LRN Corporation, and from 2008 through the end of 2016 was a member of LRN's Executive Committee. For 20 years prior to 2008, Mr. Greenberg served in various senior positions overseeing government affairs, corporate affairs, communications, and strategy at Altria Group, Inc. – then the parent company of Philip Morris USA, Philip Morris International, Kraft Foods and Miller Brewing – culminating in his role as Senior Vice President, Chief Compliance Officer and a member of the Executive Committee.

“You've got to dive deep into the bedrock, and that starts with activating trust and zeroing in on culture, and it starts with the board.” - Dr. Marsha Ershaghi Hames Abstract: Evidence is mounting that corporate culture eats corporate strategy for breakfast. In this episode of the Principled Podcast, LRN Special Advisor David Greenberg, who is also on the board of International Seaways, is joined by Dr. Marsha Ershaghi Hames, Partner at Tapestry Networks, to talk about recent findings in their joint survey of board members from major corporations on ethics, culture, and compliance. While board members agree that activating culture and ethics from the boardroom is important, there is less clarity around how to make this happen. Listen in as Marsha and David discuss the genesis of the study and key themes that emerged from these candid conversations with corporate directors. What you'll learn in this episode: [2:03] Who is Tapestry Networks and how was this report made?   [5:11] What is David's perspective on this report and why is this report so timely? [7:26] Why is ethical culture a business imperative? [9:34] Apart from trust, what were the other big themes in this report? [14:46] Why do board members struggle to make a home in ethics and compliance? [17:12] Did the chief E&C officers' views differ from others in the report? [21:22] How can this report be leveraged in the E&C community? Featured guest: Marsha is a partner with Tapestry Networks and a leader of our corporate governance practice. She advises non-executive directors, C-suite executives, and in-house counsel on issues related to governance, culture transformation, board leadership, and stakeholder engagement. Prior to joining Tapestry, Marsha was a managing director of strategy and development at LRN, Inc., a global governance, risk, and compliance firm. She specialized in the alignment of leaders and organizations for effective corporate governance and organizational culture transformation. Her view is that compliance is no longer merely a legal matter but a strategic and reputational priority.  Marsha has been interviewed and cited by the media, including CNBC, CNN, Ethisphere, HR Magazine, Compliance Week, The FCPA Report, Entrepreneur.com, Chief Learning Officer, ATD Talent & Development, Corporate Counsel Magazine, the Society of Corporate Compliance and Ethics, and more. She hosted the “PRINCIPLED” Podcast, profiling the stories of some of the top transformational leaders in business. Marsha serves as an expert fellow on USC's Neely Center for Ethical Leadership and Decision Making and on the advisory boards of LMH Strategies, Inc., an integrative supply chain advisory firm, and Compliance.ai, a regulatory change management firm. Marsha holds an Ed.D. and MA from Pepperdine University. Her research was on the role of ethical leadership as an enabler of organizational culture change. Her BA is from the University of Southern California. She is a certified compliance and ethics professional. Featured Host: David serves as Chair of the Governance and Risk Assessment Committee and a member of the Audit Committee of International Seaways (NYSE: INSW), one of the largest global crude oil and petroleum tanker companies. His previous board experience (2006 to 2016) was as the independent director – and member of both the Audit and Compensation Committees --of APCO Worldwide, a private communications and government affairs consultancy and as a director (2013 to 2016) of Clean Tech Group, which creates opportunities for industrial companies to invest in innovative, clean technology. He also served for 5 years as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of The Keystone Center, a Colorado non-profit that brings together oil, chemical and pharmaceutical companies with leading NGOs to find solutions to complex public policy challenges at the federal and state levels. Mr. Greenberg is currently Managing Director of Cortina Partners LLC, a private equity firm that owns companies in the air medical, addiction treatment, bedding, textile and outdoor recreation industries and is CEO of Acqua Recovery, a residential drug and alcohol addiction center. He also advises boards and executive teams on strategy, compliance, leadership, and culture as a Special Advisor for LRN Corporation, and from 2008 through the end of 2016 was a member of LRN's Executive Committee. For 20 years prior to 2008, Mr. Greenberg served in various senior positions overseeing government affairs, corporate affairs, communications, and strategy at Altria Group, Inc. – then the parent company of Philip Morris USA, Philip Morris International, Kraft Foods and Miller Brewing – culminating in his role as Senior Vice President, Chief Compliance Officer and a member of the Executive Committee.  Transcript Intro: Welcome to the Principal Podcast, brought to you by LRN. The Principal Podcast brings together the collective wisdom on ethics, business, and compliance, transformative stories of leadership, and inspiring workplace culture. Listen in to discover valuable strategies from our community of business leaders and workplace change-makers. David Greenberg: Hello, and welcome to a special episode of the Principal Podcast by LRN. This is first in a series of conversations this season about the role of the board in shaping ethical corporate culture. And we're presenting all of this in association with Tapestry Networks. I'm your host today, David Greenberg, Special Advisor at LRN and a member of the Board of International Seaways, the second largest global oil tanker company. Today I'm joined by Dr. Marsha Ershaghi Hames, partner at the management consulting firm, Tapestry Networks. We're going to be asking each other about activating culture and ethics from the boardroom, a major study we co-authored that examines boardroom oversight of culture, ethics and compliance. Created from in-depth interviews with 40 directors, occupying 80 seats at global public companies, the study is a window into how directors think about, feel about and act on culture, ethics and compliance. Today we're going to be focusing on the big themes that emerged. In later podcasts, we'll be inviting participants in the study to join us to dig deeper into the findings and implications. Marsha, thanks so much for coming on the Principal Podcast today. Marsha Ershaghi Hames: It's great to be here, David. David Greenberg: Before we dive into the results, let's talk about how activating culture and ethics from the boardroom came to be. Can you tell us about who Tapestry Networks is and how this report was created? Marsha Ershaghi Hames: Yes. Yeah. Thank you. And good afternoon, everyone. It's great to be here. And a little background, I think on Tapestry and then we'll kind of jump into the report. So Tapestry Networks' mission has been to help leaders of the most important institutions in the world do their work most effectively and with great confidence. And each year hundreds of independent directors and senior executives participate in our networks and our research initiatives, and they represent large, global organizations from North America and Europe. And our focus is to design networks, and these are across financial services, corporate governance and healthcare, to really kind of center conversations and candid dialogue from these top leaders on the pragmatic realities of leading these organizations and complex firms. And last year, while the pandemic challenged the resiliency of so many of these organizations, we were noticing that in a lot of the dialogue, it pushed leaders to surface and adopt kind of what is our broader view of risk and responsibility? And so in collaboration with LRN, and specifically, David, you and I had a number of conversations as we sort of started to explore, is there something there that we need to really unpack? The ethics culture and compliance forum came together. And we brought together directors and executives to begin exploring what is the role of values? What is the role of corporate culture and ethical decision-making in helping organizations secure long-term sustainability and viability for business? And we had a series of meetings last year. So we kind of kicked off in July, kind of at a mid point, we're a year now, and concluded at the end of last year. And when we concluded these sessions, the input from all of the participants in the dialogue was that we all kind of collectively stepped away and said, we need to go out. We need to go out and assess these current realities of board oversight of corporate culture. We need to understand from the director perspective, what is practical here? How is information being received? What is being measured? What do they need to investigate more? How do they need to build and bridge some of this dialogue? So when we kicked off 2021, our goal in collaboration with LRN was to conduct this study to glean the perspectives of sitting public company directors, and activating culture and ethics from the boardroom reveals these insights. These were confidential discussions, as David mentioned, with 40 directors representing 80 public company board seats. So fascinating, fascinating work, and looking forward to discussing it more. So, David, maybe we can actually turn to you and get started. You've been in ethics and compliance for two decades and a board member at three companies since a decade and a half ago. So what is your perspective on this report and why do you think the work that we've done here together is so timely? David Greenberg: Marsha, I think it's not only timely, it's overdue. The issue of where was the board has been an issue for the whole 20 years I've been associated with ethics and compliance. It's the first question people ask in the aftermath of a serious scandal or major corporate misconduct, where was the board of directors? And the truth is, that's a question that chief ethics and compliance officers and their teams can't always answer. [crosstalk 00:05:49] ... are obviously a huge force in the conduct and culture of a company. But what directors say, do and influence from the boardroom is often a bit of a black box to the ethics and compliance community, even within the same company. So boards are really fairly new at this. Even though ethics and compliance has been around for 20 years, it comes on top of so many other things that boards have to do. And so many processes, and procedures and structures at the board level that are already well-ingrained, it's hard to add these new topics, even as important as this one is. And we know from the perspective of CECOs, how they feel about boards and board oversight, because we've been talking to them for 20 years. But also, LRN did a study of this a couple of years ago, talking to 25 chief ethics and compliance officers from global companies, again, off the record with no one being quoted. And the results were that CECOs are really disappointed in the amount of time, priority, resources, focus and strategy they get from the board. They're asking for more. And I think we're seeing in this study, that boards are also asking themselves for more. So Marsha, let me turn it back to you and ask, in the report we say ethical culture is a business imperative. Why do we say that? Marsha Ershaghi Hames: Yeah. So there's no question, as you sort of point to, that boards play a significant role in shaping the conduct and the culture of a company. Every time there is a lapse or a scandal, as you mentioned, the number one headline or question is where was the board? However, I'd like to call out that an interesting kind of component that surfaced throughout our conversations was the importance of extending trust, and the currency of trust and where that plays in this notion of building business. So trust is hands down one of the most valuable assets a company can cultivate. Within an organization, trust can percolate into culture. And outside an organization, it translates into loyalty. And we've seen this play out with countless examples, even most acutely during the pandemic. And we've seen how the erosion of trust can impact business, and confidence and consumer loyalty, and how deep trust and consistency of trust can build communities and can help sustain business. So a trust-based culture is an ethical culture, and this is the business imperative that was evident and it was coming through threads of conversations that board members really hallmark they care deeply about this. And it's not just that the directors care about this and that the executives care about this, but investors are demanding ethical cultures. They want to see businesses that are investing in trust-based ethical cultures. But it's important to get the foundation right. And I think this is where we're going to dig deeper too in this study, you've got to dive deep into the bedrock, and that starts with activating trust and zeroing in on culture, and it starts with the board. David Greenberg: So Marsha, you talked a lot about trust, but I'd also like you to talk a little bit about the other big themes that came out of this study of the points of view of 40 directors of some of the biggest companies in the world. So what were some of those other themes? Marsha Ershaghi Hames: Yeah. Yeah. So, first of all, I mean, a big kind of, I would say macro theme was the importance of embedding practices around ethics and compliance programs into all segments of the business. So culture change tends to be catalyzed by having a very clear and ethics and compliance strategy. And one big theme was that ethics and compliance doesn't have a home. And I think we're going to try to get into that a little bit later. But without sort of finding a home for it, where does it sit? Who oversees it? We're not really focusing on assessing, measuring, keeping a pulse on it. And that kind of reveals theme number one, which would be measurement. So measuring, what are we measuring? Are directors really positioned to even interpret the metrics and the data that is sort of emerging from what chief ethics compliance officers, and CHROs and other kinds of stakeholders are presenting to the board. Is the board's view sometimes refracted through this management filter? So some of that we're going to unpack a little bit more over the course of actually our upcoming summit. A second big kind of theme was oversight. So lots of conversations around structures and processes, and this is a challenge. So one of the questions that emerged was how can boards really ensure there's adequate time and space being sort of devoted to focus on culture, ethics and compliance matters? Several directors had examples of committees, subcommittees that have been formed around which committees might or should have ownership. Is culture a committee issue or a full board matter? Several raised questions around how necessary it is to consider bringing in someone with a background with a chief ethics and compliance officer background or equivalent, with that kind of expertise onto that board, would that sort of change the dimensions of the types of questions being asked and the types of challenges being investigated? Another big theme was accountability. So again, several directors discuss the importance of building better bridges with management and to engage more directly with management on matters of culture. There were several directors who've mentioned that there's a lot of reports on activities, so they're looking at all these different metrics, but one, I think very in particular highlighted the need for directors to be able to sit back and look for key signals. There's a lot of noise, a lot of activities, but what is the true narrative that we're seeing here? How do we sort of interpret that? And who and what function is really accountable? So I would sort of summarize the four themes as it all starts and ends with trust, however measurement continues to be a challenge, oversight, instructors, and processes and accountability. So, when we were having these conversations, directors continue to sort of pound the table to reaffirm that the words of one that's a corporate culture eats corporate strategy for breakfast. And something that I found really compelling during these 40 interviews was how directors pounded the table to reaffirm that in the words of one, corporate culture eats corporate strategy for breakfast. And this really underscores LRN's long held view, that compliance is principally an outcome of values-based ethical cultures and not a driver of them. What did you think about this consensus from directors in the study? David Greenberg: Marsha, to me that's the absolute bedrock foundation of everything that needs to happen now. It's really fantastic that the directors almost to a woman and man get the idea that if we're going to get the outcomes we want, we've got to get culture right. But as you said in discussing the themes about trust, and accountability and measurement, beyond the consensus of culture really matters, directors are still unclear on the path forward. And in fact, sometimes they even fail to make a connection between ethics, and compliance and culture. By that, I mean, we had a few comments from directors that culture's really hard, compliance is much more straightforward, but the truth is doing the right thing in a company or in any organization is really a complex set of interactions that is very hard to get right. So I think it's why it's important that we continue this conversation and continue the exploration, because I think we learned that director's hearts are in the right place, but some of the mechanisms to take that feeling forward still need a lot of work. Marsha, we talked about the idea of board members struggling with ethics and compliance finding a home. What did you make out of that? You mentioned it before, but drill down a little bit Marsha Ershaghi Hames: Yeah. Yeah. And I think that this theme came up in a number of different segments of conversations, and it really comes down to creating a focus. So creating a board focus gives ethics culture and compliance a true home. And without a home, there is no oversight, or responsibility, or regular pulse on that strategy. There's no regular check on what's the progress? Are we moving forward? Have we stalled? Who are the stakeholders we need to bring into the conversation? How do we assess and measure the data that's presented to us? So without a home, these conversations are not happening. And as you and I know, last couple decades, what gets measured gets done, what gets measured gets the attention. So without a true home, there's no way to have the accountability and the standing anchor for directors to sort of watch, and assess and to challenge management, ask the right questions. How is the program being designed? Are we capturing the right metrics? Are we able to link these data points into the narrative that gives us a pulse on culture? Now, we had some mixed responses from directors in terms of where this should truly sit. And a few directors, as I mentioned earlier, mentioned that within their organizations, they've designed and developed some subcommittees. Now we know that there are some components sometimes, let's say compliance of risk may be under audit, or there may be a subcommittee to audit. Certainly as a number of directors pointed to some of the survey in HR and people workforce data being presented in comp committees. However, there were, I would say across the board, directors were saying that culture is a full board matter and it comes up at the full board, but it needs to have a more focused home. And I think this is where a nice springboard to the types of conversations we're going to have over the next few weeks, where we sort of learn from each other and directors will share how they are approaching this, how they are thinking about this and the need to really find a true home for ethics and compliance. David Greenberg: Thanks, Marsha. Another really interesting aspect of this study is that 10 out of those 40 board members either are or were chief ethics and compliance officers in their executive lives. Did their views differ from the others? Marsha Ershaghi Hames: Yeah. Well, they essentially brought a stronger, more grounded view that carried greater emphasis. One of the CECOs said that essentially you bring a current credibility on the subject to the board. So it makes it very clear to the CEO and it makes it very clear to the board that I understand how these priorities live, unlock and reveal themselves. And they emphasized certain pragmatic steps in our conversation. So one of the areas of emphasis from CECOs that contributed to this study, CECOs that are former CECOs or current CECOs who sit on boards, is that it's important to link and incentivize culture. So finding strategies or examples that they had shared around linking ethical outcomes to compensation is important to at least put on the board and start to have a conversation around. Another area that they really emphasized was it was very critical for the board to have deliberate dialogue around culture that's grounded in metrics. So start identifying what needs to be measured. How do we sort of find the examples and hallmarks of metrics and data that would be representative collectively of culture? Also, they emphasize thirdly, that organizations can't play culture, they need to do culture. So there needs to be a responsibility to stop talking about it, but to start creating and building a strategy. Going back to our conversation on, we need to find a home for this, we need to bring in the right stakeholders to challenge, and ask the questions and start to build a plan. And then lastly, this sort of resulted in the importance of giving a culture a home at the board. But I'm curious, you are a former chief ethics and compliance officer. You also have served on a number of boards. What do you think are the key stake aways from this report, both for chief ethics and compliance officers, and for the teams and staff that they're building within their organization? David Greenberg: I think the report says a few things loud and clear, and I think I could sum it up by saying it is an endorsement of the view that ethics and compliance has to be strategic. It has to be values-based. It has to focus on creating cultures, not on creating rules, procedures and programs. Ethics and compliance has got to go deep into the drivers of both misconduct and the kind of behavior that we want to inset. Ethics and compliance and the CECOs who drive it have to help companies, and their boards and their teams find metrics that really allow for tracking and improving culture. Must focus on core issues, like trust, fear, organizational justice, willingness to speak out, willingness to listen and hear. So one way I've characterized this is, CECOs and their teams have to play big, not little. It's time to have a clear strategy that encompasses how to build and maintain an ethical culture. It's time to move away from reporting on activities, to having a discussion with their boards about the culture drivers of misconduct, having a narrative about what's happening in the company, why and what needs to happen to change it, having a new set of metrics that measure what matters, like trust, fear, justice, and how to knock down the barriers to what we call a true speak-up culture. And it's time to find a way to strengthen their relationships with their boards inside and outside of board and committee meetings. That's what I'd say, if I were a CECO still, I'd be taking away from this, Marsha. Marsha Ershaghi Hames: And then David, then how do you think our colleagues in the compliance and ethics industry could use or leverage this report in bridging and building conversations with their own peers, senior executives and their board members? David Greenberg: Well, I mean, I think CECOs need to start a deeper conversation with management and with boards on issues like board training, board reporting, the board relationship with ethics and compliance. They've got to find a way to elevate. They have to find a way to kickstart a stronger relationship with members of boards and members of the key committees. They have to have a discussion with directors about, are we doing the right kind of training? Are we doing the right kind of reporting? Do we have the right metrics? What does good oversight look like? Do we have a real culture strategy as it applies to doing the right thing? Do we have the right structure? What's our relationship, both inside the boardroom and outside the boardroom, and how do we strengthen it? How do we find the themes, narratives and trends and talk about them and not talk about activities? I can tell you as a board member, there's no other function, or no business unit, or no executive who simply stands up and talks about activities. And that's been the tradition of ethics and compliance. We've got to shift the focus to outcomes, not to activities. Marsha Ershaghi Hames: I couldn't agree more. And I think this report really points to a lot of that. So fascinating, fascinating. David Greenberg: Marsha, I think this is a conversation we could have all day and we will continue this conversation in future podcasts. But we're out of time here today. So my name is David Greenberg. My guest has been Dr. Marsha Ershaghi Hames from Tapestry Networks. And I want to thank you and everyone for joining us on the Principal Podcast by LRN. Outro: We hope you enjoyed this episode. The Principal Podcast is brought to you by LRN. At LRN, our mission is to inspire principled performance in global organizations, by helping them foster winning ethical cultures rooted in sustainable values. Please visit us at lrn.com to learn more. And if you enjoyed this episode, subscribe to our podcast on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, or wherever you listen. And don't forget to leave us a review.  

Meet the leaders behind PSBA’s Charter School Task Force and the Keystone Center for Charter Change at PSBA in this episode of Keystone Education Radio.

Listen tonight as Carol the Coach interviews Michael Morton who is the Director of the Keystone Center in PA.  He will be  discussing the competencies of the family therapist who works with families who suffer from Sexual Addiction. He will help you to determine what are the benefits of inpatient treatment and when is the best time to incorporate family therapy when treating a client with Sexual Addiction. He will also share how families can use family therapy to rebuild the trust after Sexual Addiction has occured.

When visitors travel to Pennsylvania Dutch Country, they are encouraged to consume the local culture by way of "regional specialties" such as cream-filled whoopie pies and deep-fried fritters of every variety. Yet many of the dishes and confections visitors have come to expect from the region did not emerge from Pennsylvania Dutch culture but from expectations fabricated by local-color novels or the tourist industry. At the same time, other less celebrated (and rather more delicious) dishes, such as sauerkraut and stuffed pork stomach, have been enjoyed in Pennsylvania Dutch homes across various localities and economic strata for decades. Celebrated food historian and cookbook writer William Woys Weaver delves deeply into the history of Pennsylvania Dutch cuisine to sort fact from fiction in the foodlore of this culture. Through interviews with contemporary Pennsylvania Dutch cooks and extensive research into cookbooks and archives, As American as Shoofly Pie offers a comprehensive and counterintuitive cultural history of Pennsylvania Dutch cuisine, its roots and regional characteristics, its communities and class divisions, and, above all, its evolution into a uniquely American style of cookery. William Woys Weaver is an independent food historian and author of numerous books, including Culinary Ephemera: An Illustrated History and Sauerkraut Yankees: Pennsylvania Dutch Food & Foodways. He also directs the Keystone Center for the Study of Regional Foods and Food Tourism and maintains the Roughwood Seed Collection for heirloom food plants.

A conversation with Dr. William Woys Weaver, an international food historian, author, teacher, gardener, and epicure. Dr. Weaver is the founder of the Roughwood Seed Collection, which houses over 4000 heirloom food plants. Dr. Weaver is also the director of the Keystone Center for the Study of Regional Foods and Food Tourism™, located in the historic Lamb Tavern in Devon, Pennsylvania. The Keystone Center is an independent research institute unaffiliated with state or private industry organizations. Its primary purpose is the survey, documentation, and promotion of Pennsylvania’s five regional food identities, their related culinary cultures in Europe, and their diasporas within the United States.

Episode 9 - In this episode Peter Adler talks about regrets at the way the practice of mediation has developed in the US. Drawing on a survey, conducted in preparation for this speech, Adler provides food for thought. Peter S. Adler, Ph.D. is a principal in ACCORD3.0,a network of independent consultants specialising in foresight, strategy, troubleshooting, and the interaction of science, policy and organisations. Adler has worked with government, business and the NGO sectors and recently completed a 9-year appointment as President and CEO of The Keystone Center.

Jane Hutterly's lecture was presented on April 12, 2007. Jane M. Hutterly is Executive Vice President of Worldwide Corporate & Environmental Affairs for S. C. Johnson & Son, Inc. in Racine, Wisconsin. In this capacity, Ms. Hutterly leads the consumer products business in environmental and sustainability actions, public and governmental policy, public affairs, community relations and philanthropy on a global and local level. She also serves as President of Johnson Keland Management, Inc. (The Family Office), in Racine. The Family Office provides corporate governance, financial and advisory services to the individual members of the Samuel C. Johnson and Karen Johnson Boyd families and serves as the focal point for all family business activities, servicing family needs either in-house or through specialized outside counsel. Ms. Hutterly joined SC Johnson as a marketing manager in 1979 from Frito-Lay, Inc. She held a variety of brand management positions in the company’s insect control and personal care businesses before being named Corporate Acquisitions Director in 1987. She served as Vice President of Franchise Sales & Marketing for Molly Maids, Inc. in 1989. She became Vice President – Environment & Safety in 1992. In 1998, she was appointed to the position of Senior Vice President – Worldwide Corporate Affairs, and in 2005 was appointed Executive Vice President of Worldwide Corporate & Environmental Affairs. She was appointed President of Johnson Keland Management, Inc. in 1999. Ms. Hutterly serves on the Boards of Directors of Johnson Financial Group, Inc. and the Soap and Detergent Association. She has also served as Chairman of the Board of the Consumer Specialty Products Association; on the Board of Directors of the Canadian Manufacturers of Chemical Specialties Association; on the Board of Trustees for the Alliance for Consumer Education; as Liaison to the U.S. President’s Council on Sustainable Development; as Liaison Delegate to the World Business Council for Sustainable Development; on the Board of Directors of The Keystone Center; as Vice Chair of the National Wildlife Federation’s Corporate Conservation Council; and as a member of The Nature Conservancy’s International Leadership Council. She is a member of Cornell University’s Johnson School Advisory Council, and has also served as a member of the President’s Council of Cornell Women. Locally, she serves on the Racine Art Museum’s Board of Directors and Executive Committee. She has also served on the Boards of Directors of the Downtown Racine Corporation, All Saints Healthcare System, and YWCA of Racine, and as Chair of the 2005 Racine County United Way Campaign. Ms. Hutterly is a native of Washington D.C. She holds a B.S. degree in Business from Centenary College of Louisiana and an MBA from Cornell University. She and her husband, Louie, who has two children, have resided in Racine for the past 28 years.

Binka Le Breton Rainforests and Slavery Join Michael Lerner in conversation with Binka Le Breton, writer and lecturer on environmental and human rights. Binka Le Breton Binka lives on a Brazilian rainforest farm, runs the Iracambi Rainforest Research Center, lectures and broadcasts internationally on rainforest and slavery topics, is president of Amigos de Iracambi, is on the board of directors of the Keystone Center, and, in her spare time, writes books. Binka’s most recent book, The Greatest Gift: The Courageous Life and Martyrdom of Sister Dorothy Stang, is based on the 40 years Sister Dorothy Stang spent aiding in the struggle of poor farmers for land rights against logging and development companies in Brazil. Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.