Christopher Bauer's Ethics Nexus

Ethics & Values Culture Development: What's Your Plan?

I speak all the time with executives and managers who tell me about their wish to develop a culture of ethics and values as well as the depth of their frustration in trying to do so. Far too many tell me that it just never seems to work for them. Generalizations are always a slippery slope but here's is what I find to be true in the overwhelming number of those cases - they have no real plan!

Developing a culture of ethics is exactly like any other plan - it needs to be formal, strategic, written and supported. You wouldn't, I hope, try to improve leadership or management or customer service simply by hoping that it will get better. Again, it takes a formal and supported plan.

As a place to start in developing a plan, here are four of the essentials that I see missing most frequently where a plan actually exists:

1. You haven't articulated your values in such a way that they are both absolutely clear to every employee and in such a way that every employee knows precisely how to bring those values to life in everything they do every day.
2. You have somehow confused ethics and compliance. Your employees know all the rules, maybe, but they don't reliably know what to do when there isn't a rule for something. (Besides, simply following the rules not only still allows for unethical behavior but it sets the bar really low for management, leadership, and customer service. If you're looking for exemplary service, simply following the rules isn't going to get you there.)
3. You haven't developed a formal, written, supported plan that clarifies your goals, your intended actions to fulfill those goals, and steps to monitor and improve the efficiency and effectiveness of your efforts. (Again, you are presumably doing this for every other essential part of your business, why not for ethics and values?)
4. You have succumbed to the fantasy that a one-time training session on ethics and values is all you'll need. (You may have also succumbed to the fantasy that an annual fifteen minute review of the ethics code online is going to magically allow your employees to really understand how to recognize and appropriately respond to often ignored or overlooked ethical challenges around them.) Are those kinds of training activities better than nothing? Absolutely - as long as you are realistic about their limitations and don't use them to create a false sense of security about the level of your employees' skills in the areas of ethics and values. Training and reinforcement needs to be on-going, live - at least in part - and focused on real-world, immediately applicable ideas and tools. Training also needs to be responsive to hearing what employees feel the barriers are to putting their training into use. Without giving them the tools they need to overcome those barriers, how could the ultimate outcome possibly be maximally effective?

If we were talking about any other type of training or culture-change initiative, each of these ideas would likely seem eye-rollingly obvious and you would already have a plan of action dealing with each of them. Yet, these lapses and oversights are seen in failed ethics and values initiatives all day long.

So, what's your plan? If you can use help in developing one, I hope you'll let me know.

Are Your Claims of Ethicality Either Ethical or Legal?

An extremely interesting post on the Conflict of Interest Blog caught my eye this morning and I appreciate Jeff Kaplan for posting it. In that post, a case is described in which Goldman Sachs is reported to have defended some of their inappropriate activities, in part, by claiming that their promises of ethical behavior were merely "puffey" and not actually intended to be a promise of ethical behavior. Therefore, as the logic goes, they shouldn't be held legally liable for breaching their promise of ethical behavior. Besides perhaps setting a new low water mark for indefensible defenses, it also got me thinking about the hollowness of so many promises of ethics from a wide range of organizations.

For example, how many companies have an ethics code which, among other things, prominently states that ethical behavior will be expected. In essence, the ethics code simply promises ethical behavior. Besides the awkward circularity of that logic, how can you possibly assure - or, really, even adequately support - ethical behavior if you don't provide specific guidance regarding what that ethical behavior actually involves. Without such guidance, might not your organization's claims and promises of ethical behavior be just as likely to be viewed a "puffery" as were Goldman Sachs'? After all, an empty promise is largely what puffery is all about, yes?

The court has now held that false promises of ethicality are not a legal shelter and I suspect we can all agree that any type of false promise is a defacto ethical violation as well. So, is your organization prepared to show that its ethics code represents a genuine, concerted, persistent, effective effort to develop and maintain a culture of ethics? Remember, you need to be able to demonstrate all four of those qualities and the need to be able to do so has always been an ethical mandate. Now, however, it appears as if it might be a legal mandate as well.

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!

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!

Want Better Government Ethics? Then Pay Less Attention To Them!

Several readers of my monthly Municipal Ethics Tips and Trends newsletter suggested that part of this month's edition might have broader implications than just to local governments. Could well be. With that hope, here is a slightly adapted version:

Improve government ethics by paying less attention to them? Really? Well, kinda, yeah.

 

As I work more and more with government officials and employees, I have seen an unfortunate and terribly destructive trend in how government ethics are defined. That trend is to see them as strictly involving a very narrow band of legal mandates including such things as conflict of interest, recusal, undue influence, etc. Each of these is critically important, of course, and every official and employee needs to know, with clarity, what the rules are regarding them. However, this short list of mandates, however important, is really wildly insufficient if the goal is to help government officials and employees prevent the more common ethical and legal risks actually seen on the job.

 

What else needs to be trained on? It's really the same list as is needed in every other type of business setting. A good 'starter list' includes training on hostile work environment issues, non-discrimination issues, the basics of fraud detection in the workplace, do's and don'ts of confronting others on ethics concerns, do's and don'ts regarding consulting on ethics concerns, and training on how officials and employees can think better on their feet when it comes to both recognizing and responding to the broadest possible range of potential ethics issues on the job. In my experience, only the first two of these areas are routinely covered in 'government ethics training' - and then usually only in a cursory way - and yet problems in the entire range of these areas collectively account for far more problems than do the areas more typically covered in government ethics training.

 

Whose job is it to assure that this broader approach to ethics training is put into place?  Other than at a federal level, I often hear that it is HR's responsibility to do it. However I hear from a good many government HR folks that they don't actually have the authority to even offer this type of training let alone require it. (They can and should heartily lobby for this type of training, of course, but may not ultimately be have the power to assure that it happens.) In my experience, more thorough ethics training usually needs to be set up by agency or department heads regardless of the level of government, by city managers when at the local level, etc. Whether they can offer it versus requiring it is different from place to place and agency or department to agency or department. However, they certainly have the authority to put the training process in place.

If you work in government and have the authority to set up more thorough ethics training than what your officials and employees are getting now, use it! If you don't have that authority, be sure to work with those who do to help them see the value in ethics training that goes well beyond what we usually see as 'government ethics'. The return on investment in that training - for government officials and employees at all levels of government - can be huge. (And, of course, that's before calculating the even broader return for the citizens for whom those officials and employees are working.)

ETHICS U - Great New Ethics Site From LAUSD

I've been impressed in the past with the Los Angeles Unified School District's ethics initiative and so, apparently, have all of you since one of their great ethics videos is one of the most viewed links on this blog. They have now unveiled their new "ETHICS U" website and I recommend that everyone have a look at it. Yes, this means you too...

Regardless of your industry or job description, there are concepts there that you can use. Perhaps more importantly, it provides a great model for how an organization's ethics website can be set up so as to be informative and helpful to employees at all levels of an organization.

Rather than my trying to somehow summarize what's there and describe it's great functionality, just go give it a look. If you're looking for a model for your organization's ethics site, I'd say that they've developed one of the best ones out there. Consider me (perhaps obviously) a fan. Are there other sites with more depth and breadth out there? Absolutely. Do they function nearly as well? Not in my mind.

Have a difference of opinion? Let me know. Like their site as much as I do? Let them know. Ethics programs like theirs can use all the support we can possibly provide!