Family members go to extraordinary lengths to help each other.

Students wear their school’s colors and cheer for their teams.

Congregants donate their time and money to their places of worship.

And what about your employees? Do they cheer for your company?

Recently at work, the owner of a policy made changes to that policy without consulting other groups that would be impacted by the changes.

It’s something that happens with some frequency. Therefore, you could say that it’s part of our culture (i.e. “how things are really done around here”).

As I’ve said before, if you don’t like a part of your culture, you must change the processes that lead to it. In this case, we need to create a new collaboration process around policy revisions.

Now, we could go about it in many different ways. We could ask for collaboration via email, we could have a call, we could change the document that details how to change a policy, etc.

But I’m a big fan of task-based training. I like to put the “how” and the “why” right next to the activity itself, every time it is performed. This way, I don’t have to worry about how long it’s been since the last training session, the last email reminder, or about experienced people being replaced by newbies.

So going forward, the last section of all policies will read: “This policy is owned by [insert function here], will be reviewed no less often than [enter time period here], and cannot be revised without consultation with [insert other functions here].

Every time a policy owner engages in revisions, she will see this reminder. No need for additional communications or training. After a year or two or three, people will start to know that collaboration is just how we do things around here.

And not just for policies.

Most kids make their beds because they have to. They don’t care about a clean room.

As teenagers, they go to school because they have to. They’re not in awe of all they’re learning.

As adults, they go to work because they have to. Sixty-five percent of them are not engaged at work.

And those are the people to whom we say: “Do compliance because it’s the right thing to do, not because you have to.”

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HT to Michaela Ahlberg

I just came across a definition of culture that I had never read before: the leadership mirror.

It’s not as good as my favorite definition, which is “culture is an outcome of your processes”. This last definition tells you how to create a culture. But the first one tells you who is responsible for culture. After all, leadership creates (or tolerates) the processes that shape the culture.

So if you are a leader and unsatisfied with your company’s culture, you know where to look.

In an article titled “Changing Boeing’s corporate culture won’t be easy“, the author writes that “systemic errors can sometimes be very difficult to track down and eradicate.”

Correct.

That’s the whole point of systems, of processes. We design systems and we create processes so that some decisions don’t have to be made over and over again. Culture is simply an outcome of these processes and systems.

So yes, changing a bad system is difficult.

But so is changing a good system.

How’s your system?

According to an NPR article, most local police departments are ill-equipped to respond to cybercrime.

Mainly, this is because police officers don’t know what questions to ask when victims report a cybercrime. So the director of cybercrime intelligence for the New York City police department developed an app to help police officers ask the right questions.

This is an idea that could be used in the corporate world. Most employees report wrongdoing to their supervisors, and most supervisors are not trained on how to receive an allegation. Why not provide them with a one-pager (it doesn’t have to be an app) that provides guidance to make the reporter feel safe, to obtain relevant information, and to identify who else needs to be involved?

Larger organizations will have an HR or a legal department to handle the actual investigation. While the folks in these departments have more investigative experience, they too could use a little help from a document or an app to guide them through some of the new risks out there. What do you do when a laptop is stolen? What is the next step after an employee has given sensitive information to a social engineer? Who do you notify after you’ve sent a list of employees’ salaries to a supplier by mistake?

Look at the next problem you have at work and ask yourself if the first responders were well equipped to deal with it.

Is there an app for that?

I have a question and a favor to ask today.

Who do you follow on social media to learn about business ethics and corporate culture?

Please let me know by tagging me on these platforms:

• Twitter: @yan_tougas
• LinkedIn: Yan Tougas
• Instagram: @yantougas

My goal is to find new people and original thinkers.

Thank you!

Imagine a start-up of just a few employees.

At first, every employee’s birthday is celebrated on the actual birth-day. Everyone stops working for 30-60 minutes, enjoying sweets, listening to a speech and offering a gift. This is done because the young company’s values include teamwork, respect, fun. They try to embed those values in everything they do.

As the company grows to 500, the COO decides that we can’t have 4 or 5 of these events every week. From now on, we’ll celebrate monthly. The values are still valued, yet a bit diluted.

Eventually the company becomes so large that even monthly events can’t be accommodated. Department heads are told to continue (and expense) the practice if they wish. Some do, some don’t. The culture of celebration starts to fade.

One day the company goes public and every penny is under scrutiny. P&L leaders look for places to cut costs and birthday celebrations are an easy target. If employees want to recognize their colleagues, they can do it themselves. On their own dime. The original values have little room in this larger organization.

And, just like that, we have a different culture.