Christopher Bauer's Ethics Nexus

The Ethics Lessons Learned From News Corps and Rupert Murdoch

The news world and blogosphere have been filled for the last couple of weeks with all of the revelations regarding Rupert Murdoch and the wild ethical transgressions by employees of News Corp. Along with these stories there have been loudly trumpeted all the valuable ethics lessons we are to have learned from this still-unfolding debacle.

So what exactly have we learned? Here, I believe, is precisely what we have learned; nothing. Really.

For all the lurid details and alarming oversteps, please tell me one new thing we have actually learned about ethics here.

Is it news that owners and executives still maintain the responsibility for the work done in their chain of command?

Is it news that tone at the top - including the top of any portion of the organization (e.g. managers and supervisors at all levels of the organization) - has a significant impact on the behavior of employees and contractors alike?

Is it news that transgressions which are ignored are likely to continue if overlooked and essentially certain to continue if rewarded?

I keep looking for even one new thing about ethics that we are to gather from all of this and I seem to keep coming up empty.

If you have gleaned something new and enlightening, I do hope you will come forward and share it.

In the meantime, sadly, all I think we may end up learning from Rupert and son is that - as has historically been the case so often - simply knowing what is right can be a startlingly poor predictor of doing what is right. (Especially when there is so very much to gain by stepping, even egregiously stepping, over the line.)

Two Interviews on Developing High-Impact Values Statements

Thanks to i-sight software for publishing excerpts from two interviews they did with me on developing high impact values statements. As you've all heard me say before, a well-developed and appropriately implemented values statement will not only go a long ways toward developing and maintaining a culture of ethics but will also do so much more. Done right - and it really does need to be done right - a values statement will drive better management, leadership, customer service and branding.

Interested? You can find the two interview excerpts here and here. Enjoy!

Three Great Ethics Videos By Students

I am constantly asked for ethics-related videos and rarely have much to offer because so few are really very engaging. So, I was thrilled to have a friend point me in the direction of these three terrific student videos on ethics.

These all came from a competition sponsored by the Center for the Public Trust and, if this year's winners are any indication, I'll look forward to seeing the new ones each and every year. Terrific pieces of student work on ethics, I thought. Congrats to these young videographers for a job well done!

Isn't It Too Late For Ethics Training?

I am constantly amazed and alarmed by how often I am asked if ethics training is really worthwhile. The argument I hear most often is that ethics are something we ought to have learned at home or in church or in school when we were all younger and, if the job hasn't been done by now, what's the use?

This all stuns me for so many reasons and here are just a few of those reasons:

1.) 'Old dogs' do, indeed, learn new tricks. Give someone a compelling reason why their attitudes or behavior should change - something you can clearly show them will contribute to their personal success - and you might be amazed how much new learning can take place. (Even more so if that learning is novel, interactive, and fun. And yes, ethics training can be all three of those...)

2.) Even if ethics training won't magically send the unwashed to their knees begging for forgiveness, you can certainly help folks who want to do the right thing to have an easier time doing so. Again, just make it compelling, relevant, and easily applicable. (Yes again, ethics training can be all three of these as well.)

3.) As a part of helping the folks who wish to do the right thing, you can also help them become better able to see when others are enaging in behavior that may not be appropriate. You can then arm the 'good ones' with the right tools to intervene both immediately and effectively. Might that help reduce the risk and rate of problems with those folks who, for whatever their reasons, may not be on the right path? I certainly believe so.

Might all three of the above be reasons that ethics training for all of your employees could be of value? I certainly think so and, in fact, that the value can be huge.

New Website for College Ethics and Decision-Making Programs

If you have been following this blog then you'll know that it has been left neglected for several months now. Among the reasons for the neglect has been my focus on developing a couple of programs for college students and staff. Although one program is really simply a repositioning of an existing professional ethics program for students and staff, the other is a whole new program on responsible decision-making, specfically for students.

Though my core audience will remain companies and professional association as always, I have long enjoyed working with students and my hope is expand my college work into being a greater percentage of the mix.

The new website for my college programs is still quite primitive at this point but, if you'd like to give it a look and - I hope - provide feedback, you can find it at www.GreatDecisionMaking.net.

Thanks!

Survey on Ethics Program Interests for College Students, Faculty & Staff

I have been asked for quite some time to do more work with college students on helping them to make better choices and I am now at a point where I can pursue that in a more dedicated manor. I have created a quick survey for college students, staff, faculty and parents on what kinds of programs and resources they would like to see on how to help college students make better choices.

 

The link to this very quick survey is here.

 

If you are a student, staff or faculty member - or the parent of a college student - I hope you will take a few short moments to fill this survey out. Whether you are one of the above or not, however, I'm guessing that you know one or more folks in each of those groups. If you would be willing to forward this post and survey link to them, I would be most grateful. Thanks!

Three Often Overlooked Sources of Electronic Data Breaches

Regardless of whether customer and employee data is legally protected in your country or industry, we all have an ethical obligation to protect others' personal information as well as our own organizations' proprietary information. Doing otherwise is an open invitation for that information to be used in malicious ways ranging from identity theft to corporate espionage. At the very least, it's simply common courtesy to protect others' privacy!

 

Even in companies with elaborate data-protection systems, here are three sources of electronic data breaches that I see all the time:

• The most common breach has perhaps always been - and will perhaps always be - computer monitors left on and exposed so that passers-by can read the screen. (Plus, if that machine is 'live' and unattended, what's to stop someone from using it to forage for still more information?). Have a reasonable and enforceable policy to prevent each of these things from happening.

• Redeploying computers. Most companies seem to be getting better about removing hard drives from old computers they are trashing or selling off. (And if you aren't doing that, you need to! Those drives can easily be accessed by the new owners to retrieve whatever is on there. Remember, that is true even if you've used many of the programs designed to mask that data.) What about redeploying computers to new parts of your business, though? Are you sure that the new user needs access to the information gathered by the former user? If not, get that data off the machine before it goes where it ought not be going!

• People change their electronic technology more often than their underwear these days and all those machines and gadgets are a huge source of potential data breaches. While cell phones are especially likely to have your and others' private information on them, remember that there are memory chips or drives in pretty much everything these days and some are surprisingly large. Things like copy machines and fax machines are prone to have a ton of data on them that needs to be protected. Be sure that their memories are wiped clean before you get rid of them.

Like with so many things ethical, electronic data security is often seen as someone else's job. Also like so many things ethical, however, we have not fulfilled our ethical obligation if we don't do everything in our power to assure that the proper thing is being done. If you see any of these potential data breaches occurring in your organization, make it a point to bring the problem to whomever has the authority to correct the problem.

Six Values Statement Essentials

I recently sent out an edition of my Weekly Ethics Thought that got enough mail that I figured I'd post a version of it here as well. It has to do with a few of the essentials of getting a values statement right. (And believe me, they are usually done incredibly dismally when they are done at all...)

If you've heard me speak, you have probably heard me talk about the enormous power of a well-written and appropriately implemented values statement. However, getting both the creation and implementation of a values statement right is a much more complicated and tough process than it usually sounds. To help out, though, here is a 'starter set' of six essentials for getting the creation part of your values statement right.

• Make it universal. Not 'worldwide universal' but 'organization-wide universal'. You want to only include values that should be the guiding force behind everyone's decisions in your organization.

• Make it brief. Listing four to six values is probably ideal, six to nine is arguably still 'do-able', and ten or more will simply be too many for folks to keep constantly in mind.

• Clarity is king. Work and work and work on each stated value so that it can be captured with as few words as possible while still being crystal clear. Remember you're going to expect every employee to keep these values in mind all day, every day so they better be pretty easy to both retain and apply.

• Utility is  'co-king'. Forget philosophy, abstraction and sloganeering in your values statement. You need to completely nail what are the most persistent and most important values that every employee is to use as a guide to their behavior. Philosophy, abstraction and sloganeering can't possible work for that. (See "clarity is king" above...)

• Get input from everyone. Before anything gets set in stone, run it past folks at every level of your organization - maybe more than once. If there's something that anyone doesn't get or feels doesn't apply to them, the work isn't done yet. Keep honing until it's really, truly both universally clear and universally relevant.

• Slower is better. A well-written values statement isn't something you can bang out at a staff meeting or a weekend retreat. (You can certainly start planning or writing one in such a setting - just don't fool yourself into thinking you can do more than that.) Not only is the process a whole lot tougher than it usually sounds but you need input and feedback from everyone and that simply takes time to do right. Four to six months is on the quick side in my experience but taking a year is often a sign that it hasn't been afforded the proper attention or effort.

Ultimately it will take more than these six factors to create a truly great values statement. However, if you use these as an initial guide, you'll at least be well on your way. Want to know more about how to develop and then best implement a values statement that will give your organization its maximum positive impact on management, leadership, customer service and branding? I love providing programs on how to do that! Please be in touch.

Throw Away Your Values Statement!

Hopefully you work at one of the far-too-rare companies that has a values statement. Great! Now, take your copy and throw it in the trash. (Or, at the very least, put it at the very back of some tough-to-open file cabinet.) And while you're at it, take down that silly values statement poster from your wall that you have long been looking past and haven't really noticed in years.

Got 'em tossed out or stashed away? Terrific! Here's why...

If you and every other employee in your company can't tell me exactly what's in your values statement and tell me how the behavior in which you or they are currently engaged is or is not aligned with at least one of your company's values, there is either something terribly wrong with the way in which it is written or in how it has been implemented. If you need a 'cheat sheet' to remember your company's values or how best to assure that everyone's behavior is aligned with them, you've lost the game.

Make sure that your values statement only includes those priorities affecting everyone from the front lines all the way up through senior management. Then make sure that it is so well crafted and so absolutely clear that no employee will ever need to guess whether or not their behavior appropriately represents your company's values at any given moment. Then build some mention of those values and how to bring them to life into each of the everyday conversations you have with employees. That's the only way those values can really ultimately become a part of the basic fabric of your organization.

Writing and implementing a high-impact values statement usually sounds like a pretty simple task and yet doing it correctly may be one of the toughest things your company will ever undertake. Is it worth the time and trouble to do it right, though? Absolutely! Where else can you find a single, simple document that can successfully drive management, leadership, customer-service, and branding, all in the same stroke?

Now, can you do all that without having a copy of your values statement in front of you? I hope so! If you can't, it's time for you and your company to seriously roll up your sleeves and look at the content and style of your values statement as well as it's implementation. Once it actually does what it's supposed to - and does it well - you can certainly dig your old copy back out of the trash. It's unlikely to matter that it'll be a bit crumpled and stained at that point - you won't need to be reading it anyhow.

Which Ethics & Values Training Topics Do Your Organizations Need To Hear About?

I'm getting ready to put together some new ethics and values programs and would love your input on what I need to be talking about these days. (If you don't know what my current keynotes and seminars cover, you can find overviews of them here.)

What I'm looking for is simply this... What are the problems currently facing your company or association that need to be addressed? I'll make it my job to see if/how my expertise could be used to address those problems. Any input will be appreciated. (Feel free to reply via email to me at chris (at) bauerethicsseminars.com.) Thanks!