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.”
(Chiquita Code of Conduct) Here’s the scenario: you’re a kid and you’re given a banana. What’s the first thing you do? You take off the little Chiquita sticker and place it on your sister’s back or forehead or cheek. It’s almost impossible to eat a banana without doing something with that blue sticker. Then think of the banana itself. It’s iconic. I imagine that it also has some amazing qualities that we’re not even aware of. I’m amazed that I can eat a fresh banana in Alaska.
So I have to say that I was a little disappointed when their code of conduct is called “Code of Conduct Working to Produce Trust.” What a missed opportunity. They could have called it: The Banana, Stay Fresh, The Blue Sticker, or something like that. Who’s that actress who used to dance with the fruit basket on her head? I forget, but they could have used her in the code. OK, that’s probably going too far. My experience is that calling your code – Code of Conduct is forgettable. Find your story and then give your code something a memorable name related to that story.
The rest of the code is pretty good. No legalese. Big bright pictures of fruits and vegetable – although the avocado looks like a fried egg. The scenarios are good. It’s helpful to have real life scenarios. Overall it’s a very good code of conduct.
What’s the rate of return on an ethics and compliance program? How can you place a dollar value on an improved reputation? I haven’t seen a way to measure this. But one can look back in time at a few statistics. This is what Vivek Wadhwa did in an his article in Business Week entitled Why Be an Ethical Company? They’re Stronger and Last Longer. Here are the statistics:
Of the original Forbes 100 in 1917, 61 ceased to exist by 1987. Of the remaining 39, only 18 stayed in the top 100, and their return was 20% less than the overall market during the period from 1917 through 1987.
Of companies in the original Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index in 1957, only 74 remained in 1997; of these, only 12 outperformed the S&P 500 in the period from 1957 through 1998.
The average CEO tenure in the U.S. is 4.2 years, less than half the 10.5-year average in 1990.
Which companies survived? The hypothesis is: companies with ethics. Mr. Wadhwa points out that companies like Charles Schwab and US Bancorp aren’t struggling in the current economy because they didn’t go after the quick money of mortgage-backed securities. Companies like Costco aren’t hurting because they pay their employees well and they don’t have a CEO with a huge paycheck. These companies place their values over the quick buck.
Mr. Wadhwas concludes:
The moral here is fairly simple: When a company’s ethical compass is pointing true north, everything else falls into line. This isn’t to say that companies with great ethics don’t fail. But it does seem to indicate that companies without good ethics are far more likely to fail due to their inability to sustain or hear an inner voice to guide them through the dark times to the light.
I don’t think it takes statistics and measurements to come to this conclusion. We all inherently understand this. But it can be difficult to implement.
I took a class in college that forever changed the way I thought about learning. It wasn’t the substance of the class that changed my viewpoint, it was the way the teacher allowed us to learn. The point where I saw things differently was when he allowed me to draw pictures rather than write a report. That probably sounds juvenile. But it brought something out of me that I didn’t know I had. I was able to draw different literary theories in visual form. I loved it. I understood difficult concepts as a result of this exercise. He even shared it with the class and they better understood the concepts.
So when I see someone do something like the following presentation, I like to pass it along as a good example of how to share your message.
This type of thing is not easy to do. In a comment the producer describes the process as follows:
The team at O&M and the folks at Unilever were so amazing on this with great ideas and feedback all the way through. We did previs in Maya, and designed in Illustrator and After Effects. CG was a mix of Maya and XSI, tracking and roto were a mix of Flame and a motion tracking package. Nothing proprietary, just hard work. We shot it together with Steve Gordon, a great director at our sister company Sons and Daughters.
Hard to do, but if you’re trying to get your message across it’s worth it.
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