Let’s Talk About Speaking Up: A New Business Integrity Leadership Program for Fall 2022

Program Overview Certification Requirements

Program Overview

The Fall 2022 Let’s Talk program, produced by the Walton College Business Integrity Leadership Initiative consists of a speaker series and a book, and it is focused on speaking up and acting on your values. 

This program will teach you how to speak up when something seems wrong, and how to create a culture where people are empowered to do just that. It will provide real-life examples of what taking action looks like from high-profile whistleblowers, and share what they learned from their experiences to help prepare you to do the right thing when facing future ethical dilemmas. 

The Let’s Talk about Speaking Up book of the semester is: Giving Voice to Values: How to Speak Your Mind When You Know What's Right  by Mary Gentile. Giving Voice to Values helps you learn how to effectively act on your values and ethical principles in the context of your professional responsibilities. This means knowing what to say, who to say it to, and how to say it when you know what is right in a particular situation. It provides actionable tools and frameworks, and helps you practice building the skills, confidence, and habit of voicing your values.

Leading values-driven leadership expert Mary C. Gentile, Ph.D. is our first guest speaker of the semester. Gentile is a celebrated author and creator of the Giving Voice to Values curriculum. She is a retired Professor of Practice at University of Virginia, a Senior Advisor to the Aspen Institute Business & Society Program, and an independent consultant. She was inducted into the Thinkers50 Hall of Fame in 2021. Gentile will present live via Zoom on September 14th from 6:00-7:00 pm.

Our second speaker, Sherron Watkins, is a leadership and ethics advocate widely known for being the whistleblower on Enron Corporation’s accounting irregularities. She has testified before Congressional Committees from the House and Senate investigating Enron’s demise. Watkins was selected by TIME magazine in 2002 as one of their Persons of the Year. Today, she is a Professor of Practice at the University of North Carolina and co-author of the book Power Failure: The Inside Story of the Collapse of Enron. Watkins will present in-person at the AR Union Theatere, Room 424 on the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville campus and live via Zoom on October 10th from 6:00-7:00 pm. 

Our third speaker is Erika Cheung, one of the key whistleblowers that reported Theranos’ false medical tests to health regulators. Since then, Cheung co-founded and is the Executive Director of Ethics in Entrepreneurship, a non-profit that develops resources and ethical training for future tech leaders to learn how to recognize and take action on ethical problems. She is also the Program Director of Betatron, an early-stage venture capital firm based in Hong Kong. Cheung will present in-person at the Jim & Joyce Faulkner Performing Arts Center on the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville campus and live via Zoom on November 9th from 6:00-7:00 pm.

The schedule of events for the Let’s Talk about Speaking Up program is as follows:

Student Career Readiness Badge Opportunity

Undergraduate students can achieve the Let’s Talk about Speaking Up badge by completing the following activities:

• Attend (or watch the recording of) Mary Gentile’s speaker presentation on her book, Giving Voice to Values and write a reflection on main takeaways.
• Attend (or watch the recording of) Sherron Watkins’ speaker presentation and write a reflection on main takeaways.
• Attend (or watch the recording of) Erika Cheung’s speaker presentation and write a reflection on main takeaways.

Graduate students can achieve a graduate-level Let’s Talk about Speaking Up badge by completing the following activities:

• Attend (or watch the recording of) Mary Gentile’s speaker presentation on her book, Giving Voice to Values and write a reflection on main takeaways.
• Attend (or watch the recording of) Sherron Watkins’ speaker presentation and write a reflection on main takeaways.
• Attend (or watch the recording of) Erika Cheung’s speaker presentation and write a reflection on main takeaways.
• Read the book of the semester Giving Voice to Values by Mary Gentile and write a reflection on main takeaways.

Community members can earn this basic badge by completing these activities:

• Attending or watching the recording of THREE guest speaker talks.
• Submitting key takeaways from each of the THREE guest speaker talks to wcobili@uark.edu.
• Reading this semester’s book and submitting key takeaways to wcobili@uark.edu.