CPRT Mini-Workshop: High-stakes Decisions in a Polarized World Using the New CPR Decision Tool

A practical introduction to the Erb Institute’s Corporate Political Responsibility Taskforce and the new CPR Decision Tool based on the Erb Principles for CPR

Following the recent assassination attempt on former President Trump, the realities of an increasingly volatile and unpredictable geopolitical environment have never been more clear. In response, boards, companies, and associations are analyzing a wide range of scenarios – including political violence, election interference, conflicting stakeholder pressures, heightened regulatory uncertainty, and the politicization of strategic business issues such as climate and energy policy. 

In our June mini-workshop on Conducting a Political Risk Assessment, featuring Leadership Now’s Corporate Guide to Navigating U.S. Political Risk, we focused on the first step in our summary of tools and support, Election Readiness & CPR 2024: Three Strategies for a Principled, Proactive Response.  

Now, as companies plan for a sweeping array of contingencies, they need to pressure test the decision-making frameworks that guide whether and how they engage. Given competing pressures from stakeholders and companies’ reluctance to weigh in on all issues, it is critical that management teams have clear rationale to explain their decisions responsibly, consistently, and respectfully.

To help your company in that process, we invite you to join our second mini-workshop, “High-stakes Decisions in a Polarized World Using the New CPR Decision Tool.”   

In this session, we will unveil our new CPR Decision Tool based on the Erb Principles for CPR, which were developed with our CPR Taskforce members.     

Please join us for an action-oriented session, where you will have a chance to try this new tool to: 

• Test whether your company has a legitimate basis for engaging on a complex issue
• Generate options and evaluate them in a consistent, principled way
• Explain your reasoning effectively when you decide NOT to engage
• Plan next steps for reviewing your company’s decision-making framework 

We invite executives in Risk Management, Public Affairs, Legal, Communications, Sustainability, Human Resources, DEI, and other affected functions, as well as CPR champions and academic experts interested in a constructive, non-partisan, principles-based discussion. 

Light pre-reading and data-gathering suggestions will be provided one week before the session. To enable privacy, this session will be hosted as a webinar and no participants will be recorded.  

Elizabeth Doty is the Director of the Erb Institute’s Corporate Political Responsibility Taskforce (CPRT) a peer-to-peer forum for executives who want to help their companies apply a more proactive, integrated and principled approach to civic and political affairs.  

Tom Lyon is the Dow Chemical Professor of Sustainable Science, Technology and Commerce at the University of Michigan, and author of the new book, Corporate Political Responsibility (2023, Cambridge University Press).

Non-partisanship & Non-advocacy: The CPRT is strictly non-partisan and does not advocate, promote or support any political party or candidate. While members and partners may express their views freely, we do not endorse or advocate particular policies or legislation but may provide thought processes for evaluating proposals based on CPR principles.