Ugh. You’ve just been assigned to give an ethics presentation to employees of your organization, and you say to yourself, “I’d rather have dental surgery—without anesthesia!”
I feel your pain, because I make my living giving ethics presentations to companies around the world. I know firsthand how difficult it can be to teach ethics in a corporate setting, so I’d like to share my years of experience with you and help you maximize your effectiveness and even have fun with the session.
Consider the following eight guidelines. Some of them have to do with teaching ethics in particular, and some are about how to give an effective presentation on any subject.
1 Engage your group.
Unless you’re as dynamic as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Ronald Reagan, or Kelly Sargent, an ethics and compliance specialist with McDermott, Inc. and the second runner-up in the 2014 Toastmasters International World Champion of Public Speaking competition, you probably won’t be able to hold an audience’s attention for an hour with a speech. After all, you’re competing with something that almost everyone in the audience is completely obsessed with: his or her smartphone.
Instead of a speech, give an interactive presentation by using the following techniques. (Read more here. This article appears in the September/October issue of ethikos magazine, which is why I can’t publish the entire essay, but at least you can link to it! )
Dr. Bruce Weinstein,The Ethics Guy®, works with organizations that want to do the right thing every time and that know the key to their success is the high character of their employees. Download a summary of his presentations here. Sign up for his weekly emails that will help you be a more effective leader here. Book him to speak or present a webinar to your group here.