To which I submit but a single word in reply: Bull! A classic example of this misleading “when no one else is around” scenario is a case study once brought to me by a student: You are driving through the desert, 400 miles from the nearest town. The traffic light turns red. After you stop, it remains red for some time. Looking around, you see no one. Do you wait for the light to change or run it?

If you are going to form ethical behaviors that actually matter in the real world, you have to deal with the fact you are seldom truly alone. Even in the song, note the disclaimer: “There doesn't seem to be anyone around.”

Anyone who has an interest in our behaviors and actions watches how you react to a real-life situations. Some examples:

How you treat that prospect in our office: Both the prospect and your employees are watching.

How you treat your employees: Your other staff and other surrounding members of the public are watching.

How you react to questions or requests: Consider how many folks will know if you agree to alter or modify a certificate of insurance, especially after you have repeatedly admonished your staff how any such modification is a clear E&O risk: your staff; your insured; the certificate holder; the carrier; every party that is provided a copy of that certificate and possibly, your attorney and E&O carrier.

How you follow underwriting guidelines and proper business procedures: This affects your carrier loss ratios as well as potential contingent income that would have proved key to bottom-line profits for you, any partners, fellow stockholders, future buyers/perpetuation plans and even family members who depend upon your continued income.

How you feel about yourself: Staff, clients, friends and family members are just the most immediate stakeholders who will sense—and be affected by—a toxic attitude or unhappy personality resulting from increasing tension created by your gap between the type of ethics you want to practice and those actions you actually take.

In honor of your personal stakeholders, make this March the time you drive that ethical stake in the ground. No more magical thinking that somehow everything is negotiable as long as it is “victimless” or seemingly unseen.

The 'Red Light' Scenario and its Faulty Logic Regarding Ethical Training

1. With all of the real ethical decisions we have to face in the real world, why bother to make one up? There is no traffic light in the desert 400 miles from nowhere!

2. Because we all know the case is fake, we have just been given permission to fake our answers.

3. Included in those who can fake answers is the instructor, who can now make up any answer that serves his or her purposes, with no responsibility to make sure that his answer is worthy of the student's time or grounded in reality.