It’s nice to see ethics and corporate social responsibility rising to the top of MBA student agenda.  In case you missed it,  the NY Times  recently reported that nearly 20% of the graduating class at Harvard Business School had signed The MBA Oath.  Other top tier MBA programs have similar honor codes and pledges.  Basically, they promise to act responsibly, ethically and avoid conflicts of interest.

Bravo!

The real test of course is what happens in the real world.  It’s very easy to be judgmental when sitting in the safety of the classroom with a case study in front of you, especially on the eve of graduation.  It’s much more difficult when when deadlines and projects compete for your limited time and resources.  Often, it’s much more difficult to even see potential pitfalls, because you’re so intently focused on the job at hand. 

It’s like the famous experiment where individuals were asked to count how many times a basketball was passed between players on a basketball court.  During the course of the experiment, someone dressed in a gorilla suit walked across the room.  At the end the participants were asked if they saw the gorilla.  Most of them didn’t because they stayed tightly focused on the ball.   

And therein lies the leadership challenge for MBAs and all managers and executives.  To avoid ethical and legal pitfalls it’s critical to keep your eye on the ball as well as on the complexities of the big picture.  It’s not easy.

But getting back to Harvard’s MBA Oath, what I really want to know is what’s the story with the remaining 80% of the class?  Will they see the gorilla in the room?