The arc of the moral universe

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

How talk went from dangerous to cheap

A long time ago (well, not that long ago), we could hear managers say things like “I don’t care how you do it, just get it done.”

Some time later, they understood the dangers of saying such things and stopped saying them.

Eventually, some managers started to say things like “It’s important that we meet these goals the right way.” This is pretty much where we are today.

This last evolution is important but still falls far short of where we need to be. Without more specificity, employees are left to guess what the “right way” means for their supervisor. And, what if it means nothing to them? What if these words are not credible when everything else about the organization suggests that goals must be met at all costs?

Today, managers must go beyond words and take action. One of the best actions they can take is to ask employees, before they set out to meet a goal, “How will you meet this goal?” As Dov Seidman says, “How we do things is just as important as what we do.”

Take this typical scenario:

  • It’s January. The sales manager presents the quarterly goals to her team and says “We need to meet these goals and we need to do it the right way.” One of her sales rep comes to her and says “I really don’t think we can meet these goals. The market just isn’t there in Q1.” She responds “You are a great sales rep. I know you can do it. Go out there and get them! But remember, do it the right way.”
  • In February, the sales rep comes back to his manager and says “Boss, the product is simply not moving. We won’t be able to meet these goals.” To which she responds “You are the most capable sales rep on the team. I believe in you. I know you can do it. But remember, do it the right way.”
  • The end of Q1 arrives and the sales rep proudly announces that he’s met his goals for the quarter. With a huge smile, his manager gives him a high-five and says “See! I told you you could do it! Great job! Way to get your bonus!”

Can you see what’s wrong with this picture? How can a manager not ask her employee how he met his goals after he repeatedly complained that the goals could not be met?

In fact, by the time the goals are met, it might be too late to ask how he did it. A good manager will ask the “how” question before sending his team into the field.

Saying the right things feels great today because for so long managers were quiet about ethics and compliance. But talk is cheap – and sometimes ineffective.

To create the right culture, managers need to take action, which often comes in the form of asking the right questions.

Even when they know they won’t like the answer.

Do you have 2 minutes to discuss this conflict of interests?

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Conflicts of Interest (“COIs”) are among the thorniest issues that organizations and ethics and compliance (“E&C”) professionals face.

These are the opening words of ECI’s latest resource created by its benchmarking group. The 40-page guide goes into details about how to define, prevent, identify, and deal with all types of COIs. Every E&C professional should have a copy at hand.

My typical conversation with an employee about a COI starts like this:

– Employee: “Do you a 2 minutes to discuss this potential conflict?”

– Me: “Do you have 30?”

COI questions are the “bread and butter” for most E&C professionals. Sadly, they are not the easiest to answer.

This guide can help.

Thinking of creating or updating your code of conduct?

Electronic is better than paper (but make sure there’s a printable version).

Online is better that offline.

“Mobile first” is better than a responsive website, which is better than a static website, which is better than an ebook.

On the internet is better than on your intranet.

It’s better to include links to your corporate policies in the Code (and yes, those should be on the internet as well).

Values-based is better than rules-based.

Conducting a cultural assessment of your organization before you start writing the new code can prove very helpful.

Involving all your organizational SMEs is critical (HR, Legal, Finance, EH&S, Communications, etc.).

Hiring a consultant to help you write the code is better than going at it alone.

Whoever you choose to help you write the code and create a website, make sure they can show you at least two prior code projects that blow your mind, and call those organizations for reference.

Those who are good at writing codes are rarely good at making websites – and vice-versa.

If you operate in multiple countries, translate your code.

Assigning a project manager to herd all those cats will save you at least 20% of your time.

One year from start to finish is probably not enough.

At all times, ask yourself “What are we trying to change?” Employees will want to know why you have a new code and your launch communications will need to address that.

Seek the help of a communications expert (outside or in-house) to help you launch the new code. It’s the best way to transfer all the value you created to your employees.

These tips come from my own experience in writing a new code for my organization. I could have included many more. If you have experience in this domain, please feel free to share your tips by using the comment section below. Thanks!

The compliance we deserve

When we write policies that scream “we don’t trust you” to our employees,

When we train with the aim to scare,

When we presume guilt when conducting investigations,

When we compensate exclusively on commission,

When we hire the unqualified son of our largest customer,

When we promote the jerk,

When we don’t fire the jerk,

We get the compliance that we deserve.

Culture is an outcome of how we do things.

If we want a better compliance culture, we need to have better processes.

Processes that put employees first.

Aren’t they our most valuable asset?

The all-important question

“What is wrong with our culture that Employee X felt we expected him to break the rules?”

When an employee violates the law or a policy “for the benefit of the company”, most organizations are quick to find out what happened, to add an additional control, to write a policy about that new control, to train on this new policy, and to implement an audit plan to catch anyone trying to break the new rule.

What most organizations forget to do is ask “why did this employee break the rule?” Those who ask are often too quick to blame it on a “bad apple,” because it’s easy and less painful than soul-searching.

To truly eliminate bad behavior, organizations should ask themselves how they have contributed to this wrongdoing. The answer is often in a process. How they hire, fire, promote, compensate, etc.

It’s a matter of taking some measure of responsibility for why someone lost their job doing what they thought the organization expected of them.

 

More communications about less

We live in a world where attention is one of the most valuable assets.

It’s valuable because it is increasingly difficult to get someone’s attention. When everyone can use the internet to yell at everyone else, finding a quiet spot to insert our message about ethics & compliance is difficult.

This reality suggests that we should carefully choose what messages to broadcast. When it comes to selecting activities, we know not to let the good be the enemy of the best – because our time is limited. So when it comes to communicating about those select activities, we need to follow the same principle. Do our employees need to know about everything that we do? Probably not.

What are the key E&C messages that your employees need to pay attention to?

What truly drives ethical performance?

Imagine an employee who loves to come to work.

She is encouraged to try new ideas and knows it will be OK if most of them fail. She believes in the organization’s mission and understands that supporting it can lead to great things for her, both professionally and personally. She is not managed through emotional or economic pressures. She comes to work every day because if feels like play. Employee events allows her to form meaningful relationships at work. Her goal is not to make her way to the top of the org chart, so her promotions consist of greater freedom to travel to industry events and in additional resources for her team.

Now try to imagine this employee stealing from her employer.

C’mon. Try.

Pretty hard, right?

Yet, when organizations work to prevent unethical behavior, most of them focus on writing compliance policies, providing training, implementing controls, and conducting audits. When employees operate in such an environment, they do not feel the trust that necessarily leads to risk taking, innovation, and performance.

Time to change how we do things, methinks.

Hat tip to Vega Factor (for performance drivers) and LRN (for T.R.I.P.)

#ThinkCompliance17

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A few days ago, I complained out loud on Twitter that too few Ethics & Compliance Officers are putting out their content on the internet. So much wisdom, so little sharing.

To be clear, several thought leaders are putting out great content on a daily basis. But the vast majority of us are simply re-posting and reTweeting the same posts over and over again.

My Tweet was picked up by Farida Alkaff (@FarAlkaff) and she is now challenging all of us to increase our participation over the next two weeks. All you have to do is put some original content out there (Twitter, FaceBook, LinkedIn, Instagram, SnapChat, Anchor, etc.) and use the hashtag #ThinkCompliance17.

Of course, it’s OK to use this hashtag when sharing other people’s content. But we desperately want to hear what you have to say!

In 2017, choose positivity.

Positivity is a choice.

It’s easy to look at the negative side of ethics and compliance. Violations abound. Compliance is thought to be expensive (though, as famously said, not nearly as expensive as non-compliance). Those who are in power and in the best position to fight for justice seem to abuse their position daily.

So what?

For every violation there are 100 examples of good behavior, which can be shared with a click.

Technology is lowering the cost of compliance everywhere – and lowering the cost of entry for any entrepreneur who wants to change how things are done.

The world is getting more transparent every day (bad behavior needs the shadows to survive).

The importance of organizational culture is now chronicled daily in mainstream business media.

In countries where the rule of law is weak, workers seek to work for multinationals with strong values.

We could go on. But here’s the point: we now live in a time when it has never been easier to make the business case for ethical behavior. So how will we make this case? By scaring people into compliance (the old fashion way)? I hope not.

My hope is that we declare the humanity of our employees and customers. That we do what’s right because doing so always places us on the right side of history.

As an Ethics & Compliance Officer, I don’t want to go to work every day pushing a negative agenda. I choose to look at the possibilities of making the world a better place.