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Lessons in Management and Life from Star Trek
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Category: Ethics & Morals

JUMP TO LESSON:
007: Guilty of in-action (Picard, Wesley)
013: Falsely de-humanizing the enemy (Picard)
018: Adapting foreign cultures (Picard, Worf)
019: Using & abusing insider information (Picard, Worf)
021: Risking rank and career (Picard, Data)
030: Matter of internal security (Picard)
038: The moral choice (Picard)
042: Denying instinctive urges (Picard)
064: Genetic engineering (Picard)
086: Bearer of bad news (Picard, Data, Troy)
087: Dichotomy of the moral choice (Data, Troy)

Lesson No. 007: Guilty of in-action (Picard, Wesley)
Movie/TV Series: Star Trek - The Next Generation

Noteworthy Scene: (Skip to the Lesson if you're not a Star Trek fan!)
Cadet Wesley Crusher is involved in a cover-up of the real cause of an accident during a Starfleet Academy graduation ceremony space flight training show, which resulted in the death of a fellow cadet. During a Starfleet hearing about the accident, Wesley perjures himself with his testimony. When Capt. Picard discovers the truth about the cover-up, he gives Wesley an ultimatum, to either voluntarily reveal the truth or Picard will. Wesley rises to the occasion and tells the truth at the hearing and accepts his punishment.

Lesson:
Picard’s course of action was instinctive upon discovering the truth. When faced with the dilemma of knowing when something is a lie, how we handle the situation is a clear indication of our character, more than anything else.

In the world of business, we are sometimes confronted with situations where we become aware of wrong-doings perpetrated by fellow-employees, management or even the company as a whole. What is our path of action in this situation? If we are in the mindset of Picard, we take measures to expose the matter. However, in the real world, we stand to lose our job and perhaps even our future income by taking such steps. “Whistle-blowers”, as they are called, are clearly frowned upon by companies. However, the damage caused by not saying anything could be fatal, to the individual, the company and, in some cases, everyone else.

On a TV news documentary, Alan Greenspan, former secretary of the US Treasury (2000-2008) openly admitted he was aware that the unrestrained growth in the US housing market in the mid 2000’s would eventually face a collapse. He knew the growth was founded in unqualified buyers buying homes beyond their means, ratings companies elevating securities values unchecked and unregulated arbitrage income from mortgage-backed securities.

He knew all this and yet, he decided he could not be the one to halt the growth. We all know the results - global recession unlike any seen before. Alan Greenspan is not responsible for the global recession of the mid to late 2000’s; however, he was in a position to have a definitive proactive impact and yet, by his own words, he declined to act.

Management, above all others, must be held accountable for not only their actions, but also more importantly, their in-actions. Perhaps, if all those in management positions related to the housing mortgage crisis would have exercised Picard’s value-based judgments and spoken up, we might have averted the world-wide economic catastrophe.

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Lesson No. 013: Falsely de-humanizing the enemy (Picard)
Movie/TV Series: Star Trek - The Next Generation

Noteworthy Scene: (Skip to the Lesson if you're not a Star Trek fan!)
Capt. Picard is taken as a prisoner-of-war by the Cardassians. While being questioned by a Cardassian, the interrogator’s Cardassian child asks, upon seeing the human Picard, if humans have mothers and fathers. The Cardassian interrogator replies that the humans do have parents, however, the human parents do not love their children as Cardassian parents do.

Lesson:
How often has man taken the same path when looking upon our own (human) kind as enemies? Depriving the enemy of all basic human qualities is quite often seen as a quick way to gain support for a cause. In making the enemy appear evil or incompetent or just plain inhuman, we elevate ourselves in righteousness to justify everything we do.

At one time or another, we all suffer from political or religious jingoism. Does that make us evil? If we don’t believe we are evil, then why shouldn’t our foes think the same way?

We need to see our enemies for where and why they oppose us, not belittle them and turn them into cartoonish caricatures. Enemies are real and should always be opposed. However, opposing by indoctrinating the masses into believing the enemy is inhuman is to perpetuate a one-sided lie and eventually leads to disaster and historical shame.

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Lesson No. 018: Adapting foreign cultures (Picard, Worf)
Movie/TV Series: Star Trek - The Next Generation

Noteworthy Scene: (Skip to the Lesson if you're not a Star Trek fan!)
As a civil war breaks out in the Klingon Empire, Lt. Worf, Chief Security Officer on the Enterprise, resigns his Starfleet commission to go fight in the war. When Capt. Picard asks Worf to be sure of his decision, Worf responds by saying that he was born a Klingon, loved and raised by adoptive human parents, lived his life with humans, served on board with humans, however, he is a Klingon and he hears the 'cry of the warrior.' The Klingons are a race of warriors who live to fight and die with honor. Picard tells Worf that even though Worf has the singular distinction of being the only Klingon aboard a Federation Starship, it is his humanity, compassion, generosity and fairness, all the best traits of humans that he has made his own, that makes Worf unique.

Lesson:
An individual improving himself by adopting the best qualities of a culture that is outside his own…what a wonderful concept! As the USA is long recognized as the land of immigrants, what a golden opportunity to absorb the best of all cultures in one place.

Unfortunately, as individuals arrive into this multi-cultural society, they often gravitate to only the cheap, shallow and meaningless pursuits. Things they perhaps could not do in their own native soil due to their own communal standards and pressures, they now feel free to take full advantage of here in an environment that is devoid of their families and friends to whom they must answer. It is actually quite easy to tell when one has fallen victim to this type of conduct them self. If one finds them self emulating behavior conducive to addictive substances, loose moral behavior, risky undertakings without any reservations, illegal, unethical and corrupt activities, then one has failed to grasp the true and just richness of the culture.

It is in the attributes of the simplest of things, such as decency, courtesy, punctuality, respect of others, honor of our deeds, value of our word, and pride in our stewardships that we find the best of qualities of humans in this land, and on this planet. If we can imagine a Klingon warrior can adapt the best of these human qualities, is it too much to believe that we humans can do the same too?

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Lesson No. 019: Using & abusing insider information (Picard, Worf)
Movie/TV Series: Star Trek - The Next Generation

Noteworthy Scene: (Skip to the Lesson if you're not a Star Trek fan!)
Capt. Picard is chosen to be the arbiter in a Klingon civil war. Lt. Worf, a Klingon and Chief Security officer on board the Enterprise, has sided with the Klingon ruling council in the civil war. As Worf begins to use the Federations massive information resources to help support his cause, Picard intervenes and warns Worf of the conflict of interest in Worf's actions and that the violation will be reflected on not only the Captain in his role as the impartial arbiter, but also show favoritism on part of the Federation in taking sides in the civil war.

Lesson:
Here we see an example of using inside information for self-serving purposes, which is not only unethical, but highly illegal in the business world. The usage of data that is available only internally to a company to benefit oneself, say via a stock market transaction as in "Insider Trading", is not the only misuse of such information.

Internal business strategies, sales & marketing tactics and goals, client lists, revenue & expense numbers are quite easily exposed regularly by ex-employees moving to competitors. The signing of NDA's (Non-Disclosure Agreements) can do little to prevent such activities. While it is very tempting to (illegally) access such competitive information for the benefit of one's own company, the management and executives involved would do better to exercise on the side of caution. Greed, ruthlessness and revenge (as in the case of ex-employees) are all root causes for misusing inside information.

By using Picard's values of right and wrong, as expressed in this scene, one can not only combat the negative temptations, but also eliminate the possibility of possible future financial penalties and even prison terms.

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Lesson No. 021: Risking rank and career (Picard, Data)
Movie/TV Series: Star Trek - The Next Generation

Noteworthy Scene: (Skip to the Lesson if you're not a Star Trek fan!)
Cmdr. Data, a senior officer on board the Enterprise and an android who is classified as sentient by Starfleet, has built a new android based on his own positronic architecture. Data refers to his new creation as his child. When Starfleet command finds out about the new creation, they dispatch a Starfleet Admiral to review the situation. As Data’s new creation is recognized as a new life form, the Admiral decides to remove the new android to a star base, away from Data, for evaluation and proper guidance in a controlled environment.

In essence, Data is told by the Admiral to hand over his ‘child’ to Starfleet. When Data respectfully declines the Admirals request, the Admiral changes the request into a direct order. Before Data can respond, Capt. Picard intervenes, jeopardizing his own career, by telling Data to belay the Admiral’s order. Recognizing the truly horrendous nature of the order, Picard bluntly states that there are times when men of good conscience cannot blindly follow orders and that as long he is the Captain, he will not stand idly by and watch a crew member be forced to hand over their child to the state.

Lesson:
“I was just following orders.” How often has man used that statement to justify his evils and absolve himself of all responsibilities in wrong doings? How many times have we all seen an injustice and failed to stand up and be heard? This is where the true courage of individual is really tested.

If a bad person, being true to their nature, does bad things, while the good person, seeing the bad, does nothing to oppose, who commits the greater evil? The answer is obvious, as shown vividly in the classic movie “Gentleman’s Agreement.”

How different would human history have been if a real Picard had been present in Auschwitz, Darfur or My Lai?

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Lesson No. 030: Matter of internal security (Picard)
Movie/TV Series: Star Trek - The Next Generation

Noteworthy Scene: (Skip to the Lesson if you're not a Star Trek fan!)
Capt. Picard arrives at a planet that is being reviewed by Starfleet for admission into the Federation of Planets. The peaceful society on the planet is apparently based on exiling their military soldiers to gulags once the soldiers are no longer needed. The soldiers, without being forewarned, are initially programmed to be sophisticated killers and never de-programmed afterwards; thus, the soldiers’ violent nature pose a threat to the society at times of peace and therefore, are sequestered in camps off world. The Prime Minister of the planet uses the age old cry of all oppressors, that their actions are justified as it is a matter of internal security of the population.

Lesson:
Politicians and nations’ leaders are notorious for using the fear-inducing, ever-present threat to internal security as the drum beats upon which they rally the public to their individual selfish causes.

In the name of internal security mankind has always managed to discard its humanity and commit atrocities, genocide and totally disregard the rights of the individual. Even though mankind has constructed rules of proper conduct for itself, from the oldest code of laws in the western world as set forth by Hammurabi, King of Babylon (2285-2242 B.C.), to the Magna Carter (1215), to the US Constitution (1787), mankind continues to fail in drawing the proper line between taking actions to maintain internal security, without disregarding its own laws in the process.

If the soldier risks his life to protect his society and the laws by which they live, it is inhuman to ostracize the soldier from returning home, and it is totally illogical to abandon the laws for which he fought and deny the law abiding citizens of the society the protection under these laws.

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Lesson No. 038: The moral choice (Picard)
Movie/TV Series: Star Trek - The Next Generation

Noteworthy Scene: (Skip to the Lesson if you're not a Star Trek fan!)
The alien Borg race presents one of the greatest threats to humanity. The Borg are a bio-cybernetic race, bound together in a collective mind and on a destructive quest to either assimilate into their collective or destroy, all other cultures and civilizations. Having captured an individual Borg and severing its link to the collective, the crew of the Enterprise manages to give the Borg an individual personality and even a name, Hugh. Hugh begins to act more human. At the same time, a new virus is created that can totally devastate the entire Borg collective. Capt. Picard is now faced with the dilemma of releasing Hugh back into the Borg collective in his current individual state as is or to release him infected with the new virus. Picard decides that as a new life form, Hugh deserves the chance to live his life, and that perhaps he may even get other Borg to join him by severing their links to the collective also. Picard decides to not release the virus with Hugh and accepts the risk that his moral actions may possibly endanger the Federation to future Borg attacks.

Lesson:
We all have our own set of moral and ethical standards by which we conduct ourselves. Business organizations quote standards of ethics and moral behavior by which all of their employees, especially management, must abide. But can such dictates always be absolute? At what point do we separate moral and ethical obligation from practical reasoning and duty?

CEO’s are often publically condemned for unethical behavior for hedging their share holdings in their company with a (financial) collar transaction. This hedge reduces the risk on the down side without limiting the upside gain as the price of shares fluctuates with the market. This way, even if the share price falls below a pre-designated level, the CEO does not lose any money. In fact, the CEO may even take most his payment for his shares up front as the hedge is created.

By itself, this form of hedging is not deemed wrong or illegal by any standards. However, if the CEO hedges his shares based on knowledge that the company may be collapsing, then his actions may be seen as ethically reprehensible by the other shareholders. (The legality of this issue is still being debated at this time.) If the CEO carries out his duties to the fullest degree and does everything humanly possible to save the company in the face of disaster, is he ethically wrong in trying to protect his personal assets?

On a more personal level, consider the moral and ethical virtues of always telling the truth. Your 5 year old son, Timmy, falls off his tricycle and breaks his arm. You go to visit your elderly mother who is in the hospital for a serious heart condition. As you walk into her hospital room, she asks you where little Timmy is, her most favorite grandson in the world. Do you abide by ‘always tell the truth’ motto and cause tremendous grief, anxiety and sadness in the lady by telling her little Timmy broke his arm, or do you just make up an excuse for Timmy’s absence so as not to cause her any further worry?

There are no simple answers to these questions. Sometimes we just have to make a choice based on what we feel are right and wrong.

By going with his moral conscience, Picard managed to both, do his duty and fail to do his duty. He did his duty by upholding the Federations most fundamental Prime Directive stipulation of non-interference with any life form. He also failed in doing duty as a Federation officer by not seizing the opportunity to destroy a mortal enemy.

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Lesson No. 042: Denying instinctive urges (Picard)
Movie/TV Series: Star Trek - The Next Generation

Noteworthy Scene: (Skip to the Lesson if you're not a Star Trek fan!)
Kamala, an empathic alien life form known as a metamorph, can sense what kind of women a man wants and then she becomes that woman. With a Klingon, she growls, with drunken men at a bar, she becomes bawdy and gregarious, with Capt. Picard, she becomes reserved, strong, intelligent and regal. Picard’s assignment is to deliver Kamala to her betrothed to settle a war between two planets. True to her instinctive nature, Kamala continually makes advances towards Picard, despite his efforts to dissuade her. When confronted directly by Kamala and asked if he fears her or perhaps finds her unattractive, Picard admits honestly that he finds her ‘unavailable’ as she is already promised to another.

Lesson:
Going against one’s instinctive (and carnal) urges in favor of one’s principals, ethics and morals is truly indicative of a pure role model for all of us. To uphold standards of right and wrong, in the face of unrelenting desire to act otherwise, warrants the status of virtuous chivalry. For all those whom you know in real life that act in accordance to these values, give them their due recognition and your highest kudos.

While in fiction Picard may have been able to reject Kamala’s advances, I doubt there are many in real life who could ever deny the very beautiful Famke Janssen (aka Kamala).

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Lesson No. 064: Genetic engineering (Picard)
Movie/TV Series: Star Trek - The Next Generation

Noteworthy Scene: (Skip to the Lesson if you're not a Star Trek fan!)
The crew of the Enterprise arrives at a planet that uses genetic engineering to create their societies. This way, the alien civilization pre-programs each individual born with specific abilities, talents and limitations to best serve the society. Capt. Picard finds this genetic engineering manipulation of individuals from birth to be very distasteful. He sees the breeding out of the unknowns, uncertainties and self-discovery from life to be a hindrance, not a benefit. He believes that knowing the future is already written and that boundaries and limitations for growth have already been set in life is a life not worth living.

Lesson:
Our ever growing ability to understand and manipulate the onset of life at the genetic level presents many wonderful opportunities to rid our species of many illnesses and diseases. Just as the vaccines for Polio, Rubella, Smallpox, Tuberculosis and many others have already saved millions of lives, so perhaps one day our findings of the root causes of Cancer, HIV, and other fatal ailments at the genetic level will help rid us of those plagues also.

However, it is a totally another story if we decide to extend our genetic manipulation technology to the point of embracing Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World. If we see the condition of our world today and recognize that the chaos and evils which reign supreme are all caused by those humans we ourselves have put in charge (political, religious, etc.), then can you imagine what kind of a genetically controlled world these self-centered, morally and ethically deprived megalomaniacs would create? To place the total control of the creation of life in the hands of just a few humans does not just deny us the rights to our intrinsic freedoms, but it also absolves us of our responsibilities to control our own destinies.

Science, especially medicine, should always break through the barriers of each new frontier. But, just as science comes to a screeching halt once we try to peek past beyond the theoritical Big Bang, or beyond the physical edge of our known Universe, so must our attempts to fully manipulate the creation of life. This is by no means intended as a religious fervor motivated remark. To totally control every facet of the creation of new life so as to produce artists, engineers, laborers, philosophers, etc. totally shaped and formed to never think outside of their area own of specialty, is to give birth to the death of humanity. If we manage to cut out of life the creativity, the motivations and aspirations to learn and experience and grow beyond our limitations, then we have lost perhaps our greatest gift of all and Friedrich Nietzsche will be proven right in his statement that “God is Dead.”…heaven help us all then!

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Lesson No. 086: Bearer of bad news (Picard, Data, Troy)
Movie/TV Series: Star Trek - The Next Generation

Noteworthy Scene: (Skip to the Lesson if you're not a Star Trek fan!)
An elderly female scientist shows up on the Enterprise claiming she was the wife of the scientist who built the android, Lt. Cmdr. Data, and thereby, is in essence Data’s mother. Data soon learns that even though she truly believes she was the human wife of his human creator scientist, she is in reality a more sophisticated android with emotional capabilities built by the same scientist to replace his real human wife, who had died. Data then faces the dilemma of whether or not to tell her the truth about her existence - that she is not human, but an android. In reviewing the matter with Capt. Picard and Counselor Deanna Troy, both of them give Data essentially the same advice - that it is far better for her to find out the truth from the one she considers and loves as her own son, than to find out from someone else, perhaps even a stranger.

Lesson:
After we have carefully weighed the benefits of relating bad news to family members, loved ones and friends and have arrived at the conclusion that the news needs to be told, the question of whether or not to relate information ourselves is really not that difficult an issue.

We first need to ensure that hearing the bad news will not cause any irreparable physical harm to the recipient, such as those who might be suffering from weak hearts or unstable mental faculties. Even for those with strong hearts and minds, the shock of bad news can invariably result in anguish, tears, and outpouring of a variety of unpredictable emotions.

While we all find it extremely difficult to be the bearer of bad news and to be the cause of such emotional distress in those we care about, the one major factor we really need to consider is how the news will be received if it is told by someone else. The shock of learning the bad news from someone else will be that much more compounded when the recipient figures out that we had withheld the information from them ourselves. Our complicity in not telling the information first will raise doubts in the recipient at the core level of our relationships. Fundamental questions about the loss of trust, caring, honesty and believing in each other can begin to dismantle the relationship, just because we failed to tell the bad news personally.

So, the answer appears obvious, better to hear from us directly than from someone else.

Relating the information ourselves becomes an even more exigent matter if the bad news in some way involves us directly and if we may in some way be held culpable within the bad news event. Our reluctance to tell this type of bad news personally is rooted in our fear of negative repercussions and losing face. It is just sheer cowardice that makes us believe, that is safer to not expose the matter and rely on the hope the information never gets out. The information always does get exposed eventually, and the resulting consequences are always extremely painful for all involved.

So, here again, better to be up front first, accept our penalties and try to maintain any shred of our remaining integrity and dignity, than to shirk our responsibilities and hide from the truth.

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Lesson No. 087: Dichotomy of the moral choice (Data, Troy)
Movie/TV Series: Star Trek - The Next Generation

Noteworthy Scene: (Skip to the Lesson if you're not a Star Trek fan!)
Lt. Cmdr. Data learns that the visiting scientist, who believes she was the wife of the scientist who created Data and now considers her self to be essentially Data’s mother, is actually a very sophisticated android with feelings, built by the same scientist to replace his human wife who had died. Seeing that she is totally unaware of her android existence and that she truly believes she is totally human, Data is faced with the issue of whether or not to tell her the truth. In discussing the situation with Capt. Picard and Counselor Troy, Troy tells Data that as an android, if Data’s quest has always been to be more human, and given that the woman android believes her self to be human, why take away from the woman android the ultimate goal to which he himself aspires.

Lesson:
The question of do we always need to tell the truth has been the topic of debate of philosophers and of students of thought for ages. While it is true that axioms in physics and mathematics are incontrovertible, “to always tell the truth” cannot really be an axiom of moral law. Each case needs to be appraised on its own merits and situations.

When a very young child loses a parent, do we really need to tell the truth to the child that we have no conclusive or tangible evidence, and thereby knowledge, of what happens to humans when they die and that it is only in our faith and belief where we find any solace - or do we just calm the child by assuring them that their parent is now in a happier better place with other passed on relatives such as grand ma and grand pa. Also, if someone keeps swinging the bat and keeps missing the pitched softball and you intentionally throw a very easy pitch which they hit really well, should you take away their elation and sense of accomplishment by telling them the truth of the easy pitch?

To paraphrase the famous example from the German philosopher Immanuel Kant, if the Nazis knock on your front door and ask if you are hiding Jews in your attic (and in truth you are!), how do you answer them, knowing that telling the truth will result in the certain death of those you are hiding and most likely yourself too?

The moral duty is to obviously protect the innocents and to not tell the truth. However, as impractical and as cold hearted as it may sound, one may take the stance that to uphold my moral duty I must always tell the truth and the immorality which follows my action is that of the Nazis and not me. As ridiculous as that argument sounds, it does highlight the paradox of contradictory results that can arise from the maxim of always telling the truth. By doing our moral duty to protect the innocents we violate the moral law of always telling the truth and vice versa, by following the moral law of always telling the truth, we violate our moral duty to protect the innocents and condemn them to death.

There are no quick and easy answers to this issue here. All of us make such choices in our everyday life, maybe not so dramatic in consequence, however, just as important in our continuing self-appraisal of our own moral values. If we are not part of any fringe extremists section of the population, then we probably care about the welfare of all other humans around us, and it is probably in our exercise of the unwritten laws of kindness and concern for others where we can find the right answers to our moral dilemmas.

For Data, his decision to not reveal the truth to his female android ‘mother’ of her non-human existence reflects his overriding programming for the protection of humans against suffering and verges on the human conditions of exhibiting kindness.

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