I spend a lot of my time helping companies redefine what their core values are. The goal? To be able to use their values statement much more effectively to drive a culture of ethics, compliance, and accountability. Perhaps not surprisingly, this process also drives better leadership, better management, and better customer service. After all, when Read more…
Without even seeing it, I’ll bet your ethics code stinks. It’s a harsh assertion but strong odds are in my favor. Why? Because so many of the codes I’ve read – and I read a lot of them in my line of work – can be categorized into one of three impressively unhelpful types: 1. Read more…
The Ethics Resource Center recently released the results of their 2011 National Business Ethics Survey. Long term readers of this blog and my Weekly Ethics Thought will know that I am always impressed with their research methods and clarity of reporting. This year’s study is no different in that regard.
While, as always, I heartily recommend downloading a copy for closer personal review, here – with a little added editorializing – are the key points from their executive summary in the meantime:
If you’ve heard me speak, you have probably heard me talk about the enormous power of a well-written and appropriately implemented values statement. However, getting both the creation and implementation of a values statement right is a much more complicated and tough process than it usually sounds. To help out, though, here is a ‘starter set’ of six essentials for getting the creation part of your values statement right.
* Make it universal. Not ‘worldwide universal’ but ‘organization-wide universal’. You want to only include values that should be the guiding force behind everyone’s decisions in your organization.