When a student asked me why I didn’t include Kant in the Ethics, Sustainability, and Society course I teach at Kristiania University College, my answer was straightforward: It’s not relevant to their work as technology and business developers. Sacrilege? Maybe. Unnecessary? Absolutely.

In a course designed to prepare students for the real-world challenges of innovation, ethics has to be more than a historical thought exercise. Instead of diving into dense philosophical theories, we focused on practical frameworks and takeaways that help them as future leaders make ethical, inclusive, and impactful decisions.

Designing Ethics for Action

Ethics can’t live in an ivory tower. It needs to be accessible, actionable, and directly tied to outcomes. Here’s how I reframed the course:

• Justify Decisions with Diversity: Ethics begins with understanding how diversity supercharges team performance. More diverse teams don’t just “do better”—they outperform homogenous ones when given the space to thrive.

• The Curb-Cut Effect: Inclusive design isn’t charity—it’s smart. Solutions designed for marginalized groups often benefit everyone.

• The Value Creation Connection: Frameworks to showcase value, reassure different perspectives, and tackle objections ensure that ethical decisions resonate with stakeholders.

The Key Takeaways

Here’s what students walked away with:

• Ethics: Decisions should be grounded in an ethic of diversity to enhance impact.

• Principles: Inclusion drives design; justify your work with principles that make life better for everyone.

• Stakeholders: “Decenter and recenter”—real change means considering how your work affects others.

• Privacy: Shift from hiding data to deciding how to use it responsibly.

• IT Management: Create space for others to speak—“shut up so they don’t shut down.”Support mental health—don’t sanitize the workplace; humanize it. Embrace reverse mentoring—fresh perspectives reveal overlooked issues.

We also tackled The Expertise Trap—the tendency of experts to cling to outdated solutions because they mistake experience for adaptability. Ethics means staying humble, curious, and open.

The Lesson Learned

Kant might give us rules, but real impact comes from tools. Ethics isn’t about abstract ideals—it’s about making better decisions, together. So I’ll say this: skip the textbooks, embrace the takeaways, and create a world where ethics drives innovation.

P.S. What do you think? Is the time for teaching Kant in an ethics class over?