Category: Uncategorized

The plank and the saw dust

Most people are inclined to think that they are always right and to view others suspiciously.

The ancient Stoics knew this and trained themselves to do the opposite. They learned to question their own motives and to assume positive intent in others. “Be tolerant with others and strict with yourself,” said Marcus Aurelius.

As difficult as assuming positive intent in others can be, questioning our own motives – seeing our unconscious biases – is ever harder. It requires constant vigilance, being ready to recognize the faintest taste of righteousness.

Someone will upset us today. It could be at home or at work or out in public. Let’s try not to react. Let’s assume positive intent. Then, let’s identify when we, ourselves, engaged in a similar, or worse, behavior in the past. And, finally, let’s ask ourselves what drove us to that behavior. What belief did we have? Where did that belief come from? What bias was at play?

Imagine 7 billion of us doing this just once today. What would tomorrow look like?

Sustainability is in the how

Leaders like Chase Jarvis and Seth Godin tell us that artists (and we are all artists) don’t work to make money. They make money so that they can keep doing their art.

So if you like to paint, you sell your paintings so that you can keep painting (and not for the money). If you like to cook food for others, you sell your food so you can keep cooking. If you like to create software that unleashes users’ creativity, you sell your software so you can keep coding.

None of us can create and sell our art by ourselves. We must work with colleagues, suppliers, customers, intermediaries. This is why how we create and sell matters just as much as what we create and sell. It cannot be enough to just want to cook food for other people. We must care about the entire value chain if we want it to be sustainable.

For it must be sustainable if we are to do it again tomorrow.

Peace and quiet

I was a senior in high school when the Challenger exploded.

I was in class at the time of the launch. I think it was chemistry. The teacher had rolled in a television set for all of us to watch. I remember how quiet the whole school got after the explosion. Not just my classroom; the whole school.

Allan McDonald never stayed quiet. McDonald was the engineer who refused to approve the Challenger launch. He knew that the O-rings at the booster rocket joints would likely fail in the unusually low temperatures of launch day. He spoke up before the launch but was overruled by his company’s executives.

Then, 12 days later, in a closed hearing of a presidential commission investigating the explosion, he spoke up again and corrected the record after a NASA official tried to suggest that McDonald had approved the launch. Embarrassed, his company demoted him in an effort to silence him. When the US Government heard of the demotion, it threatened to remove the company from all future NASA contracts. McDonald was promoted back and put in charge of redesigning the rocket joints.

After his retirement in 2001, he became an advocate of ethical decision-making to engineering students, to engineers and to managers, both in the private sector and in government agencies.

He never stayed quiet on the importance of doing the right thing.

McDonald passed away on Saturday.

He can rest in peace.

Documenting and FAQs

Ethics and compliance officers often share with me their struggle to communicate about the E&C program. “How many different ways can I tell them about our code of conduct, our policies and our training?”, they ask.

Two ways are often overlooked:

  • Documenting: Let’s say you are in the process of revising an existing policy. Share that with your employees. Tell them you are launching the revision process and why. Later, tell them how you partnered with HR to get feedback on the first draft. Once approved, share the questions that leadership asked before approving the policy. You can do that with any project you are working on. Documenting gives you a chance to stay in front of your employees, to tell a story (that’s how people truly learn), and to add transparency to your work (transparency promotes trust).
  • FAQs: If you don’t have a big project to document, then consider writing FAQs. You can easily write FAQs about your code, about each of your policies, about your training, investigations, controls, etc. All you have to do is collect the questions you get from employees and organize them. Once you have 3 or more on a given topic, you can publish the FAQ.

Of course, you can also document your creation of FAQs!

Don’t ignore lies

There is a lot of disinformation out there.

Good journalists are fighting it. Some social media outlets are fighting it. The new administration is fighting it.

What about your CEO? Other corporate leaders? Your supervisor? You? We all have a responsibility to curb disinformation and shine a light on truth. Find a daily opportunity to set the record straight. It can be during a private conversation, during a staff meeting, or in a company newsletter article.

Some conspiracy theories are cute. Don’t believe that the Earth is round? Fine. We didn’t land on the moon? Sure.

But other theories are downright dangerous. They have lead to wars, to holocausts, to civil unrest. They were powerful because the government and the press adopted them. Then businesses decided that it wasn’t their job to interfere; their job was to make money.

Let’s hope we know better now.

If you see a lie, speak up.

A for Apple

I’m an Apple fanboy. There are more Apple devices in my house than matching wine glasses.

I’m also passionate about ethics and compliance. I’ve been an E&C professional for over 15 years.

So when I learned of Apple’s new public-facing E&C site, I had to have a look. Here is what I found:

  • A clean, well-organized website.
  • A code of conduct and many policies available to the public.
  • The code and policies are written in plain English. The anti-corruption policy, for example, explains facilitating payments in terms that my 13-year old would easily understand.
  • An overview of the training, with special attention to manager responsibilities.
  • A focus on dealing with third parties.
  • Tools to report anonymously and a commitment not to retaliate.

Of course, a website is not the whole story. A well written code, clear policies and a helpline didn’t stop the worse corporate scandals we experienced in this century. Apple itself is not without blemish. But putting your efforts out there for the world to see is always a step in the right direction. What Apple did with this new site is a good model for anyone to follow.

Idea machine

Let’s continue with yesterday’s topic of ideas.

James Altucher promotes the practice of coming up with 10 ideas every day. You can read his ultimate guide here.

Imagine coming up with 10 ideas every day for your ethics and compliance program. That’s a few thousand ideas every year.

If only one in ten is a good idea, that is still a few hundred good ideas every year. If only one in ten is successful in your company, that’s a few dozen successes each year. Two to three times a month, you knock it out of the park!

Here are some prompts:

  • 10 sections of the Code of Conduct to update with examples
  • 10 policies to simplify
  • 10 topics to add to the new employee training
  • 10 “Did you know?” short posts to publish on Yammer
  • 10 companies to benchmark with
  • 10 E&C professionals to invite to the next Ethics Day
  • 10 features to include in an E&C app for employees
  • 10 ways to partner with HR
  • 10 industry events to present at
  • 10 vendors to invite in for a demo

That’s a 100 ideas right there, in only two weeks.

Ten of those ideas might be good. One might succeed.

Every. Two. Weeks.

I came across this concept of “idea machine” this morning when reading the James Altucher chapter in Tim Ferriss’ book titled Tools of Titans. I created my first list of 10 ideas this morning. Writing this post was one of the 10 ideas.