PBAU grad sees role for civility in business

Calls for civility are all the rage in the world of politics today. But a local college student has made a convincing case for applicability to the business world.

Hunter Durham, 22, just graduated from Palm Beach Atlantic University and heads for his fifirst job with Facebook.

More relevant to this column, Durham, a marketing major, was nominated last fall by the PBA student government to give a nine- minute, TED talk-type address as part of the university’s “Be Civil” campaign.

PBA’s campaign is similar to efffffffffffforts at other local higher education institutions, such as at Lynn University in Boca Raton.

To be clear, civility campaigns are not warmed-up versions of widely decried political correctness. Instead, civility campaigns encourage disagreements and debates, even passionate ones, but minus intransigence and personal attacks.

If you don’t think civility efffffffffffforts are needed, look no further than the tense atmosphere at the University of California, Berkeley, where even a discussion on how to strap on Birkenstock scandals seems to spark a riot these days.

What caught my attention about Durham’s talk is that he focused on applying “Be Civil” to business.

“I wanted to deliver it in a way that related to my major and my career,” Durham said.

In his talk, Durham emphasized “there’s no place for non-civil conversation in the workplace” and said companies need to take into account their various stakeholders, from employees to shareholders. Open discourse that promotes new ideas is healthy for business.

Durham, who is from Springfifield, Mo., also stressed that profifits should not be the only motivating factor for business. It’s that kind of thinking, he said, that led to the scandals at Wells Fargo and Volkswagen.

“We treat business as if its only goal is to survive by profiting,” he said in the talk, adding that considering community and environmental impact should also be goals.

“The concept of profifits, people and planet is not something that’s new,” he said when we spoke last week. “But it needs to be brought back to the forefront.”

Durham now heads for his fifirst post-degree job: At Facebook’s Austin, Texas, operations.

But when we spoke last week, he was fifirmly focused on Saturday’s graduation and the completion of his undergraduate studies. “It’s almost over,” he said. No, Hunter, your career is only beginning. Good luck to you and the rest of the Class of 2017.