Simplicity Rules
12 Thoughts for the
2012 Workplace
by
Stephen M. Paskoff, Esq.
President and CEO
Employment Learning Innovations, Inc.
A publication of
Simplicity Rules
12 Thoughts for the 2012 Workplace
Table of Contents
Forward............................................................................................................ 3
Chapter One - Simplicity Rules........................................................................ 4
Chapter Two - Values, Culture, and Legal Risk.............................................. 6
Chapter Three - Leadership............................................................................. 8
Chapter Four - Civility at Work..................................................................... 11
Chapter Five - A Welcoming Environment................................................... 14
Chapter Six - Motivation and Learning........................................................ 17
Chapter Seven - Global Standards................................................................ 22
Chapter Eight - U.S. Government at Work................................................... 24
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Forward
We live in astonishing yet challenging times. Industries rise and fall more rapidly than ever in our
industrial history. We share information with others in our offices, in our communities, and around
the globe in more ways than ever before. We are expected to know more, do more and absorb more
while completing a broad array of complex responsibilities under great pressure.
In this climate, key lessons about behavior and responsibility can be lost in a maze of regulations,
statutes, procedures and policies that seek to ensure compliance and minimize risk. Instead, they often
do the opposite. Individuals forget key rules – vital rules about leadership and values – and dismiss
information. It’s a matter of overload; they just can’t retain it all.
The solution is to focus on simplicity: we need to link key values to concrete behaviors and make them
cultural standards. This includes how we present regulations and legal information – not separately
but as part of an overall business and organizational philosophy, which involves civility, inclusion,
professionalism, effectiveness, and, of course, compliance with required statutes. The latter cannot
be accomplished without the former. And the former involves a few key rules and thoughts about
learning which are summarized in my upcoming book, to be released in 2012, titled Simplicity Rules.
Stephen M. Paskoff, Esq.
President and CEO
Employment Learning Innovations, Inc.
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Simplicity Rules
12 Thoughts for the 2012 Workplace
Chapter 1
Simplicity Rules
Are you frustrated by the countless mandates for behavior and practice that swamp the workplace?
You’re not alone. We all deal with an overload of information from every direction: texts, e-mails,
social media sites, and more. In this mass of communication, it’s easy to lose sight of key messages,
messages about basic behavioral standards necessary to a civil and professional environment.
What’s the answer? A few simple rules that apply to every professional situation. These simple rules
can transform the workplace.
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Complexity Squashes Business Results - Fight Back with Simplicity
We’ve made ethics, compliance, and daily behavioral standards too complex. By trying to convey
too much, we accomplish too little. We need to simplify messages, repeat them to make them
memorable, and cut through the clutter of information that confuses rather than clarifies our
objectives. That’s my simple message; the rest of what follows is “proof.”
We are all flooded with information, more than any generation in history. We have e-mails flying
into our multiple mailboxes while voicemails wait in our desk, cell, and home phones. We have
to check them daily to avoid a deluge of piled-up data. We can find anything we want and much
more on the Internet. Then there are meetings and conferences and hard copy documents to
review. Behavioral economists will tell you that too many choices make it harder, not easier, to
make reasoned decisions.
The same is true with information as it applies to ethics and related issues. Give people too
much information, present them with too many topics, lay out too many matrixes on behavioral
standards, and ultimately it all gets lost. People will think, “This is too much to absorb on top of my
job. I’ve got other things to worry about.” What’s the real message? “I’m too busy to think.”
Require your employees to click through a mandatory series of online questions. Sure, they’ll do it
– while daydreaming about other, more interesting stuff or going through all the communications
piling up while they’re supposed to be learning. You’ll have a record of completion, but without
clear, consistent messages driving and reinforcing the event, that’s about all you’ll have.
So while we’ve given people more information on ethics and the law than ever, scandals keep
erupting. In scope and sheer brazenness, they’ll match the worst of any era. Just think of what
we’ve seen in the last year in Congress, sports, financial services and other businesses.
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Simplicity Rules
How do we solve this information overflow and spider’s web of communication? Attack the
complex with simplicity. Communicate simple messages. The most important are the following:
• Know our general standards. They’re important, not fluff.
• Let us know if you find out about issues or don’t know what to do.
• We won’t tolerate lying and fabricating information.
• We don’t “shoot” our messengers. We welcome their issues.
Repeat the above over and over, not just via courses or bulletins but in regular conversations.
A client once told me that they teach one of our programs – the exact same program – over and
over again. And it works; it has changed their organization’s culture. At first, this surprised me, but
then I realized this was proof that my own theory works: clear, consistent messages really make a
difference.
I recently met a General Counsel and an Executive Vice President of a well-known, prestigious
retailer. I asked them how they manage ethics and related issues. They said, “It’s sort of a back of
the envelope kind of thing. Our CEO talks about it, we all talk about it, we send out quizzes, and
we do training. We’re always communicating.” They said more and more people bring them issues
that they can resolve.
I told them they have it right. Simplicity and repetition from leaders trump complex information
assaults and mazes of processes every time.
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Chapter 2
Values, Culture, and Legal Risk
Serious legal problems – big lawsuits, investigations, fines, criminal penalties – rarely arise because
individuals did not know the law. Instead, they arise when people choose to ignore ethics and opt
instead for their organization’s true values. These are the values that can pave the way to legal
disaster. If we are to address legal risk, we must first address ethics in the workplace. It’s only this
proactive approach that can avoid the risk before it ever occurs.
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When the Law’s Not Enough to Fix the Problem
• The pharmaceutical firm keeps selling a profitable medication though its researchers know it
has significantly adverse side effects.
• The hospital tolerates physicians’ abusive behavior though aware of the distraction their
conduct causes.
• The automobile manufacturer conceals a deadly defect rather than absorb the cost of product
recalls.
Recently, organizational disasters have resulted from each of these fact patterns. I know I’m not
alone in noticing how the same kinds of actions keep causing avoidable catastrophes. Trained legal
professionals hired to clean up problems like these quickly issue spot violations tied to FDA, labor,
employment, and product liability regulations. Applying their talents and training, they reduce
exposure through successful analysis, argumentation, and negotiation. But while such legal skill is
well suited to lessen catastrophic losses once bad events have occurred, relying on it for prevention
won’t avert future catastrophes.
This isn’t a knock on my fellow professionals. By analogy, a gifted surgeon has the skills needed
to delicately remove a damaged kidney but may lack the full arsenal of knowledge and training
to treat the underlying disease. It’s simply a different specialty. Similarly, with complex business
problems of the kinds described above, the legal experts have the skills needed to resolve them,
but they lack the strategies, actions and tools required to prevent them.
Here’s why. Serious business problems of the kinds summarized above don’t happen because
people don’t know the legal basics about what they should or shouldn’t do. Instead, they happen
when leadership, culture and values fail to block such actions. Yet leadership, culture, and values
are not subjects that lawyers study or train to evaluate.
When I practiced law as management counsel, I did not spend much time wondering what caused
the legal problems I tried to prevent. I didn’t understand what leadership, culture, and values meant
or the impact they had on organizational conduct. To me, they were buzz words and jargon, not
the keys to solving what later became the “concrete” legal problems I had been hired to defend.
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Values, Culture, and Legal Risk
As legal counsel, I studied the law to figure out the clearest areas of risk; I read regulations to
understand what needed to be done and documented. But I couldn’t find a statute saying how
leaders must act to demonstrate commitment to values like honesty, safety, quality, civility, or
inclusion. Nor did I think to look for one. In fact, there was not then and is not now a code stating
what it takes to make ethical daily conduct part of culture or even what culture is. So without
knowledge or training in addressing legal problems based on cultural issues, the legal approach
often recommended then and now is this: communicate the law and policies, set up hotlines, and
keep good records.
But here’s what I’ve learned over the past 20 plus years. Compliance with the law is vital – but to
avoid serious systemic failures of the kinds summarized above, it’s just not enough. Here are a few
questions to consider when determining whether to address a problem with broad-based cultural
change and leadership commitment or whether it is sufficient to simply communicate information
and set up processes.
• Are issues that need to be fixed tied to basic kinds of behavior such as abuse, harassment,
falsification of information, or cover-up of problems? If so, giving people more information
won’t solve the problem. Most likely, offenders already have the information; they are just not
seeing it as important.
• Are standards being ignored by key business leaders? If so, then the problems are likely the
result of ineffective leadership, not just a need for more information or more rigorous policies.
• Are proper standards discussed by top leaders but no one else? If so, messages and action steps
are not being properly communicated and integrated into daily performance.
• Are business decisions discussed within the context of company values? If not, the values are
cosmetic and won’t help prevent or resolve major problems.
Like the gifted surgeon, the law is vital for correcting a catastrophe. But many catastrophes would
never have happened if organizations had nurtured their work cultures. That is the hidden code
undiscovered by any law: a safe, ethical, civil work environment is the prevention that’s worth
pounds of cure.
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Chapter 3
Leadership
Leaders influence others and leave a legacy by defining daily behavioral standards, acting in line
with them, talking about them, intervening when problems arise and making it clear that they
want to find out problems. Their actions live long past their own careers and are the foundations
for civil, inclusive and legal workplace cultures. What will your legacy be?
3
Wear a White Shirt and a Dark Suit: Clear Rules for
Corporate Boards and Executive Leaders
Every organization should have a few clear and unambiguous rules and principles that are followed
and enforced at every level. These principles build culture and set standards that can readily spread
throughout any organization.
A string of executive controversies recently brought this issue into stark contrast. Two bewildering
examples drawn from recent headlines include the firing of the following leaders:
• University of Georgia’s athletic director following a DUI arrest
• Hewlett Packard CEO for breaches of trust and conduct who had pledged to lead his business
ethically
In setting standards, I suggest leaders and boards figure out what’s really important and then hold
the line. “If you don’t live up to these rules, you’re gone, no matter what position you hold or who
you are.”
If you are the UGA athletic director, you need to follow the behavioral rules that you are telling
students to follow. And if you are the CEO of Hewlett Packard, you must provide accurate expense
reports and other information.
I learned my lesson about following the rules on my first real job as a part-time salesperson for
Baker Shoes in September 1967. In those days, there was no orientation, no employee handbook
and no training. Right before my first day of work, my boss, Joseph Silverman, told me how much I
would be paid, what I would do and my shift hours. Finally, he said, “Be here at 8:30 a.m. Saturday.
Wear a white shirt and a dark suit.”
I got up on Saturday, ready to go to work for eight hours on what was already a muggy day in East
Liberty, an urban neighborhood in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. But there was one problem. I had only
one heavy gray wool suit, which had been given to me by my friend, David Kalson, for a role in the
prior year’s class play. If I wore that suit, I knew I would burn up on that sweltering day in that shoe
store – which had no air conditioner.
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Leadership
So I came up with a better plan. I would wear my solid lightweight dark-blue blazer with matching
blue slacks. The blazer buttons were gold, but it looked just like a suit, and I would be more
comfortable. I arrived at work on time, greeted by Mr. Silverman, who wore a dark suit and white
shirt.
Before I even entered the building, he asked, “Where’s the suit?”
“But it’s hot and this is just like a suit,” I replied.
Mr. Silverman said, “I said a suit, not just like a suit. Go home and come back in a suit if you have
one. Otherwise, forget it.”
I went home and told my dad. Without hesitation, he ordered, “Put on your suit, and get down
there now.” And so I did. I sweated that first day and first month until I could save enough to buy a
lighter-weight, real suit.
Baker’s did not spend a lot to get its message out. But the company’s dress code was embedded in its
culture. Mr. Silverman always wore a suit. He communicated the rule to every employee before they
started, and he enforced it. It was clear, and he brooked no exceptions.
Some organizations’ boards and leaders fall back on complex rules and codes of conduct. It’s easier
than figuring out what’s really essential to the business. But it’s a vital exercise if you want to draw
clear lines that can’t be crossed. You still have plenty of room for discretion to deal with “grayarea” exceptions. But where basic principles, values, cultural, legal and reputational risks intersect,
the rules need to be as clear and unambiguous as Mr. Silverman’s “Wear a dark suit and a white
shirt” was back in 1967.
4
When Leaders are Too Busy: What it Really Means
Doctor: “We’ve reviewed the tests, and our findings are in line with all the other opinions. You
need this operation. Without it, your life is at risk.”
Patient: “That’s exactly what other doctors have told me, but I did my research and know you’re
the best. Just one question. How long will it take to perform the surgery?”
Doctor: “The operation will last 3 hours.”
Patient: “Sorry, I’m too busy. I can only give you 2.”
I’ve never heard of a conversation like this. But when it comes to suggesting learning experiences
for physicians, executives, academicians and other leaders, I hear it all the time. Here’s the standard
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Leadership
refrain: “Our top people are extremely busy; they can only spare an hour at the most.” We’re lucky
to get in front of them briefly, if at all.
True, short, intense presentations covering key points can work. However, I’ve often wondered
why there’s such an aversion to participating in sessions in the first place, let alone more extensive
presentations on such topics as ethics, organizational values, and lawful, professional behavior.
After all, these tie in to organizational health and success. This is also puzzling because errors at
the top, whether violations committed by leaders or a failure to correct the errors of others, are
frequently the most catastrophic to organizational wellbeing.
Here’s what I’ve learned: Those who avoid learning entirely - or demand shortened experiences either don’t really see these topics as important, or they don’t believe there’s a messenger whose
presentation is worthy of their time.
Some leaders assume others can handle resulting issues, that they already know enough or that
what happened to others won’t happen to them. They apparently think, “Why should I spend more
than an hour a year, at most, covering these topics? That’s enough to check a compliance box. I
need to spend my time making deals, conducting research, treating patients or doing something
productive.”
After disasters like BP or Toyota have hit, though, I am guessing such leaders may now wish they
had not avoided or cut short their study of such “time-draining” topics.
To combat this lack of interest in compliance and ethics, senior leaders must set the tone. These
must state clearly, “These topics are important to me, you and all of us. I will be attending and
participating; I expect you to do the same. And we will keep talking about the issues among
ourselves, not just in this session.” When top leaders send this message, they are the doctors saying
to patients, “You must have this procedure.”
No matter how effective the message may be, the messenger must also be credible, using examples
that tie directly to the audience’s personal and business experiences. The messenger must also have
professional stature and credibility equal to that of their executive audiences. Most importantly,
senior leaders don’t want to be lectured; otherwise, they will tune out or walk out. They need to be
engaged with their colleagues. Forcing audiences to listen to information they can absorb in other
ways – books, iPods, iPads, Kindles, and so on – wastes everyone’s time.
When leaders know they need an operation and find the right doctor, they will agree to surgery.
The same is true for learning on subjects tied to their organizations’ wellbeing.
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Civility at Work
Organizations must be efficient and productive in a continually challenging local and global economy.
Rudeness and abrasiveness, as well as blatantly illegal practices, will not only cause legal claims but
also interfere with how people work to get jobs done. Civility – a defined set of behaviors and daily
practices which become cultural standards – is the simple antidote for this problem.
5
Install Civility as a Business Process
Tell business leaders there’s a new operational process that has the potential to transform their
organization. Then notice their reactions when you list what it can do for them:
• increase safety
• surface problems
• reduce errors
• improve quality and teamwork
• encourage innovations
• safeguard their brands
• reduce regulatory risks
• boost profits
Many executives will reply that they’re in the business of reality – not magical thinking – though
perhaps in saltier language.
Tell them it won’t cost as much as a fraction of an upper executive level’s severance package, and
they’ll likely think about getting one ready for you. If they’re amused or just curious, get ready
to explain why civility – defined as a simple set of clear workplace behaviors – will do just that.
Numerous studies in healthcare, government, manufacturing and professional services show
that routine incivility, a seemingly minor detail in the overall scheme of things, actually causes
significant harm to an organization’s health. It affects all factors of an organization’s success:
clients, staff, and financial returns.
The behaviors causing harm occur routinely. They are transmitted culturally as people absorb
behavior patterns by modeling others. The good news is that we can change these patterns and
curb their damaging impact. In fact, studies such as Atul Gawande’s “The Checklist Manifesto: How
to Get Things Right” repeatedly demonstrate that even simple checklists can change behavior and
its outcome.
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Civility at Work
Surgeons perform operations using a specific set of processes; companies produce products
according to clear manufacturing steps; courts manage lawsuits by rules and deadlines; airplanes
take off and land according to established protocol. We should manage on-the-job behaviors with
the same attention to detail.
The challenge for human resource professionals is to teach leaders that civil behavior is a
strategic imperative requiring little cost but generating huge operational and bottom-line results.
Unfortunately, to many it sounds like a politically correct nightmare and the latest HR fad rather
than a simple business approach that can be defined and applied.
Here are the steps human resource leaders can apply to introduce civility into their workplaces and,
in the process, earn their long-awaited, proper seat at the business table.
First, here’s what won’t work. Civility can’t be a human resource initiative or a risk management
process driven by legal counsel or compliance officers. It must be initiated and directed by senior
leaders responsible for the overall direction of the enterprise. Multiple organizational areas will be
involved: human resources, legal, compliance, operations, learning and development, for example.
But without executive leadership, civility won’t be taken seriously.
Second, executives need proof. Flooding them with reports and legal cases from other
organizations will not get commitment. Many leaders won’t recognize they have the same broken
behavioral practices as those that have publicly hobbled other organizations. Finally, unless leaders
can see that civility is a clearly defined set of behavioral principles, they are likely to view it as too
vague to warrant their attention. They need clear standards that can be communicated and readily
managed.
Third, leaders themselves must identify concrete examples of inappropriate behaviors and then link
them to business success. From my experience, this exercise will accomplish both steps.
• Identify and work to prevent behaviors that cause the greatest harm, including the following:
oo Racial, sexual, religious, age, and ethnic comments – spoken, emailed or however
communicated
oo Screaming, yelling, calling other people names in public or private settings
oo Body language, gestures and tones of voice that communicate the same level of disdain as
the first two points. Think about how a sneer, a dismissive gesture, or a sarcastic inflection
affects how we receive messages.
oo Lying or fabricating information in any context
• Ask executives to identify their biggest operational concerns. They will likely identify retention,
safety, quality, productivity, brand image, financial results and similar concerns. These are the
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issues they worry about and the ones they must understand can be positively affected by civil
behavior.
• Show them how uncivil behavior leads to serious harm in their own organizations. To do this,
create a brief case and ask for volunteers to exhibit problem behaviors that might occur in
the case. Afterwards, ask leaders to identify notable behaviors, positive or negative, and then
to identify the business detriments or benefits they cause. If done properly, they will link the
negative behaviors to harmful business results.
• Work with them to produce a short list of behavioral standards that become their
organization’s principles of civility. Remember, this list needs to be simple and short.
Leaders should then talk about these behavioral standards with managers and employees. This
is a long-term commitment, not a single set of emails or web-based videos. Everyone has to be
involved.
In less time than your organization can build a new facility, develop and launch new products or
buy and integrate enterprises, it can implement principles of operational civility. The good news is
that it can be done with minimal cost and risk, yet generate superior results.
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Chapter 5
A Welcoming Environment
The best way to solve a problem is when it is still a simple challenge rather than a complex
distraction. Team members at all levels of an organization usually are aware of danger signs before
they blossom into catastrophes. We need to encourage individuals to bring issues forward as an
element of workplace community and citizenship and recognize it as a professional skill, a valued
action to be praised rather than condemned.
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No More “Whistleblowers” at Work
The chief aim of corporate compliance is to prevent, detect and correct problems before they lead
to the stiff penalties the law imposes when the public is harmed, careers are ruined and the impact
of illegal acts lingers.
In fact, the Federal Sentencing Guidelines reward firms whose compliance programs take defined
steps to find out and fix problems before they cause damage. Newly proposed amendments
will provide additional incentives to firms that act aggressively to maintain legal and ethical
workplaces.
As I’ve written elsewhere, we would have been better off if we’d been able to stop the practices
before they occurred rather than addressing their resulting chaos. Instead, they brought us
financial chicanery, systemic disaster, recalls of dangerous pharmaceuticals and automotive
products, and oil spewing through the Gulf.
There are laws in place to prevent retaliation. Organizations also devote massive resources to
hotlines, compliance training, corporate policies and structures. Yet these efforts have often been
less than successful in effectively encouraging individuals to come forward before bad practices
turn into outright catastrophes. If they had been successful, retaliation claims would not be on the
rise and the whole issue of compliance would be a stagnant rather than growing problem.
Recently, when I was interviewed for a New York Times article on the practical issues that
employees face when they bring ethical issues forward, I offered several tips for identifying signals
to discover illegal or unethical conduct.
It’s usually easy for us to recognize the obvious signs of a potentially serious violation. What’s really
hard is to know what, if anything, to do about it. This is not because of a lack of systems, processes,
or policies. Instead, it is the lack of organizational credibility: people usually know where to go to
complain but often don’t believe their organization really wants to know about problems.
It doesn’t help that we call these people who step forward and identify issues “whistleblowers.”
The word calls to mind a traffic cop blowing a whistle, stopping you from jaywalking.
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A Welcoming Environment
Over the years, I’ve noticed most people across many industries are reluctant to “blow the whistle”
because they don’t want to be labeled as troublemakers. Many believe that they would be better
off just focusing on what they can accomplish rather than problems that no one wants to think
about, much less fix. Others rightly feel that their organizations would prefer to rid themselves of
whistleblowers rather than the problems they uncover.
Organizations that really want to root out problems need to turn around this perception. Fair
warning – this is not easy, especially if the organization’s culture includes examples of individuals
who were ignored, ostracized or released for speaking up. Here are five tips to help you create a
welcoming environment for people who step forward and speak up about problems.
• This is a leadership issue first and a compliance issue second. Hotlines and complaint systems are part
of a commitment to find out about issues but not the commitment itself.
• Leaders have to regularly talk about and demonstrate their willingness to hear about
problems, no matter how serious. If leaders don’t deliver the message themselves, it won’t take
hold in the organization. Remember, the natural instinct we all have is to keep quiet rather
than to speak up, especially in a challenging economy where jobs are scarce, the risk of job loss
is high, and employees are already wary about speaking up.
• Employees and leaders need to understand why finding and fixing problems benefits
everyone. If they don’t see how revealing problems will benefit them, their organization or
the public, there’s less motivation for them to do so and more motivation for leaders to ignore
or stifle complaints. Leaders should make it clear that they won’t tolerate actions that prevent
them from finding out about problems. They must also clearly state, “If we find out about
problems, it helps our organization.” The following are concrete examples of what discovering
and resolving problems can do for your organization:
oo Reduce costs
oo Protect its reputation
oo Minimize burdens of later fixes
oo Demonstrate a commitment to values
oo Prove the organization is committed to operating legally
• Leaders at all levels must understand retaliation and the behavioral steps which encourage
employees to talk to them about all problems. This involves not only what they say when they
are told about issues, but how they react in terms of body language, tone of voice and follow
through in responding to concerns. This is a specific behavioral model that, in years of practice,
we have learned helps employees know that their organization and direct managers are serious
about uncovering issues.
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A Welcoming Environment
• Finally, let’s get rid of the term “whistleblowers” with all of the negative associations it
produces. How about calling people who come forward organizational guardians, protectors or
friends. Surely we can think of something more welcoming in tone than company cops, stoolies
or tattlers.
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Motivation and Learning
Reading a booklet, listening to a lecture, taking an online course – none of these ensures that
learning takes place. Real learning happens when we claim ownership of principles and understand
their potential influence on the culture around us. When key principles become our key values, we
are motivated and motivate those around us to make them a seamless part of every professional
interaction. That is when true learning has occurred.
7
Making Learning Matter: 11 Simple Commandments
“They‘re simply not getting it. Managers, executives and employees are saturated with information
and they’re zoning out. We give our leaders and employees great training videos to watch. We
have them go to classes that address our issues. We deliver engaging e-learning and we send them
reminders. But something’s not working. They aren’t applying the key points they’re supposed to
learn. How can we fix this?”
In the last 25 years, I’ve heard this frustration expressed about initiatives focusing on topics
ranging from discrimination to abusive conduct to encouraging the raising of concerns to ethics
and compliance responsibilities. Yet, the dissatisfaction persists, even as new technologies have
dramatically improved our ability to reach everyone at anytime with customized, specific and
interesting content at their desktop.
As I wrote in Maximizing Workplace Outcomes and Behaviors: Checklists: Yes; Check-the-Box:
No, I believe in checklists as a way to get things done and simplify complex problems. So here’s a
checklist of “commandments” to consider as you work to influence behavior rather than delivering
information.
• Changing behavior is more complex than delivering information. This is the most important
commandment; all others derive from it. Information is easy to deliver, but structuring
information, learning the information, and reinforcing the information are more complex. Ask
yourself how many single interactions, life experiences or learning events, no matter how clear
and effective, have an ongoing impact on how you act.
• Manage your messages: Keep them simple and few. It’s better to have a few messages that
are frequently repeated and reinforced than multiple messages that are infrequently delivered
and never reinforced. Group together similar initiatives like diversity and inclusion or ethics and
compliance. Too many messages are confusing and fatiguing.
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• There’s a difference between entertaining an audience and influencing behavior. It’s easy
to deliver entertaining and humorous content. However, unless the message is taken as
seriously as intended, the entertainment won’t affect behavior. In fact, the jokes may be more
memorable than the message – clearly not the intended purpose.
• Vague messages lead to vague results. Failing to develop an action-based message means
that people will simply interpret those vague messages through their own perspectives. As an
example, “Don’t lie or fabricate records” is a clearer and more specific standard than “act with
integrity.”
• People follow leaders. Unless leaders reinforce messages and apply them to their own
behaviors, the only message employees will hear is, “None of this matters.”
• It’s got to matter to me. Too many business messages are presented from the point of view
of benefits to the organization. If you want people to change their behavior, they have to
understand what’s in it for them.
• Don’t tell me; let me tell you. Adults don’t like to be told to change their behavior. If you
want people to change, you must not only give them standards, but also interactive learning
experiences that lead participants to discover for themselves that change is important.
• If I have to teach others, I’m more likely to do it myself. When organizations distribute
information passively, they miss a key element of making it stick. Instead, give participants
responsibility for communicating information to others. Then they will follow the principles
themselves.
• Don’t confuse technical information with what must be applied. Too often organizations
develop complex standards based on laws and regulations. Instead, figure out what behavioral
problems those standards address and emphasize them. For example, compliance training
should affect conduct, not turn team members into first-year law students.
• Reward the standard; enforce the breach. For learning to matter, there must be consequences:
recognition for those who meet standards and consequences for those who do not. Information
without consequences simply doesn’t matter.
• You don’t know our organization like we do. Yes, learning must be tailored so it is seen as
relevant to the practices and issues faced in daily business. Insiders know more than outsiders
and sometimes have reservations as to whether others can “understand” and “depict” their
cultures and workplaces realistically. However, learning about organizational issues from client
insiders is not hard to do. What’s far harder is making certain that the underlying message is
seen as realistic, important, credible and clear.
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8
I’m the APP
I had dinner recently with my friend, a visionary, dynamic, and nationally-known leader in the area
of diversity and inclusion. We’d worked closely together in the past but hadn’t seen each other for
a couple of years. We sat looking at the New York skyline and caught up on the basics -- family,
work, the economy. He beamed with pride when he told me about his young grandson, the big
apple of his grandfather’s eye. He’s four and already using computers, tablets and other devices to
read, learn, communicate and entertain himself.
Then we started talking shop. My friend is charged with building a global human resource strategy
for a world-renowned firm. We’ve always had vigorous debates, and neither one of us backs
down. We agree on a lot and disagree agreeably. He told me about advances his firm is making
in learning: There are now multiple delivery platforms which can give leaders information on any
topic. They can use learning modules on how to hire and engage new employees; there are avatars
which can be readily adapted to simulate situations in different nations and cultures where the
themes are the same but the settings, accents and demographics of the learners are different. He’s
always been able to anticipate the future, and he told me this way of learning is the next wave
hitting our workplace shores. He’s right. We get knowledge now like air - it’s everywhere, and we
expect it to be just as accessible. There are multiple apps for learning and completing just about
every task. I’ve been learning this firsthand on my iPad and iPhone.
But then a thought hit me. My good friend is right, but there is something missing. As I have
written elsewhere, the learning is useful only if it is important to the learner and, for some of our
toughest lessons, who delivers the lesson is the key. As we watched the sun decline, I asked my
friend, “Tell me; what apps are you going to use to teach your grandson to be kind, ethical, decent
and honorable, just like you? Where are you going to find the app for that?”
He paused. He looked me dead in the eye. What he said hit the mark: “I’m the APP. That’s my job.
I’m the APP.”
And that’s the point. Some lessons, especially those dealing with how we act and apply values, must
be delivered by the right instructor. The “learning” platform must be direct, human and credible.
There’s no technology, no interactivity, no LMS and no clever avatar that can replace the power of
a grandfather saying to his grandchild, “This is important. I want you to remember this. Here’s a
lesson you’ve got to live and work by.”
One of our strategic challenges is to figure out which lessons must be delivered like this in order to
have a lasting impact. That’s not the same question as asking, “What’s the most rapidly deployed or
immediately accessible way to transmit information via the latest technologies?”
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Sometimes, like my friend, leaders must say, “I am going to deliver the messages that matter.”
There will be constantly developing new ways to reinforce these messages. We will and must
use them. But some lessons have to come from us, in real time first, to be heard, understood and
applied. For those vital lessons, our mantra must be, “I’m the APP.”
9
Time to Chuck the Box
The “Code of Business Conduct and Ethics of UBS” sets out the principles and practices that
UBS expects all of its employees and directors to follow unreservedly both in letter and
in spirit. The principles and standards set out in the Code should characterize all of UBS’s
business activities and its dealings with the firm’s stakeholders including clients, colleagues,
shareholders, regulators and business partners. It is the basis for all UBS policies, guidelines
and statements relating to each of the firm’s employees’ personal commitment to appropriate
and responsible corporate behaviour. Higher standards are the foundation for long term,
mutually rewarding relationships. These three values shape the behaviour of everyone at UBS
as they work to reach our firm’s vision.
Despite UBS’s corporate statements and corresponding values of truth, clarity and performance,
a financial scandal broke there recently involving a rogue trader, Kweku Adoboli, who cost the
bank $2.3 billion in unauthorized deals. Within days of his actions discovery, he apologized
profusely. And in a gesture of penance, UBS’s chief executive officer, Oswald J. Grubel, announced
his resignation. James Stewart, The New York Times financial reporter, stated, “It’s the Culture
That’s Rogue” rather than the renegade staffer. He pointed to a series of misdeeds preceding this
most recent outrage. His important point is that something beyond regulations and processes led
to this disaster. Apparently organizational codes and commitments which included “we always
act fairly and abide by the law [truth] and we will perform to the highest professional standards
[performance]” proved inadequate to prevent this financial debacle.
When acts like this occur, resulting autopsies typically lead to the same postmortem findings:
leaders failed to set the right tone. Consequently, those below them got a message that differed
from those in stated values, processes, applicable regulations and training. They acted accordingly;
catastrophe resulted. In fact, in the aftermath of such blatantly avoidable foul-ups, can you recall
a single instance when outside analysts concluded that systems and processes had not been put
in place, complaint procedures had not been implemented or learning had not been delivered? I
can’t. It’s the failure to act in line with all of these safeguards that’s the issue.
Compliance measures are intended to prevent or surface problems like this. When they nevertheless
arise, it’s typically because of lapses in the “intangibles” of leadership, culture and accountability.
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Yet in setting up their compliance plans and systems, organizations act as if a lack of knowledge
and process are the key problems they must address. They’re not. In fact, Stewart noted:
The problems at UBS aren’t inadequate risk controls, which Mr. Adoboli brazenly circumvented,
or a lack of regulations, which didn’t stop other UBS executives from skirting the law. The
problem the board faces is whether the UBS culture, to the extent it had one, was one of
personal greed.
Regulations like the United States Federal Sentencing Guidelines stress the importance of
leadership and culture. All too often these are viewed as “soft skills” and relegated to secondary
importance. Instead, when the issue is learning on compliance and related topics, the trend in
many organizations is to focus on reaching everyone with as much raw knowledge about law and
processes as possible and then verify that everyone has taken a required course on these topics by a
required deadline.
All the facts aren’t in yet regarding the UBS disaster. But does anyone really think that Mr. Adoboli
didn’t know that what he was doing was wrong as he was doing it? If so, rather than releasing a
quick apology, he would have said, “I didn’t know this was wrong – why didn’t someone tell me?
I didn’t know where to go to deal with this issue.” Generally, following catastrophes involving
massive and repeated rule violations, individuals either admit they made an error, though that’s
rare, or try to pin the blame on someone else. Rarely do they say, “I didn’t understand that my
actions weren’t right.”
So what do most organizational learning and communication initiatives on compliance topics
actually do? In my view, apart from helping to build an after-the-fact defense, they instill a false
sense of organizational security, sort of like those airline announcements telling us how to use our
inflatable cushions and life vests if our flight goes plunging into the ocean. Worse yet, launching
salvos of monotonous content to large audiences obscures simple messages about telling the truth,
getting help and welcoming questions. Those are the keys to finding out about and correcting
serious issues before they cause irreparable harm. In a torrent of information, they just get lost.
Yes, we need to give people basic information about rules and procedures. But without
emphasizing the link between actions, business outcomes, values and key behaviors, we’re really
checking a box. I say it’s time to chuck the box. Instead let’s make leaders accountable for delivering
vital messages in their own voices – not just once a year but as part of their ongoing professional
responsibilities to lead and mentor. Systems, processes and more formalized learning via classroom,
desktop, tablet and m-learning are critical. But they should augment rather than replace individual
leader responsibility for communicating and living by basic values like UBS’s truth, clarity and
performance.
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Chapter 7
Global Standards
As our workplaces become more and more globalized, we may be tempted to think that simplicity in
our behaviors and practices is obsolete. But in fact, the simple values have never been more important
than they are today. Simple values are the ones that all people can embrace, regardless of where they
work or what their local traditions are. Is there anywhere that civility, respect, and professionalism are
unwelcome? These are just a few of the baseline standards that organizations can set to represent who
they are and how they work together as a single global workplace community.
10
Why Global Workplace Standards Matter
Technology’s advantages and risks affect us every day in ways we could not have imagined at the
millennium’s start. I’ve been thinking about this while watching Japan’s catastrophe unfold. Two
major technological forces are intersecting with the growth of global workplaces, heightening the
need and benefit of having some shared workplace behavioral standards.
First, industrial advances allow us to accomplish remarkable feats:
• Drilling for oil far beneath the ocean’s surface, finding petroleum to replenish our supplies
• Splitting atoms to generate electricity for power factories, to light office buildings and to run
the multiple appliances in our homes
However, when these technologies fail, whatever the causes, the risks to all of us can rapidly spread
beyond the boundaries of any nation or region.
Second, there have been natural and man-made disasters throughout the course of human
history. What’s different now is not only the scope of harm and damage they cause but that
communication technologies allow us to see them unfold instantaneously. Until the recently, and
especially the last 10 years, news of catastrophes reached us gradually. We heard about the breadth
and detail of tragedies hours, days, weeks or months after they occurred. Now, we see tsunamis
raging in real time, we watch nuclear plant explosions, and we see oil spewing into the ocean as it’s
released. And with the rise of social media, we can report and publish as well as watch. We’re no
longer just spectators: we’re videographers, photographers and commentators.
There’s nothing any of us can do to prevent earthquakes, tsunamis, floods, volcanoes, tornadoes,
hurricanes, or other acts of nature. But to the extent that they intersect with man-made
technologies and actions, perhaps we can better manage their impact. This goes to the need to
build global workplaces sharing the common standard of promptly reporting, speaking up and
non-punitively investigating problems. This is preferable to waiting for disasters to strike when post
mortems reveal how risks could have been avoided or reduced.
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Is it possible that the BP disaster might have been prevented if reporting safety concerns had
been more vigorously encouraged or investigated when brought forward? Would listening more
intently to those who criticized the design of Japan’s nuclear reactors before they went online
have prevented the harm and risks we now face? I can’t answer these questions, but they must be
considered. This is an urgent matter far beyond the boundaries of legal and compliance risk and
local cultural norms.
Organizations can use their own values and practices to encourage individuals to come forward
safely before catastrophes strike rather than remain quiet out of fear or because of local practices
and custom. We can take advantage of the same technologies that bring us news of natural and
industrial disasters to communicate risks more effectively through pictures, reports, videos and
explanation. Then organizations and leaders must evaluate the information they receive with a
measure of the same intensity as they do with the disasters reported in their aftermath.
While not as dramatic, the principle applies to the importance of considering risks caused by
financial, ethical, manufacturing and other practices whose consequences we can avoid more
readily than natural disasters, provided alarms are sounded and heeded. At least in those instances,
we have a better chance of preventing, detecting and correcting looming disasters before they
cause long-lasting devastation.
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Chapter 8
U.S. Government at Work
Here are some suggestions and tools to help our colleagues in government perform their vital
services with greater efficiency, productivity and inclusion. It’s all based on key principles of
behavior tied into the basic mission and focus of each agency or department. By putting these
principles to work, they can most efficiently complete their responsibilities for the benefit of all of us.
11
The 97 Percent Problem: Why Meritless Claims Matter
A federal government agency official recently told me that charges of employment discrimination
were way up across his large department. Most cases, he said, involved hostile workplace
environment claims, and about 97 percent were lacking merit and ultimately dismissed.
My legal mind immediately thought, “Only three percent at most are valid claims – great legal
defense record, especially when you consider these were probably settled internally and at
relatively low financial cost.”
But then my understanding of broader workplace issues kicked in: a tiny minority of valid claims is
not the true problem, especially in an era of crimped resources. The real problem is the 97 percent
of discrimination claims found to be “lacking merit.”
These cases may have turned out to be baseless, but the organization still must investigate them
over many weeks, or even months, creating dissension and distraction and draining far more
human and financial resources than the three percent with merit.
No doubt, some truly lacked any credible evidence whatsoever. Employees may have disliked how
a manager told them to perform a task, while others perceived hostility or discrimination where no
reasonable person would. A few employees may have feared being fired and filed charges in hopes
of saving their jobs.
But in the vast majority of cases, even though the evidence doesn’t add up to a violation of the
law, investigators typically uncover some improper, questionable or uncivil conduct: an off-color
or ethnic joke, a derisive racial comment, emails that shouldn’t have been sent, or questions that
shouldn’t have been asked.
How do we address the underlying misbehavior and blatant incivility that causes employees
to silently lose focus on their jobs or file claims? Based on more than 25 years of working with
governments and businesses, I offer these thoughts to help you reduce EEO claims and build
productive, inclusive workplaces in your organizations.
Obeying the law is only a starting point. Whenever I hear a leader ask me to mark the line
between legal and illegal conduct, it raises a red flag. If that’s all you’re worried about, then you’ll
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surely create conditions that lead to 97 percent of the charges, thus driving up costs while harming
productivity. Narrowly focusing on educating managers and employees about what amounts to
legal discrimination isn’t enough. Even if most understand and apply the rules, discrimination
training alone won’t provide a barrier to the kinds of behaviors that spawn most claims and cause
tremendous organizational harm.
Values are too vague. Many organizations have broad-based value statements focusing on dignity
and respect of employees. But the problem is these values don’t go far enough because they’re not
translated into daily conduct standards. As a matter of workplace civility, operational effectiveness
and legal risk management, governments and private employers need to adopt specific workplace
behavioral standards for employees and leaders alike.
The tone is set at the top of the organization. Senior leaders – through what they say and do and
how they respond to breaches of standards – need to make it clear that improper conduct is simply
unacceptable, even if it’s not technically illegal. Accountability is vital.
Stop improper conduct before it gets out of hand. In the language of sports, the best defense
is a good offense. Don’t wait for second, third and fourth offenses before addressing improper
conduct. By dealing with misbehavior as it occurs, you can reduce the chances of more serious
violations and claims, while ensuring a more focused and productive workplace for employees.
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Where to Start: President Obama’s Executive Order to
Promote Diversity and Inclusion in the Federal Workforce
On August 18, 2011, President Obama issued an Executive Order establishing a “…coordinated
government-wide initiative to promote diversity and inclusion in the federal workforce.” The Order
reaches civilians and military personnel working in a wide array of agencies, departments, locations
and operating environments. This Order is not a typical compliance initiative, though adherence to
the law is vital and non-negotiable. It is not a call for new legal rules and more processes. We have
plenty of both. In fact, the Order calls for a consolidation and coordination of efforts rather than
the creation of new structures and regulations, recognizing that “less” can prove better than more.
The most important segment speaks of creating a culture that encourages collaboration, flexibility
and fairness to enable individuals to participate to their full potential. That’s what will enhance
the government’s ability to “…recruit, hire, promote, and retain a more diverse workforce…,”
an envisioned outcome. Diversity, inclusion and equal opportunity can’t be tied only to reducing
charges of discrimination or targeting for hiring, promotion and like measures. Looking at the
Order this way won’t affect culture; instead it leads down a well trodden, wrong-way road.
Here are some suggestions to help realize the Order’s vision “…to promote the Federal workplace
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as a model of equal opportunity, diversity and inclusion…” in an era of crimped resources. As a
first step, there must be a simple, specific behavioral definition of what diversity and inclusion
mean and how they intersect in daily work life. Otherwise these words will be no more than wellintentioned aspirations subject to conflicting interpretations. Many initiatives in the public and
private sectors have failed at this starting point.
Here’s a clue for the cultural issues that must be addressed first. As I’ve previously written, there has
been a significant rise in charges of discrimination in the federal workplace. Yet, after thorough
analysis, the majority of charges are dismissed with only about three percent being found to have
merit and about a third are settled.
From reviewing the data and speaking with highly-skilled professionals in the Federal Government
who investigate and review these findings, I have found that many charges arise out of daily
workplace interactions dealing with what’s said, what’s not said, who’s included in meetings, how
questions are welcomed and answered and similar routine exchanges. Such conduct can involve
face to face, email and like exchanges. Often what stalls diversity and inclusion efforts are not
illegal or overt behaviors that show up as violations in investigative findings but conduct which
makes people uncomfortable, excluding them from what should be shared, routine experiences.
These are the practices that need to be identified and behaviorally changed. They can affect
anyone, regardless of ethnicity, age, gender or any other category. Identifying and addressing them
is what will make the Order’s results effective.
The good news is that building an inclusive, high-performing culture need not be an expensive
process. But it must be built on sustained actions. In Washington, D.C., as an example, many federal
employees use “slugging” to get back and forth to work every day. Drivers pull up to “slugging”
lines, pick up federal passengers and take them to work. Over the past 35 years an informal code
and culture have developed to support this practice. Why has this system arisen and lasted with no
expense and for so long? Because the culture allows drivers to get to work quickly and saves gas
by using HOV lanes. Riders get free transportation; everyone benefits. And the rules are so simple
they’ve become part of “oral tradition” passed on from new rider to new driver.
Culture change also requires leadership initiative and support. Top leaders must see commitment as
their personal responsibility, not a task they can delegate to others and then ignore. What leaders
say in meetings, written communications and routine interactions will determine whether this is
successful. Talk is cheap. And in today’s economy, that is a good thing, provided leaders back up
their talk with consistent behaviors and a willingness to act when others don’t follow standards.
Overall they must communicate that their goal is to prevent problems and correct them as soon as
they arise to benefit mission effectiveness and meet the talent objectives stated in the Order.
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Here’s a checklist summary to consider in implementing plans and action steps in line with the
President’s Order:
• Identify specific behaviors linked to diversity and inclusion which apply to routine daily
interactions.
• Present communication and learning related to these behaviors in a way that matters to
everyone personally – just as the slugging rules matter to drivers and passengers. If they are
seen as “benefitting someone else,” initiatives won’t have significant impact.
• Limit behavioral principles to five key points – more won’t change culture and will signal a
regulatory rather than cultural approach.
• Make certain leaders reinforce these principles as “their own,” as shown by their conduct –
what they say, how they communicate, and what they do when problems arise.
• Plan for key points to be communicated via ongoing messages and base-line learning which is
reinforced outside of the classroom or online learning environment.
• Put behavioral models in place which not only define conduct standards but give leaders tools
to model desired actions; communicate their importance in terms tied to mission and team
effectiveness; intervene sooner rather than later; and encourage individuals to ask questions
and raise concerns.
Applying these rules will build a professional, inclusive and diverse workplace in line with the vision
of this Executive Order. Think of it as a system to smooth interactions at work in the same way that
the slugging culture does for thousands daily.
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