Mike Barry , the Dean of the South Texas College of Law, sent an insightful message to the students and faculty concerning the Houston Astros cheating scandal . With his permission, I reproduce it here. — I long have been a fan of baseball.

Source: [Josh Blackman] The Houston Astros Cheating Scandal and Legal Education

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First, culture starts at the top. Many of you will run your own law firms. Others will rise to prominent positions in government, the judiciary, business, and the legal community. And, regardless of the role you find yourself in, you will be a leader for, at the very least, your clients and your staff. You will set the tone for those who work for you and who work with you.

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If the manager – their on-field leader – had told the players to stop, they would have done so.  When you are a leader, your action – or your inaction – speaks volumes.  What you tolerate, you teach.  What you condone, you own.  Every leader must set not only a culture of ethical conduct, but must identify and eliminate behavior that deviates from that standard.

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A wise admonition to all Information Technology executive, especially those in Information Security and Disaster Recovery.

I’ve worked in and gotten “downsized” for expressing a factual opinion that the top leadership was being mislead as to the organization’s capabilities — to resist being hacked, the capabilities / capacities of new systems, as well as the organization’s ability to recover from a catastrophic failure.

Sure, being downsized stung.  But I went to Catholic school, where I was taught a standard — would your Mother be proud of you for what you’ve done.

In my book, I observed that “Catholic school taught them that it was their obligation, and could even be a mortal sin, if you didn’t use all your talents to the greater glory of God.” — “Chapter Fifty — Samaritans going to Jericho / Monday November 5, 1962 – Church Day + 17 (continues)” CHURCH 10●19●62 Volume 1 Page 296

Can’t say I’ve always met that standard, but I’d like to think, that more often than not, I did.

It seems that we’d have a much better world if politicians, bureaucrats, and everyone observed that.  John Wooden said: “The true test of a man’s character is what he does when no one is watching.”

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