Month: January 2019

Caring about what you do

Every month I get a list of new employees from HR.

I use the list to send everyone a welcome email and to invite them to a 15-minute, in-person meeting with me. My goal is to get to know them and introduce our company’s ethics & compliance program.

Not everyone takes me up on the offer but those who do invariably mention how remarkable it was for them to receive this personal gift of time (and I get a lot out of it myself). I truly believe that these 15-minute meetings significantly increase the odds of my new colleagues reaching out for help the next time they struggle with an ethical dilemma. Many have done so in the last few years.

It does make me wonder about those who decide to pass on the invitation. Are they too busy? Are they uncomfortable at the thought of meeting with the ethics guy? Do they think I do this just for show and that we actually don’t care about compliance?

Who knows? Perhaps it’s just that I care more about the topic than they do.

After all, it’s my chosen profession, not theirs.

Primed to Perform – The perfect book to start your culture journey

The best way to reduce ethics & compliance risks is for the organization to have a robust E&C program and a strong ethical culture.

While we need to start with a robust program, an ethical culture is the force multiplier. It’s also the more difficult one to implement. Most leaders don’t know how to define culture, how to measure it, let alone how to change it.

Which is why many organizations today seem stuck. Their compliance program has gone as far as it can go and yet, misconduct is higher than it should be. If this sounds familiar, you may be ready to work on your culture. Of course you’ll need help and there won’t be a shortage of consultants offering it.

Before you hire someone, it might be prudent for you to understand why people work because that’s what determines how well they work (and how ethical they will be). The best learning resource I’ve come across is the book Primed to Perform by Neel Doshi and Lindsay McGregor. It’s an eye-opening book that will change how you think about work and set you down the right path for an amazing culture.

To learn more about Primed to Perform, click on the appropriate tag on this page. My early posts summarize each chapter of the book.

Money talks

It’s happening.

Investors are starting to care about corporate culture. The world’s third-largest asset manager is calling on boards to review their companies’ cultures and explain its alignment with their strategy,

It’s too bad that it took so long. For decades, boards and executives didn’t budge when employees, customers, suppliers and communities begged them to care about culture.

Oh well. It might have been more noble for them to do the right thing earlier, but what matters now is that change is more likely to happen.

Monitoring risk

“Do not eat of the apple” said God. And the first thing they did was taste the apple.

“Do not use text messaging for work”, says the policy. Everyone does it.

At least God was monitoring the garden. As soon as a bite of the apple was taken, He knew.

When it comes to communication channels, organizations often choose not to monitor prohibited channels. And this choice is starting to be costly for some, judging by the size of recent penalties imposed by regulators.

At a time when technology is advancing more rapidly than we can deal with it, simply prohibiting its use is foolish. A better way to respond in the short term is to insist that employees use the technology in a manner consistent with the organization’s values, and to monitor their behavior. With time and experience, sensible rules will emerge.

If a practice appears risky enough to prohibit it, then make sure you monitor it.

Supporting values with behaviors

Identifying and communicating your organizational values is a good first step, but that alone is unlikely to affect your corporate culture.

The important step is to link each value to specific behaviors. What does “respect” mean in a hospital? What does it mean on the shop floor of a defense contractor? What does it mean for a truck driver? You must be as specific as possible. Define the behaviors, provide examples, write stories.

And then you must hold everyone accountable. If you tolerate behaviors that are not aligned with your standards, you will get the culture you deserve.

HT to https://communitynewspapers.com/biscayne-bay/the-importance-of-your-corporate-culture/

For a good example of behaviors supporting values, check out http://unitedbyvalues.utc.com/

Ethics & Compliance Initiative Fellows Meeting (Day 1)

Yesterday was Day 1 of the ECI Fellows meeting. Here are some of the things I’ve learned:

  • If your E&C function has a poor relationship with the communication/marketing function of your organization, you are not alone. According to an ECI membership survey, our relationship with the C&M function is the worse among all functions. This is concerning given the importance of communication in changing or improving culture. Some ideas to address this problem (if you have it) include: (1) taking steps to improve the relationship with members of the C&M function; (2) hire C&M talent directly into the E&C function; or (3) make sure your next E&C hire has an affinity for C&M activities.
  • According to a different membership survey, organizations will soon look to hire more candidates with a certification or a specialized degree in E&C. Indeed, we see more and more professional associations and universities offering E&C certifications/degrees. It’s not clear which trend results from the other. Meanwhile, no one has identified the capabilities and skills that an E&C professional should have.
  • First there was “speak up”. Then, there was “listen up”. Now, there’s “follow up”. I love this evolution. It recognizes that no one will speak up if we don’t believe that we’ll be listened to and that something will be done.
  • “Stories put babies to sleep and send soldiers to war.” I had never heard this expression before and it was a great reminder that humans are moved by narrative. If stories can send soldiers to war, then surely they are powerful enough to create the organization culture we need. Are you using stories?
  • Research has demonstrated that when an organization’s leadership doesn’t walk the talk (i.e. they creates policies and processes that are not aligned with the stated values), employees are less likely to be truthful with the leadership. Employees will tell leadership what they want to hear instead of the truth. Facebook seems to be experiencing this at the moment.
  • Food for thought: resilience = influence.
  • Your tactical performance is only as good as your ability to learn from the past. Your adaptive performance is only as good as your ability to learn for the future. Thus, learning is the only way to sustainably improve performance.

I’m ready for Day 2.