Intentional Integrity: How Smart Companies Can Lead an Ethical Revolution

This book was recommended in one of the NACD webinar (National Association of Corporate Directors). I first checked one out from the local library, read the half way through, and decided that I should buy this book. Robert Chesnut shares his experience to help us understand how to make ethics work in corporate settings. Philosophical yet practical. There are case studies at the end of the chapters. There are appendix succinctly discussing Chesnut's view point for those case studies. This is helpful but I just tend to read though an author's opinion. So, I had discussion sessions with my ChatGPT. It was helpful to say my thoughts out loud and have a discussion partner (it was ChatGPT) give me feedback on them. ChatGPT also gave me though-provoking questions. I really enjoyed reading this book and discussing the case studies with ChatGPT.

Relatable & very readable and engaging. Ethics and Trust and Safety can be difficult subjects for cross functional leadership teams to relate to. The author brings issues to light and a process that teams can use or modify. We used this on our team as an opening to a annual planning process and it drove an uplifting start to our year.

I worked with Rob at eBay and have always respected his leadership style, judgement and approach to finding the right answers to sometimes difficult questions. This book provides an excellent roadmap for any organization looking to create a clear set of values and then actually live those values. The title nails the issue right off the bat—if you want your org to act with integrity in how it operates, how it treats its employees and how it’s employees treat each other, it needs to intentionally put the right processes and mechanisms in place to make this happen. It doesn’t just happen via posting some lofty values on a ppt slide. Rob draws on his professional background as both a federal prosecutor and senior attorney and ethics leader at several tech companies to provide clear steps orgs of all shapes and sizes can take to create a culture where integrity is at the center of everything.Rob illustrates his points with “Code Moments” that provide really useful and sometimes pretty funny examples of how we all struggle to figure out what it means to “do the right thing” in any situation. He also uses a few examples from his own personal experiences to highlight the importance of getting intentional when it comes to making ethical decisions—this helps bring his points home and also creates a “we’re all in this together” vibe that some more “lecture-y” books in the ethics field lack. It’s a great read for anyone wishing to help their organization focus more on practical, effective ways to live their values, and also a great book for anyone who thinks it’s important to try to do the right thing in any situation.

There is a ton of value in reading this book as it causes one to think about complicated ethical issues and provides one person's perspective on them. I was already familiar with many of the industry stories and there a few parts that felt overly simplistic to me, however, there were many, many examples and scenarios that I found interesting and challenging. I also learned of a couple of new team norms that I found intriguing such as "How do you want to be remembered?" and "Is there any part of this document/project that makes you uncomfortable?" What a great question to ask. The author, being a lawyer, is very focused on providing specific rules to cover as many areas as possible. I did struggle with that approach a bit. At two startups that I was part of the leadership team we had a value of being the easiest company you have ever done business with for our employees, customers, vendors and investors. Having a ton of rules would have made that near impossible. I believe there is a risk/benefit trade-off in having too many rules vs guidelines.I'll close with a couple of quotes that I hadn't heard before that resonated with me:"Bad news is good news if you do something about it" James Morgan"As a leader the character of your company will never exceed your own" James MorganThank you to NetGalley for providing me with an early release in exchange for a fair and honest review (even if it took me a bit to get to this one:)

Intentional Integrity is an important book, and something I would strongly recommend for any business leader, but particularly for senior executives. Rob Chesnut does a great job bringing lofty integrity and ethical concepts to a practical and accessible level with a strong business sensibility. The book outlines clear, actionable steps that leaders can take to promote a culture of integrity. For example, I found Chapter 5 to be incredibly helpful as it walks thru 10 of the most common integrity issues companies face -- from conflicts of interest, to inappropriate relationships, to employee use of social media. Rob also includes real-world examples and discussions of difficult situations at the end of each chapter -- he calls these "Code Moments" -- and they are very helpful hypotheticals (grounded in actual situations he's faced) to examine. I've actually used these as exercises for my team to think through how they would handle difficult questions in the workplace. In summary, I'd highly recommend this book.

I bought this book because I met Rob (the author) at eBay and had a great deal of respect for him. I didn't expect a book about Integrity to be very interesting, but this was a very pleasant surprise! This is a must-read leadership book. All leaders should take his specific advice and write a Code of Ethics in order to create a welcoming workplace for all, as well as to be proactive about dealing with issues that can bring a company to ruins. I loved the Code Moments--very specific case studies that forced readers to wrestle with issues. The overall message is what we all need in 2021--leaders need to be transparent, authentic, empathetic and model integrity.

Just love this book. Excellent read forProfessional Ethics

Not only applied to the corporate America. It’s a masterpiece about the soul of any organization should represent.

I know on paper, a book by an Ethics Officer / General Counsel from Silicon Valley might not appeal to many, but as they say, don't judge a book by it's cover. I think this is a book that is very readable and filled with many relatable examples - with so many real-life examples included - some you would have seen in the press but others I was reading about for the first time.I actually wish anyone who is part of the leadership team for any organisation would read it. It's one thing ticking boxes to show compliance, but having an organisation that includes ethics in their decision making throughout every level is something else. If more leaders thought about the impact of their behaviour and their decisions, the world would be a better place.The book provides case studies, poses questions and discussion points. I think what is most helpful, is just like real life, not all the examples provided are the clear cut - "that is absolutely wrong" - type of cases. I think it also recognises that integrity can be hard to define and there is no one size fits all approach.

Must read !