Last week I attended Intelligence Squared from NPR – and the motion was “Blame Washington more than Wall Street for the current financial crisis.”  Excerpts are in this week’s Newsweek and no wonder….the panel was extraordinary and the audience fully engaged.  Both sides agreed that there is plenty of blame for everyone and what we’re really debating is incompetence versus malfeasance (I’ll let you decide which party received which label). The highlights published were some of the more compelling comments but I strongly recommend that you download the podcast.

There was one aspect of the debate that went unnoticed.  Nell Minow, editor of The Corporate Library, a corporate-governance research firm provided such a vigorous plea for us to raise our standards/expectations of Corporate America.  In fact, she looked disgusted that she actually sat next to Richard Fuld Jr. from Lehman Brothers when he testified to Congress. Ms. Minow  has built a career on corporate responsibility and it seemed very convenient to let her stand alone while she urged us to demand more from these Executives who are our fellow human beings.   

At the end of the debate I actually changed sides (of course in the opposite direction of everyone else) but I suddenly became further disenchanted.  When I took a step back and really absorbed the compensation of the Wall Street firms’ executives and their key personnel – I realized not only have they gamed the financial system but they duped all the rest of us – and we continue to choose to remain duped.  Many of these executives have been touted as champions of Diversity and Inclusion and Work-Life.  If these executives truly cared about inclusivity (or frankly anything besides themselves) perhaps they would have made better decisions that considered long-term risks and concerns.

Those who favored the debate motion to blame Washington accepted the fact that since the inherent nature of Wall Street is greed – we are required to forgive Wall Street for making borderline criminal choices. Therefore, it is Washington’s fault for not managing the almost-crook.  If that is the case then why be so harsh on Bernard Madoff?  Wasn’t he doing basically doing the same thing except to a more extreme degree? Why is Wall Street allowed to dismiss  risk? Aren’t “modified” financial statements fraud?  

What I’m writing here is primitive compared to what these experts were debating.  But as someone who focuses on the changing workplace - I have to wonder what our future progress can be.  If Corporations can’t manage their Balance Sheets how can they recalibrate Work-Life Balance?  The formula for net profit is very simple and we know that an engaged workforce drives up profitability but perhaps this leap is too sophisticated for the Corporate World that would rather gamble its financials rather than manage them.

Rather than ending on a rant, I’d like to point out that there are a large number of corporations such as IBM; Sara Lee; Ernst & Young (and many more) who have embraced their company’s profitability and the Work-Life effectiveness of their employees as a driver of bolstering the Balance Sheet.  Imagine where we’d all be if more Corporate Leaders actually chose to run a healthy company with real profits and an engaged workforce.