Harris Debate 2017
Chief Executive on ethics panel debate
CIAT Chief Executive Francesca Berriman MBE HonDTech FRSA took part in a prestigious debate on industry ethics this week.
The annual CPD Foundation Harris Debate, instigated in 2013 through a suggestion and financial contribution made by RICS Past President Jonathan Harris CBE, is an annual seminar on an engaging and highly topical theme, attended by an invited audience and broadcast live online.
Ethics was chosen as the theme for the first debate, 'Ethics: lost in translation'. Subsequent events have used the theme to explore the role ethics plays in corporate, and professional life. The recordings of the live broadcast are posted on the Harris Debate playliston the RICS YouTube channel.
This year’s Harris Debate comes as RICS begins a year-long programme of events to celebrate RICS’ 150th anniversary. The anniversary is an ideal moment to look afresh at what we mean by public advantage in a 21st Century context. How are our ideas of societal benefit different now as a globalised profession than they were in Victorian England?
Dr Malik set the context for the debate, speaking on 'The history of moral thought, and the origins and evolution of human values'.
There followed a panel discussion – debating questions such as:
- To whom are professionals accountable? – clients, citizens and/or society?
- How can “morality” guide professionals through the complexity of compliance?
- What does effective leadership on “public advantage/public good” look like?
- And, as a practitioner, where does the balance lie between compliance through culture and compliance through enforcement?