Podcast: Now’s the Time to Hone Your Moral Decision-Making Skills
Skip to content
Insight Unpacked Season 3: Can We Still Build a Green Economy? | Listen
Podcast: Now’s the Time to Hone Your Moral Decision-Making Skills
Leadership May 20, 2020

Podcast: Now’s the Time to Hone Your Moral Decision-Making Skills

Dilemmas are rarely black-and-white. On this episode of The Insightful Leader, we hear what fictional characters can teach us about today’s real-world quandaries.

Based on insights from

Brooke Vuckovic

Listening: Now’s the Time to Hone Your Moral Decision-Making Skills
download
0:00 Skip back button Play Skip forward button 15:42

The COVID-19 crisis has forced many leaders to make tough choices. Which employees should you let go if you need to make cuts? Is it immoral to have people come in to work if you can’t give them all masks? Should you sacrifice time with your family in order to focus on keeping your organization afloat?

When facing dilemmas like these, Brooke Vuckovic thinks that it can be helpful to turn to fiction. “You basically have the world at your fingertips the moment you are willing to engage with fiction and to learn how to extract lessons from it for you as a leader,” says Vuckovic, a clinical professor of leadership at Kellogg, who teaches courses on moral complexity.

On this episode, Vuckovic shares three works of literature that challenge leaders to approach moral questions more thoughtfully.

Note: The Insightful Leader is produced for the ear, and not meant to be read as a transcript. We encourage you to listen to the audio version above. However, a transcript of this episode is available here.

Featured Faculty

Clinical Professor of Management and Organizations

About the Writer
Morgan Levey is an audio producer in Missoula, Montana.
Most Popular This Week
  1. Podcast: Why Wall Street Slowed Its Roll on Sustainability
    A few years ago, the stock market was wild about green tech and ESG funds. And then it wasn’t. We look at why in the third episode of “Insight Unpacked: Can We Still Build a Green Economy?”
  2. Can We Take the Doom Out of Scrolling?
    Today’s social-media feeds elevate toxicity and partisanship. A new algorithm offers hope for a less-hostile, more-enjoyable experience.
  3. Is AI Mastering the Art of Persuasion?
    “If AI continues along even a similar path and speed as we’re seeing now, then this becomes less of a Black Mirror episode and more of reality.”
  4. Does GameStop Signal the End of Short Selling as We Know It?
    A conversation with a prominent short seller about the possible consequences of a wild week on Wall Street.
  5. AI Is Wiping Out Entry-level Jobs. Here’s How to Surf the Wave and Not Get Crushed by It.
    The story is both more hopeful, and more complicated, than the data suggest.
  6. When the Fog Rolls In, Do Leaders Need a Map or a Compass?
    Some moments call for a business plan, while others call for adaptability. Here’s how to know when to lean on one or the other.
  7. What a Legendary Winemaker Can Teach Us about Leadership
    A renowned viticulturist helped turn Portugal’s Douro Valley into one of the world’s great wine regions. His philosophy holds value beyond the vineyard.
  8. Podcast: Does Climate Policy Stand a Chance?
    America passed its biggest-ever climate bill … only to reverse course three years later. In the fourth episode of “Insight Unpacked: Can We Still Build a Green Economy?” experts discuss why policy solutions struggle to stick.
More in Leadership
2211 Campus Drive, Evanston, IL 60208
© Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern
University. All Rights Reserved. Privacy Policy.