Time to bend the arc

The post below was originally published on January 16, 2017

A century before Martin Luther King’s “Where do we go from here?” speech of August 1967, Theodore Parker said the following:

I do not pretend to understand the moral universe; the arc is a long one, my eye reaches but little ways; I cannot calculate the curve and complete the figure by the experience of sight; I can divine it by conscience. And from what I see I am sure it bends towards justice.

The arc doesn’t bend on its own. The bend is created by the courageous and persistent work of a minority, who possesses a moral imagination capable of seeing a future world that is better than today’s.

And so do we all have a responsibility to see the injustice about us, and to work towards its elimination, even if we never enjoy the fruits of our labor.

You are not obliged to complete the work, but neither are you free to evade it. — Rabbi Tarfon

Ten months without breaking bread

There were three candy bowls on my office floor.

There were snacks in the kitchen and, occasionally, leftovers from a business lunch.

I often had lunch with colleagues in the cafeteria. Sometimes we went out to eat.

One Friday each month someone would bring breakfast treats for the whole floor. Once a year we had a holiday pot luck.

I’ve had meals at my boss’ home. I’ve had my team over for dinner at my house.

My best memories of business travels around the globe all have one thing in common: sharing some local fare with colleagues, everyone joking and laughing and smiling.

All this is gone now.

Food is a connector. It brings us together. It forces different conversations, revealing who we are and not simply what we do. We crave these connections. Breaking bread together is a tradition in all cultures. To be human is to eat together. From times immemorial.

We can’t fill this need with a Zoom meal. This craving will remain unfulfilled until the pandemic is over. It will affect the mental health of every employee to some degree.

Leaders must be mindful of this reality. They must find other ways to connect with their team. They must ask employees to follow social distancing rules, to wear a mask, to wash their hands and to get vaccinated.

May we all soon get back together and raise our glasses to good health.

On ethics training

Providing training is like giving advice.

If it’s for a specific person, it’s likely to land. If it’s for a group, it’s likely to miss the mark for a few people.

That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t create training materials for large groups. When we do, we simply need to create a space for discussion between the trainer and the trainees.

What of online training? Well, it can be a two-step process. First, the employees complete the training, then they discuss as a group.

The first step shows you have provided the training. The second shows that you cared about the learning.

A children’s book on corruption

It is rare for the topic of corruption to put a smile on anyone’s face. However, I could not help smiling as I listened to my colleague Patrick Henz’s new audiobook for children: Pepe, the Red Race Car.

In this short story, we follow the adventures of Pepe as he competes in various races around the world. Pepe, who is fair and honest, must decide what to do when he notices a competitor breaking the rules with the help of a race official.

There are many good lessons in this book, from living by your values to speaking up when something is wrong. But if I had to choose one favorite, it would be this: the pleasure one hopes to derive out of winning evaporates when the win results from cheating.

Start with a risk assessment

I recently spoke with a friend who works for an organization that is just starting to consider implementing an ethics and compliance program. His first question to me was “What should I do first?”

His question prompted one of my own, although I was pretty sure I already knew the answer. “Have you conducted a risk assessment?”, I asked.

Of course he hadn’t.

Going through a risk assessment has many benefits. In terms of an E&C program, a risk assessment:

  • Informs what topics should be included in your code of conduct
  • Identifies the policies that your organization needs
  • Determines the scope of your training program
  • Points to the controls you need to put in place
  • Highlights the processes that must be regularly audited

So before you start implementing an E&C program, start with a risk assessment. And if you already have a program, then let your regular risk assessments guide your improvement efforts.

Effective training

You compliance training doesn’t have to be fun. It doesn’t have to be entertaining. Or popular.

It can be, but it doesn’t have to.

If you assume that your employees want to do the right thing, then what your training must do is help them do their job compliantly.

An animated video about the elements of antitrust violations can be entertaining, but the learnings will have faded 6 months later when your sales rep is about to attend a trade show. What she’ll really need at that moment is a boring job aid like a simple checklist of what she must do before, during and after the trade show (e.g. submit the agenda and the minutes to Legal, make a “noisy exit”, etc.).

Just-in-time training. Task-based training. That’s what most front-line employees need.

Think about the approach of safety professionals. Next to every doorway leading onto the shop floor, there is a sign asking employees to wear safety goggles and a bin containing such goggles. No one is simply relying on the safety video that was shown to the employees on their first day on the job.

So why don’t we do the same for legal risks? Why do we continue to rely on once-a-year videos and certifications?

It’s a big task, of course. But we can start small:

  1. Identify your biggest risk
  2. Identify where this risk poses the greatest threat (by geography or product line)
  3. Identify the group of employees closest to the risk (sales, finance, etc.)
  4. Identify the riskiest task performed by these employees
  5. Create a job aid or some other type of task-based training just for them

Then move back up the list and address the other tasks. Then the other groups. Then the other locations. Then select another risk and go back down the list.

It’ll take time but you will be making real progress.

What is it about us?

When employees engage in wrongdoing, internal investigators determine how it was done. From there, management decides on corrective and disciplinary actions.

The ethical leader goes further and asks “What is it about our culture that made them think it was OK, or that they would get away with it?”

The citizens that stormed the US Capitol yesterday will be prosecuted and the building’s security will be enhanced. But our political leaders must go further and ask the same question. What is it about us – about our culture, about our system, about our laws, about how we take care of each other, that led to this?

Good corporate leaders do not simply label wrongdoers as a “bad apples”. Neither should good political leaders.

Please

When we say “please” in English, it is actually short for “if you please”. It implies a request rather than a demand.

Unfortunately, many supervisors take this meaning too literally and consider the word unnecessary when asking subordinates to do something. Their thinking is: the thing needs to be done, whether or not it pleases their subordinates.

Of course, the word “please” also implies appreciation and care. When a boss says “Could you please complete this report by Friday?”, it conveys the following:

  • I need the report by Friday
  • I appreciate your efforts in completing this report by Friday
  • If there are any reasons why this report can’t be completed by Friday, I want you to share them with me

So much meaning in such a small word.

Research by Christine Porath (author of Mastering Civility) shows that 62% of employees reported that they were treated rudely at least once a month in 2016, up from 55% in 2011.

We can do better than this. We can reverse that trend in 2021.

If we please.

HT to Melanie Katzman, author of Connect First.

Translations and culture

I recently wrote a corporate policy that we expect all employees to understand and follow.

The group responsible for deploying this policy asked me for a list of languages that the policy should be translated into. My response was simple: in all the languages spoken by our employees*.

I believe that culture is an outcome of how we do things. And I believe that corporate policies should identify the processes we follow and the behaviors we expect from employees. Thus, if we truly wish to build a culture of compliance, we need to make sure our employees can read and understand our policies.

And there is also a meta aspect to this question: what message about our corporate culture would we be sending if we did not translate these policies?

* More specifically, in the official languages of every country where we operate.