ECI Fellows Meeting – Day 1

Whenever I attend a large meeting of E&C professionals, I learn about leading or best practices from other organizations. Of course, no organization is flawless but here are some of the practices that were shared yesterday during Day 1 of the ECI Fellows meeting:

In one banking organization, the E&C group must sign off on compensation plans. Their job is to look for elements that might drive unethical behavior.
In one aerospace organization, 40% of the employee performance evaluation is based on the corporate values.
In one healthcare organization, executives go through a regular 360 assessment, with a particular emphasis on feedback from subordinates.

And here are some concepts from Day 1 that got my attention:

However you design your compensation system, make sure you send a clear message that “compliance affects your pay.”
To influence ethical behavior through compensation, focus on variable pay over fixed pay and benefits.
Goals focus your attention (good) but can also create blinders to important and risky behaviors happening in your peripheral vision (bad).
Goals cause people to take on more risk (this can be good or bad). An independent party should evaluate those risks.

Finally, some thoughts from the session with Neel Doshi:

Data, in its most natural form, creates play. Unfortunately, many organizations weaponize data to create emotional and economic pressure.
Dashboards and scorecards don’t tell the whole story. Where there is red on a dashboard, it is certainly not proof that people are the problem. Go see for yourself. The further removed you are from the event, the stronger the blame bias.
If no one in your organization owns culture, then it’s a great opportunity for E&C to take the lead. It’s much harder to do so when another function claims ownership.

Dear Fellows

I am writing theses lines on my phone during my flight to D.C. for the ECI Fellows meeting.

If you are not a member of ECI, I highly recommend you join. The group comprises some of the most thoughtful individuals in the E&C sphere. These individuals care deeply about our field and seek always to advance it by conducting meaningful research. If the ECI didn’t exist, we’d have to invent it.

Over the next two days, we’ll be discussing how best to incentivize ethical behavior. We have a fantastic lineup of thought leaders, including Primed to Perform author Neel Doshi. I’m delighted that I, and nearly 200 of my E&C colleagues, will get to learn from Neel how to transform our organizations using the new science of total motivation. If you haven’t read Neel’s book, grab a copy now.

Tomorrow I’ll report on our first day. See you then.

What?! Of course we’re ethical!

I had an interesting reaction this morning when I started to send an iMessage to a cousin.

As I typed his phone number into the address box (I didn’t have him in my contacts), it turned from blue to green. “What?”, I thought. How could this be? I asked my wife to confirm his number. Surely there was a mistake. He’s a guy in his 30’s with a good job in New York City. Of course he has an iPhone!

But the number was right. And he does not have an iPhone. Five years ago, I still had plenty of friends and relatives who used SMS to send messages. Now, it’s so rare that my brain defaults to a wrong number.

One day, we will be so accustomed to people doing business ethically that when someone suggests that we engage in wrongdoing – with a wink and a nod – we’ll go “What?” and assume we didn’t hear well. “Surely there’s a mistake. He’s a guy in his 30’s with a good job in New York City. Of course he’s a straight shooter!”

That day will come. Meanwhile, you and I have our work cut out.

What drives you?

When you think of your work as an E&C professional, what comes to mind?

“I can’t believe I’m getting paid for this!”
“I truly believe in the purpose of my work.”
“This work will open doors for me.”
“I went to school for a job like this. It would be embarrassing not to work in this field.”
“It’s a job and I need the money.”
“I’ve been doing this job for so long I can’t even remember why I do it!”

The higher on the list your answer is, the better your performance is likely to be.

Why we work determines how well we work.

This is an important concept in a field where our goal is to influence behavior.

Are you discoverable?

Six months ago, I complained that too few E&C professionals were creating content on the internet.

I was one of those who toiled in silence, not sharing my thoughts and activities with the rest of the E&C world, despite knowing that there is much to gain by all in doing so. I was great at re-Tweeting but I wasn’t contributing.

So I challenged myself and others to write one blog post every business day for the first two weeks of January.

I never stopped.

In the process, I realized how many E&C pros are actually out there sharing their ideas and practices. I have learned from you and I thank you.

You discover much when you are discoverable.

I am taking a vacation next week. See you all on July 10th.

Shame on the leaders

When leaders only talk about the importance of meeting financial targets, employees eventually believe that they must achieve those targets by any means necessary.

It does not matter if the leaders meant that the targets should be met the right way. If their intent is not matched by action, a different message is heard.

And so employees engage in wrongdoing and are separated from the company. During the exit interview, they plead for their job saying “But I did this for the good of the company! I thought that’s what you wanted me to do!”

And then we’ll ask: “You thought breaking the law was for the good of the company?”

Frantic stares. Confusion. Inability to utter a single word.

Then shame.

And shame on the leaders.

Making believers

The work we do as E&C professionals rarely wins us accolades.

Most of the time, colleagues complain about the policy we just issued (“It stifles business”), the training we just deployed (“Another training?!), the controls in place (“Are two approvals really necessary?”), etc. No one likes to be told what to do.

But everyone is more likely to play along if they understand why they must do something.

People comply when they believe what you believe.

We are in the belief business.

Why I work

When I talk about the book Primed to Perform, I often say that the authors have cracked the code on how to build a compliant, ethical and performing culture.

The principles described in the book work in all types of organizations, from single-parent families to multinational corporations. And for organizations like mine with an already great culture, the science of total motivation allows us to measure the culture and seek continuous improvements.

I was thrilled to share the findings of Primed to Perform with my departmental colleagues yesterday. Everyone is getting a copy of the book and we will complete the group survey to create a baseline.

This is why I am an E&C professional: to bring out the best in everyone, always doing the right thing.

How much longer can we hold our breath?

I created a personalized page on Google News that aggregates articles about “corporate culture”. The page returns the 20 most relevant articles of the day. I look at it every morning.

Today’s collection included 7 articles about Uber.

Seven.

Thirty-five percent.

Corporate culture pushed countless employees to leave this company, including several senior executives. It also forced its founder and CEO to step down.

And yet most organizations continue to ignore culture. Their plan is to hope that it will all work out on its own. They hold their breath and cross their fingers.

Culture should not be ignored. And it can be measured and improved.

No one wants to be the next Uber.

Removing judgment

A good way to remove risk is to remove judgment. A rule prohibiting cash gifts eliminates the associated risks.

But removing judgment also creates risks when applied too broadly. Employees do not feel trusted and in turn withdraw their trust in the organization. The rules look stupid when they don’t accommodate for valid exceptions and management loses credibility. Employees become amoral in other areas where we want them to use their judgment.

Rules that remove judgment are necessary but they should be used sparingly and reserved for an organization’s highest risks.