COIs: Common & Complex

Today I am hosting a call during which I will be discussing conflict of interest (COIs) situations with my team.

COIs are very common in organizations. Every employee is likely to face one. Some employees fall in love with a colleague, some need a second employment, others might have a financial interest in a customer or received a gift from a supplier.

Being common doesn’t make COIs easier to resolve. While there are similarities between COIs, each is unique to the persons involved. It might be fine for Employee A to receive a gift from Supplier B, and completely inappropriate for Employee C to receive the same gift from the same supplier. My standard response to an employee who calls me and asks “Do you have 5 minutes for a quick COI check?” is “Do you have 30?” I know from experience that I will need to ask her several questions and consider not only the likelihood of a true conflict but also even the appearance thereof. Both should be avoided.

So naturally, E&C professionals find it difficult to resolve COIs. The best way to get better at it is to do it often. Which is why I am hosting this call. Over 160 of my team members have signed up. Our plan is to repeat this exercise every month.

What’s another topic that keeps ECOs awake at night? Let me know in the comments below. Thank you!

What’s the alternative?

“What’s the alternative?” is a great question to ask when we wish things were different.

The answer can reveal what we control and what we don’t.

Then it’s our move.

There’s no room for complaining. It’s either action or acceptance.

So, what do you wish were different today?

#280

Today’s post is exactly 280 characters’ long, to celebrate Twitter’s new character limit. My entire post fits in one Tweet (you can see it here). Many people are complaining about the doubling of writing space on this wonderful micro-blogging platform. My post is for them. Meta, right?

Vote for your employer

Today is election day in the US. Ordinary citizens will vote to elect lawmakers. We’ll give away some of our independence in exchange for the creation of rules that we hope will be just and fair for the community.

In the corporate world, ordinary employees do not vote to elect decisionmakers. It’s not a democracy. In exchange for our work, we receive some personal benefits. The history of master-servant relationships is not a shining example of justice and fairness. In fact, slaves/servants/apprentices/employees have long had to rely on elected lawmakers to keep the masters/decisionmakers in check.

Today, more and more employees actually get to cast one vote: selecting their employer. The new generation of employees is less keen on buying a home and a car and getting into all sorts of debts, making them less dependent on a salary. Technology allows them to run a side business from their phone while lying in bed. When selecting an employer, they can more easily choose the ones that put employees ahead of shareholders.

Come to think of it, we vote for our employer every day when we show up at work.

We should make that vote count.

This is post 198

The person who inspired me to write every day is Seth Godin. Today, Seth wrote is 7,000th consecutive post. As he did in his 6,000th post, he explains why he writes every day and what it means to him. It’s worth a read.

As for me, I don’t actually write every day. I don’t write on weekends, on holidays, or while on vacation. I’ve even missed a day or two while while crossing the dateline on business travel. But otherwise, if it’s a regular work day like today, I post. This is my 198th entry for 2017.

This all started around this time last year when Farida Alkaff created the #ThinkCompliance17 Challenge. The goal was to increase the number of E&C voices on the internet. In response to Farida’s challenge, my personal goal became to write every (work)day for the first 2 weeks of 2017. I knew that writing down my thoughts forced me to think more deeply about my work, about my values, about what Tom Friedman calls The Machine, and about how all of this affects people and culture. I thought it would be a real challenge for me to do this for 10 workdays and put it out there for the world to see and react to it. Somehow I never stopped.

It has been a challenge, and a rewarding one at that. Knowing that I will have to write another post tomorrow forces me to pay attention today and to notice things. It forces me to discover my opinions and my values, and to question them. It forces me to articulate all of this as clearly as I can.

Like Seth, I would write this blog even if no one read it but I’m glad you’re here. I appreciate your readership and your feedback. You can make it easy on yourself and bookmark this page, or you can get my new posts delivered to your inbox automatically (button at the bottom right). I also share my posts on all the major social platforms (buttons at top right).

Better yet, you could start writing too. If you do, please send me a link.

ECI Best Practices Forum – Fall 2017 – Day 2

Day 2 had a different rhythm than Day 1. Here are the key points for me:

  • Videos
    • The cost of entry is now so low that there are no reasons not to use video to communicate about E&C. An iPhone and free editing software is all you need.
    • Use videos to demystify aspects of your program (what happens when you call the helpline, what are the steps in an investigation, how are reporters protected from retaliation, etc.)
    • Keep them short (below 4 minutes)
  • Appreciative inquiry
    • It means asking employees “What does it look like when we are at our best?”
    • It’s a concept combining two good practices:
      • Getting employees involved in the solution, because involvement is key to commitment
      • Focussing on creative thinking while staying away from traditional discussions (which typically lead employees to focus on all the reasons why something won’t work)
  • Quotables
    • “Conflict is normal. It is to be expected. So prepare for it” (i.e. train supervisors on how to handle future conflicts)
    • “Everybody deserves special treatment.” (ie. a call not to govern everything by policy; or a call to scale the unscalable)
  • Recommended books
  • Recommended apps
    • Kahoots

ECI Best Practices Forum – Fall 2017 – Day 1

Yesterday was the first day of the 2017 Fall Best Practices Forum, put together by the ECI. The topic: Creating a speak-up/listen-up culture. Here are some of my meeting notes:

  • Science shows that “telling” is instinctual and “keeping quiet” is learned.
    • Babies as young as 14-months old can communicate to their parents when something is wrong (e.g. they will cry if an older sibling steals their cookie while mom is not watching to get her attention). But…
    • Kids as young as 4-years old have already learned that “no one likes a tattletale”. This is reinforced during school years, on TV, and in the workplace.
  • Thus, managers…
    • Should assume that employees want to report.
    • Should be educated on recognizing and responding to reports.
    • Should let reporters know that it was a good idea to come forward
  • Organizations should share how reporters make a difference and protect them
    • Reporters are 32% more likely to come forward if they know it will make a difference and 40% more likely if they know they will be protected
    • Reporters use a 2-step analysis
      • Are there potential repercussions for me personally? If yes, shut-up. If no…
      • What is the cost/benefit analysis? E.g.: Will anyone care? If no, shut-up.
    • Reporters want to know what will happen if they speak up. We need to demystify the process. KPMG has done that successfully with videos from their CECO demystifying intake, investigations, retaliation protection, etc.
      • KPMG videos explain, with statistics, why it is not as effective to report anonymously (harder to protect, to stay in touch, to investigate).
      • Reporters are less likely to trust senior leaders. The greater the power imbalance, the lower the trust. That’s why supervisors are key.
      • Reframe the conversation to describe reporters as loyal to the organization
    • Employees working in organizations with a helpline report more than others – but they barely use the helpline! There is a lot of speculations as to why that is.
    • Managers need to learn to listen.
      • On average, managers interrupt their subordinates within 17 seconds of the start of a conversation.
      • What makes it difficult to listen attentively is, in part, that the brain can process 1,000 words per minute while people speak an average of 150 words per minute. The extra brain power is spent on distracting thoughts.
      • Listening requires significant effort.
      • In brainstorming sessions, allow employees to “pass” and go back to them later.
    • Retaliation
      • Most retaliation is “social”.
      • 80% of retaliation happens within 3 weeks of a report.
      • When organizations take extra measures to protect the reporter of a significant allegation, it is perceived as retaliation by the reporter!
    • Quarterly performance meetings can be more effective than annual reviews because it is easier for employees to discuss issues that happened recently.
    • Miscellaneous quotes
      • “The best employees are the ones asking the best questions.”
      • “Some people believe they are doing the right thing because they are not asking the right question.”
      • “Managers focus on complexity, leaders focus on change.”
      • “Crises are situations that draw out heroic actions.”
      • “The CEO is the curator of culture.” – Microsoft CEO
      • “Think of trust as a credit score, with the lenders being your stakeholders.”
      • “Culture is the immune system of your organization.” – Huffington
    • Recommended books
      • Nudge
      • Riding the waves of culture

Telegraph your values

I arrived in Chicago yesterday for a business event. Last night, I decided to go out to dinner with a colleague, who is also an ethics & compliance professional. I hailed a car service (perhaps Lyft, Uber or Via) and we headed out.

Midway through the trip, I get this funny feeling that I forgot to select my personal debit card to pay for this ride. I pull out my phone, open the app, and sure enough the trip is being charged to my corporate card. There’s no way to change the payment method on the fly. I turn to my colleague and say out loud “Well, lesson learned. Next time, I have to check the payment card before starting the ride. Now, I’ll have to deal with the hassle of making a personal payment to my corporate card!”

That’s when our driver said: “Or, you could just pretend that this was for business.” After we told him what we do for a living, trying to add a bit of humor to the situation, he quickly added: “Well, of course, we always need to do the right thing.” It was a bit awkward.

It reminded me of a study that showed how employees who prominently display religious artifacts or ethical quotes at their desk are less likely to be asked to break the rules by their boss. Just like our driver, once reminded that they are dealing with a person guided by ethical values, the bosses look for easier preys.

What if each of us found a way to communicate our desire to do the right thing before we are asked to break the rules?

In search of an inefficient skill

Seth Godin wrote a post today about people becoming “machine-readable“. He argues that it’s a bad idea to become another cog in the machine. His advice echoes what I’ve heard elsewhere: if your current job depends on your efficiency, it’s time to find another job. Soon, humans will (only) occupy inefficient (creative, imaginative, inventive) positions, the rest being relegated (exclusively) to robots.

I hope to learn an inefficient skill this week at the Ethics & Compliance Initiative’s Best Practices Forum in Chicago. The topic: creating a speak-up/listen-up culture. I don’t think there’s an efficient shortcut to creating trust and making people feel safe. These states are still created by genuine human connections, by efforts that must first overcome our primitive instincts to expect danger at every corner.

It’s a valuable skill to have. And a rewarding one at that.

See you in Chicago.

Until the next revolution

The industrial revolution invented the concept of replaceable parts. Shortly thereafter, the modern educational system was invented to create replaceable workers. Your accountant is worn out or broken? Take her out and replace her with another one. There are plenty.

This reality adds to our existential angst as human being. We increasingly seek joy and meaning outside of work. For many workers, what drives them to work is no longer related to the work itself. Unfortunately, according to the latest social science, these conditions lead to lower performance and an increased risk of employee fraud.

Hardly the ideal conditions for organizations and their ethics & compliance professionals.

It will take some time before the next revolution fixes our workplace and our educational system. Meanwhile, E&C professionals can start the process by asking themselves an important question: am I finding joy and purpose in my work? To be fair, our work is difficult. It is perceived by many as imposing restrictions on their work. We see it as a virtuous path to order, fairness and justice, but we are not always successful in communicating this perspective. It can be tiring to find joy in a confrontational setting. And so we must decide if we would be better suited for another organization, or perhaps for another vocation all together. If we find that this work is in fact for us, then our first order of business is to become a lifelong learner, to care about those we serve, and always to provide value.

Cave studiosum

“Crimes often return to their teacher.”

-Seneca, Thyestes, 311

“Bloody instructions, which, being taught, return / To plague th’inventor.”

-Shakespeare, Macbeth

 

The ethics & compliance professional would do well never to recommend an illegal or unethical course. Evidently.

She would do well also never to look the other way when such a course is taken. Doing so allows the perpetrator to blackmail her later on – or worse.

And perhaps she should avoid any employer who seems only to tolerate her advice, lest she is willing to suffer a fate akin to Seneca’s at the hands of Nero.