Considering the role of the 3Es in promoting racial justice

by Shelby Clark, Lynn Barendsen, and Daniel Mucinskas

To our readers: The Good Project has, for the past 25 years, been interested in finding ways to help individuals reflect on how to do “good work”—work that is excellent, ethical, and engaging. In light of the recent deaths of George Floyd, Rayshard Brooks, and other Black people in America, we feel that one contribution we can make to the ongoing conversations regarding how to bring about racial justice is to help people think about and reflect upon the connections between what it means to do “good work” and racial justice. In this blog, we discuss some of our current thoughts regarding how The Good Project’s ideas might further issues of equity and racial justice in the world.

However, as we wrote this blog about how to think through the 3Es of good work and businesses' performative virtue signaling of support of the Black Lives Matter movement, we thought about whether this blog is a similar form of virtue signaling; is this an easy way for us, a predominantly white research group, to ease our guilt? We discussed the pros and cons of posting this blog, and ultimately, given our commitment to promoting reflection, felt that encouraging reflective practices towards promoting racial justice was better than remaining silent at this time. We know, though, that this blog is just a beginning in our own work towards supporting racial equity and that we have more work to do. We welcome your feedback, and are here to learn.

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In a recent blogpost, the researchers of The Good Project noted our unequivocal belief that Black Lives Matter.

The recent death of George Floyd has made apparent our own need to continually review our roles in promoting structural racism. Moreover, as we seek to encourage reflection and introspection as strategies to help people to do good in the world, we need to think about how these methods can be used to bring about a more racially just future.

As you consider your own work or profession, think of the 3Es of Good Work-- excellence, ethics, and engagement. How can excellent, ethical, and engaging work facilitate just, equitable, and humane work?

For example, some companies, such as Zillow, Amazon, and Nordstrom, have recently been posting on social media in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement. Yet now several big name companies have been called out by former employees for using such maneuvers as public relations stunts rather than true indications of company values. 

You might ask yourself whether your own company or workplace is fulfilling the 3Es in an effort to promote racial justice. For example:

Ethics: How can a company best fulfill its responsibilities in this situation? Is signalling support for the Black Lives Matter movement online an important step in the fulfillment of professional responsibility, even if it is not echoed elsewhere in an institution’s values? What are the other important ethical steps a company should take to demonstrate support of this movement, either via its mission, the impact of its work, or beyond? Should individual workers be held responsible/accountable, and if so, how? As one example, was it right for Amy Cooper to be fired from her job for calling the police on a Black man, Christian Cooper, bird watching in New York’s Central Park?

Excellence: Do you consider posting support for BLM online excellent work, done to the best of a company’s ability? If not, how might an organization more excellently signal their support for BLM? What is the relationship between excellence in business and racial justice?

Engagement: Does posting support online for BLM indicate engagement with this issue, or that this is a meaningful area of work for an organization? If not, how might engagement be better expressed? Consider the individual workers in a company and how they may or may not find personal meaning in the company’s actions. How should a business give voice to all of its workers, and if there are dissenting opinions - for example, voices that are skeptical for whatever reason about racial justice - what are the company’s responsibilities?

Certainly many other organizations and workers are encountering questions of how to best fulfill their roles justly and ethically during this moment. For example, some small business owners have had to weigh whether to continue protesting when their own businesses are being looted.

As you think about ways to move forward as a worker or company, consider these suggestions from the Harvard Business Review about how to create inclusivity in the workplace:

• Make sure diversity and inclusion are core values of your institution and hold leaders accountable to these values;

• Hire people of color and provide them with mentors in the workplace who will help advocate for their voices and advancement;

• Create safe workplaces for people of color;

• Recognize bias and have all staff participate in de-biasing trainings; and

• Emphasize the business case for diversity and inclusion.

What are other questions and actions you think are important for you and for companies and organizations to be asking and doing to promote racial justice and equity in the world?

Black Lives Matter

At The Good Project, we seek to help people engage in important but difficult conversations, to enhance their self-awareness, and to reflect on our obligations to one another. For two decades, we have encouraged the idea that good work must be ethical, excellent, and engaging.

While we know that our words and tools are not adequate, we cannot be silent in response to the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery. We believe, without qualification, that Black lives matter. Systemic racism has been and continues to be a reality in the United States. For us to do good work, we must all engage in the hard work of reflecting on our relationships with systemic racism.

We know this work can be challenging; good work is often challenging. And we want to help.

First, we encourage you to use the tools we have developed to aid in these conversations. As examples, our ethics of roles and neighborly morality may provide a useful framing for thinking about the current situation; the value sort tool can prompt conversations about your own action or inaction during this time; and our ethical dilemmas can help you think through the ways racism shows up in our schools and local communities.

We have also put together a list of resources for talking about racism and resistance, found below.

Finally, we want to share a thought-provoking excerpt from a message released by Dean Bridget Terry Long of the Harvard Graduate School of Education in response to the recent events:

So much of the discussion related to these recent events is tied up in this notion of what America is.  Simply put, America—or any society or community—is what individuals make it.  Yes, this country was founded on the important ideals of liberty, but we know those rights were narrowly defined by our founders to include only a subset of human beings.  And though we have taken steps forward through laws and policies, it’s crucial to question whether we, as a country, have really interrogated what equality and respect for all means in practice. 

Resources (links in titles):

7 Virtual Mental Health Resources Supporting Black People Right Now

31 Children's books to support conversations on race, racism and resistance

Black Youth Project

A Parent’s Guide to Discussing Racism

What White Parents Must Teach Our Kids About George Floyd, Christian Cooper & Ongoing Racism In America

Do the work: an anti-racist reading list

How to Be an Antiracist Educator

Teaching for Black Lives

Reflecting on George Floyd’s Death and Police Violence Towards Black Americans

Beyond the Hashtag: How to Take Anti-Racist Action in Your Life

May Wrap Up: Virtual Commencements Worth Watching

by Shelby Clark, researcher at The Good Project

As the 2020 academic year comes to a close we at the Good Project, like many across the country, have been thinking about what it is like to graduate during the COVID-19 pandemic. Some of us have high school seniors of our own who have had to navigate what it means to graduate during a global pandemic, whereas others of us just grieve for those who have to celebrate #fauxmencement with friends. Yet, through it all, virtual commencement speeches still took place, and the annual deluge of advice was given. 

Below are some of virtual commencement speeches we found interesting to watch this year. As you view them, how do you think the speakers view good work? What do they have to say about the ideas of ethics, engagement, and excellence? 

Dr. Fauci’s speech at Johns Hopkins

In his short introductory speech to the 2020 Johns Hopkins graduates, Dr. Fauci reminds the new graduates that as they move into the future they will need to draw on their talent, energy, resolve, and character in order to adapt to the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. He urges the graduates to go out and “enhance global society.” 

Oprah Winfrey’s #graduation2020 speech on Facebook

Oprah reminds the class of 2020 that “never has a graduating class been called to step into the future with more purpose, vision, passion, energy, and hope.” She tells the graduates to think about how they want to define success, but reminds that that “inequality is a pre-existing condition” and that graduates have the power to vote for healthier conditions for all. After applauding those offering essential services during the COVID-19 pandemic, she leaves the graduates with the question: “What will your essential service be?”

President Barack Obama’s 2020 commencement speech for #graduatetogether

President Barack Obama wants 2020’s graduates to know that they get to decide what is important to them and what values they want to live by. But, he reminds them, they need to “ground themselves in values that last.” He too urges this year’s graduates to think about how they can make the world better, noting that “If the world’s gonna get better, it’s gonna be up to you.” However, he reminds this year’s graduates that they can do this only through building community: “no one does big things by themselves.” 

Bill and Melinda Gates from I Heart Radio’s Commencement: Speeches for the class of 2020

Bill and Melinda Gates’ commencement speech echoes many themes of President Barack Obama’s. Like the President, they urge 2020’s graduates to remember “If you want to get things done, you need a team.” They too remind this year’s graduates that they “do have a role to play in improving the world… progress didn’t happen by accident.” A main theme of their speech, though, was the creativity and “shared mission” that the world will need in order to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. They tell this year’s graduates that the world will need innovators and “ingenuity as we recover,” and that this years graduates can bring their skills to bare in bringing this future about. 

Mathew McConaughey on Good Morning America 

Matthew McConaughey spoke with a group of graduates from the Urban Assembly School for Emergency Management-- graduates who will immediately be joining the workforce as essential employees during the global pandemic. He shared with them some of his advice for living, noting that “we all have a role to play in making this world a better place.” McConaughey reminded the graduates to “act in ways you’ll respect tomorrow” and to not “be afraid to fail,” noting later “how do we ever know what was right if we didn’t screw up.” In total, he reminds the graduates, “just keep living.” 

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What were some of your favorite commencement speeches this year? Let us know in the comments. 

Are You Practicing “Time Well Spent”?

by Danny Mucinskas, researcher at The Good Project

In 1682, William Penn, founder of the colony of Pennsylvania, wrote, “Time is what we want most, but what, alas! we use worst.”

Penn’s words still ring true today, as little with respect to our use of time seems to have changed in the past several hundred years. For many of us, life is very busy, and there never seem to be enough hours in a day to accomplish everything we want to achieve. We are therefore constantly making judgments and tough choices (or avoiding them) as we weigh options for how we will spend our time to reach our goals and find fulfillment.

Numerous sources confirm that time is a precious commodity: surveys from Pew show that half of Americans feel that they are always trying to do two things at once, while Deloitte reports (perhaps contradictorily) that almost two-thirds of time in a typical weekday is spent just on sleep, work, and watching TV. Allocating time is not just a matter of having more of it, though: as discussed in The Atlantic, there is a fine balance between enjoying free time and having too much of it (which can feel unproductive, lack meaning, and give rise to feelings of purposelessness).

Especially in the unprecedented shutdowns of the COVID pandemic, our relationship with time and productivity is even more fraught. Distinctions between weekends and weekdays, or between “work time” and personal time, are blurred for individuals now working from home. For those considered “essential workers,” time spent on the job may come with a new sense of danger with each passing minute and interaction with others. Families stuck at home together might feel that time is passing agonizingly slowly; those who have lost loved ones to the virus feel that time together was all too short.

The Good Project’s own research into the nature of how individuals define “quality” also found a strong relationship to time: Several thousand participants across seven countries often spoke about “quality time” or “time well spent,” wanting to ensure that their day-to-day experiences were worthwhile.

Amidst the constant hum of daily tasks on our plates, opportunities to step back and reflect are rare, but it is important to ask oneself: Am I spending my time in a rewarding way?

We developed a short activity to guide people through a process of reflecting on how time is spent in a typical week and how that breakdown of time relates (or may not relate) to one’s most important values. This activity has been used in numerous workshops with students and practicing professionals alike. It is a simple and powerful way to focus on the connections and disconnections between what is important to us and how we allocate time.

Watch the video below and try it out yourself! We hope that this exercise will help you set aside time for what matters to you right now—whether that be learning a new skill, playing a game with your children, or achieving a personal or professional milestone.

Link here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0gUx4ZV3TA

After you complete the activity, consider the following questions:

• Why do my top values matter most to me?

• Do my values match how I am allocating my time? If so, how? If not, why not? Are my activities “time well spent”?

• How can I make life choices that will allow the way I spend my time to better reflect what I most value? How will these decisions affect me and others in my life?

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If you enjoyed this activity, consider also trying our Value Sort, another way to consider and weigh your most important values.

The Two Facets of Joel Kupperman (1936-2020)

by Howard Gardner

We were having breakfast at the kitchen table and my wife Ellen said “This obituary in the New York Times will interest you.” Indeed, it did!

Ellen had not heard of Joel Kupperman (age 83, died on April 8, 2020, in an assisted living facility in Brooklyn, probably of COVID19).  But I immediately recognized his name and remembered some biographical facts.

When I was young, a much discussed show—first on radio, then on television—was “The Quiz Kids.” Every week, a panel of children heard a series of short answer questions and the kids competed to answer first and answer correctly.  Joel was one of the indisputable stars—his hands shot up quickly, his answers most often correct.  And so—at least for those of us who thought of ourselves as ‘brains’—-this was a mark of distinction: one that easily competed with the accolades for baseball players like Mickey Mantle or Willie Mays, or with matinee idols like John Wayne or Doris Day.

As related in various books and articles (and in a famous movie Quiz Show), life after this form of youthful celebrity was not easy.  For response-whiz Joel Kupperman, it was particularly challenging and painful—so much so that if the “Quiz Kids” program was even mentioned in conversation, he would leave the room. And he forbade discussion of his own childhood with his children and even, apparently, blocked out many of its details.

Post his “minutes of fame,” Kupperman went to the University of Chicago at age 16, where he was apparently bullied.  He subsequently received  a doctorate in philosophy at the University of Cambridge and taught philosophy for fifty years at the University of Connecticut.  In 1964 he married an historian Karen Ordahl (Kupperman), who teaches at New York University.  His wife and two children (son Michael and daughter Charlie) survive him.

But what piqued Ellen and my interest were two portions of the obituary—both of which happen to connect to my own preoccupations and my own research over the decades.     One was Kupperman’s views of intellect:  “There’s this weird notion that intelligence is a single thing, but people can be smart in some ways and stupid in others.”  I have no idea whether Kupperman knew about work on different kinds of intelligence—including the “theory of multiple intelligences”—but he certainly grasped the concept.

The second strand was Kupperman’s area of philosophical inquiry—ethics.  Two individuals interviewed for the obituary convey Kupperman’s personal perspective:

Duke university philosopher David Wong:  “Joel’s work assists us in our individual and collective endeavors to live a good life by articulation of much good advice and well-taken cautions.”

Daughter Charlie: “He started out writing about pure ethics, but as his career went on, he was trying to understand character, and why it’s so hard for people to be good… he talked a lot about the meaning of life and how to be a good person and what happens after you die. I remember him telling me that when you die, it like unplugging a radio. There’s a glow that remains.”

Though we did not know each other, and our lives took quite different courses, it fascinates me that Joel’s life encompassed  two issues that have come to dominate my own thinking for decades:  the multiplicity of intelligences and the search for a good life.  Recently, I have sought to tie these lines of work together in this blog post.