I love the marshmellow test: place one marshmellow in front of a person; tell them they can eat this one now or they’ll got another marshmellow if they wait for the tester to come pack. Oh the pain of waiting! This video says it all. It shows how we struggle with long term vs. short term gains. It takes discipline to take the long-term approach.
Proctor and Gamble’s new CEO, Bob McDonald, announced new strategy called purpose-inspired growth. The plan is to focus on purpose, values, and principles; then the money will naturally follow. I’m intrigued, but don’t want to discuss the merits of this strategy. Instead, I want to discuss the execution of the strategy.
Rosabeth Moss Kanter of Harvard Business School had this to say on her blog about the rollout:
McDonald calls P&G’s purpose the most consistent factor in a 171-year history of growth. When he showed it on screen in South Boston, the room nodded reverentially. “We will provide branded products of superior quality and value that improve the lives of the world’s consumers, now and for generations to come. As a result, consumers will reward us with leadership sales, profit and value creations, allowing our people, our shareholders, and the communities in which we live and work to prosper.”
Sounds good so far. But try this: turn away from your screen and recite the statement in your own words. I’ll go ahead and wait …. So, how did you do? Take a look at the statement again. It’s a completely well-written statement that’s easy to understand, but entirely forgettable.
This is something I don’t understand – a corporation can create memorable commercials, but can’t create a memorable credo from the top. Yes, everyone nodded reverentially, but probably walked out of the room forgetting the message. It’s too bad that the statement wasn’t boiled down to some short and memorable phrase. There’s truth in Chip Heath and Dan Heath’s methodology in their book Made to Stick. A simple unexpected credible concrete emotional story will stick. It’s too bad that Proctor and Gamble doesn’t have that here.
I came across a story about a retired school teacher, Tim Tepas, his son with Down Syndrome, Keith, and Albert Pujols, all-star baseball player for the St. Louis Cardinals. Read the story first at St Louis Today called: St. Louis Fan Fills Uplifted After Fall.
What struck me most about the article is Albert Pujols saying: “Please lie down sir. Don’t try to get up sir.” This small act embeds my opinion of Mr. Pujols. I see him as a class act and as a compassionate and caring person. This small act also gives me a higher opinion of the St. Louis Cardinals. It’s the accumulation of these acts that generate a reputation. A company full of Albert Pujols is a company that succeeds.
David Childers from Ethicspoint writes a good article about social media and compliance programs in the SCCE journal. He identifies all the new tools such as Twitter, blogs, wikis, LinkedIn, Facebook, etc. that can be used in compliance training. But how?
This is the golden question that everyone is struggling with. Training has traditionally been done in a classroom. The teacher lectures, the students take notes, then there’s a test and grade. Or corporate headquarters pushes out the training that everyone needs to watch, then certify completion.
But things are undoubtedly changing. Education seems to be more about conversations and groups. It also seems to be peer-oriented and self-directed. That’s where the new tools come into play and will have the most impact.
These tools when used correctly can be a powerful force in creating an ethical culture. If you can get conversations going about ethics and doing what’s right, then you’re on your way. But it has to happen naturally. It’s not really something that’s contrived. It may start as a few questions. It might start with a video. In many ways, the compliance group just creates the tools and plants the seeds of conversations and then stands back. In other ways, it’s about sharing the struggles of difficult situations. It’s also about experimentation and seeing what works.
It will be very interesting to watch evolve. I also think it will be fun to experiment with.
I recently read a statement that made me stop and think. The statement is: “Trust is probably the most important currency of business.” If you don’t trust someone, then you move much more slowly. You do your due diligence. You make sure that you have all the right provisions in the contract. You set up reminders to follow up on a commitment. You end up spending more money and time on a transaction.
On the other hand, if you trust someone, you can do things on a handshake. You walk away with an assurance that things will get done smartly. The only surprise is when you’re expectations are exceeeded. You don’t spend as much time and effort on the project.
For example, Dov Seidman of LRN recently was faced with the decision to let go a number of his employees at LRN. But he did it the right way as he explains in his article in Business Week. LRN gave severance packages with no strings attached. They let their employees take their cell phones and laptops. They shared internal memos with customers to keep them apprised of the changes. The result (in spite of the lawyers who counseled against it): a succesful restructuring. In short, it takes trust to build trust. LRN will be all the better for it. Through these small actions they have built up more trust in their trust bank account. Way to go LRN!
Two-thirds of executive reported that inadequate internal controls or compliance programs at their organizations enable fraud and misconduct to go unchecked.
Seventy-one percent reported that they were most concerned about a potential loss of public trust resulting from fraud and misconduct in their organizations.
The greatest room for improvement in their programs is employee communication and training.
Based on this report it seems the place to start is communication. With so many tools available on the Internet, this should be easy to do. But it all starts with the message, and the message comes from the Code of Conduct. The more effective and inspiring the code, the better the message. The better the message, the better the communication. Better communication means that the program will ultimately be better.
Here’s another take: Bill Pawonka at Ethicspoint says: what’s important is that your organization have a strong ethical culture, a way to collect reports of misconduct, and a system to consistently investigate, document, resolve and ultimately analyze each report.
The place where you report a concern – what do you call it? The most common name I see is hotline. I’ve always felt that using the word hot emits a sense of urgency, importance, almost like calling 911. This will catch blatant illegal conduct, but might discourage less urgent matters such as ethical questions or mere concerns. Which brings us to the name helpline.
Helpline seems more approachable. Like a person at the counter waiting to answer your question. It’s like a pleasant customer service person. But if things are bad, you don’t run to the customer service counter. You run to the person with a badge. If there’s no hotline, it’s like not having someone with a badge.
Which brings me to the name integrity line. I saw this recently with Providence hospital. This name captures the urgent and important, but also allows the not so urgent.
All of this fails to mention the web part of the reporting system. I’ll leave that for another day.
When it comes to motivation, business is quick to resort to a sweeter carrot or a sharper stick. But science says: tap into the drive for autonomy, build on the desire to master what we do, and create a purpose – something larger than the individual self – and you’ll bring out the best in people.
I find this true with compliance and ethics programs. Yes, it’s true, the program must state the law and the requirement to abide by the law. But it shouldn’t stop there. It should also focus on principles and the ability to self-govern by higher principles.
You know those legal notices posted in your breakroom – nobody reads them. They’re too full of legalese and small print all mashed together. What purpose do they really serve.
Here’s an example of a poster that grabs your attention. It’s not a legal poster, but it shows the possibility of what can be done. The creative guys over at HunterGatherer designed it. Notice how everything is aligned on one line. The font is nice and big. You can quickly read all of the information. Follow these principles and your hotline/helpline poster will be much more effective.
Seth Godin, one of my favorite bloggers, has a good article about education called Education at the Crossroads. It seems like everything is at the crossroads these days. He points out that education is going from scarce (think about the whole admission process) to abundant. In the past you had to be admitted to Stanford or MIT to attend their classes. Now the classes are online. In the past education was expensive. Now for $25 a month you can go to Lynda.com and watch an unlimited amount of software training courses. Finally, Seth points out that in the past schooling was about tests and credits. Now about learning.
How does this apply to ethics training? The current state of ethis training seems to involve a few companies that create training modules who then sell access to those modules. It also involves seminars and a few good books on the subject. In Seth’s opinion all education (this would include ethics training) is moving towards abundant, free learning. I think there’s something to this. I’ve always wondered why ethics training needs to be canned? Why does it need to be formal and certified? I see a lot of opportunities out there to change the way ethics training is done.
For example, there is a great YouTube video called The Fifth Down Game about the famous game between Dartmouth and Cornell. If you get a chance, check it out. It presents a great scenario for a discussion about ethics. I think these sorts of videos are the best ones to teach and inspire ethical behavior. I’m always on the lookout for these sorts of stories. They’re free (on YouTube). They’re abundant. The most important part is that it’s about learning rather than marking off a checkbox stating “trained.”
