Intentional Integrity by Robert Chesnut
Intentional Integrity: How Smart Companies Can Lead an Ethical Revolution
“Silicon Valley expert Robert Chesnut shows that companies that do not think seriously about a crucial element of corporate culture—integrity—are destined to fail.
“Show of hands—who in this group has integrity?”
It’s with this direct and often uncomfortable question that Robert Chesnut, General Counsel of Airbnb, begins every presentation to new employees.
Defining integrity is difficult. Once understood as “telling the truth and keeping your word,” it was about following not just the letter but the spirit of the law. But in a moment when workplaces are becoming more diverse, global, and connected, silence about integrity creates ambiguities about right and wrong that make everyone uncertain, opening the door for the minority of people to rationalize selfish behavior. Trust in most traditional institutions is down—government, religious organizations, and higher education—and there’s a dark cloud hovering over technology. But this is precisely where companies come in; as peoples’ faith in establishments deteriorates, they’re turning to their employer for stability.
In Intentional Integrity, Chesnut offers a six-step process for leaders to foster and manage a culture of integrity at work. He explains the rationale and legal context for the ethics and practices, and presents scenarios to illuminate the nuances of thinking deeply and objectively about workplace culture.
We will always need governments to manage defense, infrastructure, and basic societal functions. But, Chesnut argues, the private sector has the responsibility to use sensitivity and flexibility to make broader progress—if they act with integrity.” – Barnes & Noble
Plains of Passage by Jean M. Auel
“Jean M. Auel’s enthralling Earth’s Children® series has become a literary phenomenon, beloved by readers around the world. In a brilliant novel as vividly authentic and entertaining as those that came before, Jean M. Auel returns us to the earliest days of humankind and to the captivating adventures of the courageous woman called Ayla.
With her companion, Jondalar, Ayla sets out on her most dangerous and daring journey—away from the welcoming hearths of the Mammoth Hunters and into the unknown. Their odyssey spans a beautiful but sparsely populated and treacherous continent, the windswept grasslands of Ice Age Europe, casting the pair among strangers. Some will be intrigued by Ayla and Jondalar, with their many innovative skills, including the taming of wild horses and a wolf; others will avoid them, threatened by what they cannot understand; and some will threaten them. But Ayla, with no memory of her own people, and Jondalar, with a hunger to return to his, are impelled by their own deep drives to continue their trek across the spectacular heart of an unmapped world to find that place they can both call home.” – Barnes & Noble
Enjoy our Wine of the Month while reading!
See all previous month’s recommendations in the Archives.