June 13,1978 was the day I hired into Ford, some 46 years ago. Early in my career, I made a choice. Right or wrong? You decide.

And so we conclude this seven-essay journey.

Self-reflection is the vacation within. It is how you find and re-anchor yourself to your center of moments, your conscience. Take a vacation from the outside world, if only for a few minutes, and remind yourself of your Center of Moments, the Golden Rule, and Living Well Together.

In the first several essays on Two Triangles, I've invited you to get familiar with the Fraud, or Human Triangle -- Pressure, Opportunity and Rationalization.

Now it's time at last to introduce the Security Triangle, familiar to all in information and cyber security. However, I will present it in a different light, as an aspirational triangle we can use. Coupled with the simplified ethical framework (Center of Moments, Golden Rule, and Live Well Together), it can help us navigate what can often seem like a wild and wicked world.

On an individual scale, we are all policy makers. What works for us wouldn’t work for others. For every challenge — every pressure — there are opportunities. It’s not that we don’t know what to do, but that there simply are too many things to do. In a complex world, which actions need our immediate attention? How do we choose among opportunities (which we could also call competing courses of action)?

In this fourth of seven essays, we continue through the darkest part of our journey, examining the corridors of reason we build up through our rationalizations. Recall from the last essay how it's possible for those under pressure to go from being just another kid at school to being a school shooter.

We journey down these separate paths until those who have journeyed down different paths seem unrecognizable to us. How could they be so unreasonable? To which they may reply, How can we be so unreasonable? Can we be reasonable and unreasonable at the same time? Who decides?

How do we use Rationalization to justify our actions, whether committing fraud, talking ourselves out of our addiction problems, or even following pathways to violence? In small ways and in large, Fraud (Human) Triangles dominate our lives, whether it's from the shadow cast by a corrupt leader, leading to a poisoned environment, or the individual pressures, temptations and choices we face every day.

This is the second in a series of essays on fraud and ethics, based on a talk I gave in April 2023.

In this essay, we begin to delve into the Fraud Triangle -- Pressure, Opportunity, Rationalization. I will argue that the more narrow definition of fraud can be broadened; that the Triangle is actually a transactional Triangle driving much of what we do; that we differ from other living beings in that we rationalize our actions; and that this rationalization is actually justification for gratification.

Today I am posting the first in a series of essays on fraud and ethics. These are based on a talk I gave in April 2023.

In today's world, misinformation is everywhere. Today's divisions and polarizations seem to us to be sharper, the product of social media, surveillance capitalism, a never-ending news cycle of blood, sweat, tears and toil. Is it that different from yesteryear? Are we? What sort of year is ahead for us all?

This first essay lays the groundwork for a framework for personal ethics, to be used to test ourselves in our challenging, divided world.

A somewhat tongue-in-cheek foray: GenAI is but the latest tech atomic bomb we’ve created, and we can’t figure out what the heck to do with it. The first thing to consider is the “I” in AI. Where, pray, does the intelligence mostly come from?

Us.

Full of promise, full of dreams, full of desires, and doing our best. And (I’ll raise my hand here) doing and saying both some wise and some stupid things, sometimes within the same hour. How do we know this is intelligence we’re sifting through?

Why is it often so difficult to sustain change in large and complex organizations? Culture, communication, complexity — all contribute to the challenge. Here’s something to consider: perhaps we view an organization as a Broken Triangle — and what we might do about the situation.

This was first published in in 2018, but its themes and suggestions may be useful to you today.

A man, a swamp, funny stories - and looking beyond appearances.

What is grace?

What I learned from the Komodo dragons in my life

A look at the Norms in my life - and yours.

We’re all for creativity at work. At least, we say we are. Bring us creative solutions! But when it comes to harnessing the creative spirit, the clash between process, discipline and creativity is all too real.

A comical business story that demonstrates what happens when systems collide.

Reflections on ambition, luck and work.

When times get really tough, reach deep inside.

The essence of leadership is encouragement – and at the heart of encouragement is courage – not only to impart courage to those who are eager to be inspired, but also to have the courage to do so, knowing that those who follow may well surpass those who presently lead.

Sometimes it takes courage to step back from the situation, reassess, acknowledge, lick your wounds, and live to fight another day. Sometimes the most courageous thing we can do is go to Gilley’s.