Talking Ethics With Your Team

By the time you engage the employees on your team in professnioal development, they are already grown ups with thier own ideas, values and beliefs. Many will think that teaching and discussing ethics is simply baloney. You don’t want to preach, get all ‘touchy-feely, ’ like HR is often accused of, or lecture about the law like an attorney. Whether your team is a band of cynics or bored with the topic - talking about ethical decisions is the first step to acting ethically.


TIPS:

• Focus on the clear articulation of goals and outcomes and emphasize critical thinking and analysis. Forget about teaching rules and statutes. If these decisions were clear, there would be no need to discuss ethics – you’d just lay down the ‘law.'

• Don’t lecture. Include case studies, discussions, role plays or interactive exercises. Use video, famous scenes from television or movies, or bring in lawyers or whistle blowers.

• Keep it brief and to the point. Give examples and tell stories that invite analysis. Don’t bore them with court opinions, law review articles or anything overly wordy or erudite.

• Ask questions that reveal how someone thinks and avoid questions that can be answered by parroting back what has been read or previously stated. You want to know that people are grappling with ethical decisions, not just telling you what they think you want to hear.

• Give people a chance to talk and be heard. Use small group discussions followed by a larger group de-brief. Don’t make it too lengthy a session or too large a group.

• Use slides with print big enough for everyone to read and interesting visuals and photos. Don’t have a lot of slides that you have to go through (leading to either boredom or too-fast a pace.

• No matter how much fun the role play or case study discussion is, leave plenty of time for discussions in the large groups and some provocative questions that challenge the team.

Taking discussions about ethics seriously and devoting time to a talking about outcomes and consequences can lead your team to understand that ethical decisions in the workplace are a constant challenge. Articulating your expectations about their importance sends one kind of message and not having the conversation sends a very different one; which would you prefer to send?

Would You Hire Them Again?

When I talk to the Supervisors, Managers and Executives who make hiring decisions, I usually start out asking “How many of you have can claim a 100% success rate with the people you’ve hired?” People tend to look around, embarrassed that they are not raising their hand, only to laugh when they realize that no one has raised their hand!
Hiring is tricky business and there are lots of tips, processes, strategies, and skills I can suggested for increasing the success rate. But without a crystal ball, the chance of getting up near 100% success only increases with the fewer hires you make! The truth is that even with the best of intentions and armed with solid and proven strategies and skills, jobs shift and things change. Hires made today may not have the lasting power we’d like.

First ask “Why did I hire them?” You may discover that while you saw the evidence for potential, you didn’t capitalize on it. The opportunities for encouragement were missed and chances to provide development were insufficient. They may have started out great, but talent waned when more was asked of them. Perhaps the job changed focus but their motivation didn’t.

Then ask “Would I hire them again?” and if the answer is ‘yes’ than do what you can to recapture the potential before they take it to a competitor. Talk to employees you want to retain about development opportunities and then follow through. If you want your employees to invest their energy in your organization, your organziation better invest some energy in them.

It’s true that there is a school of thought that believes that pouring too much training into employees may educate them for other companies. Younger employees tend to job hop if they can’t be promoted quickly and your firm may not have career ladders with lots of rungs. But not developing your human resources leaves your company at a distinct disadvantage and people tend to stay when they are being developed. They leave for a host of reasons, but getting training and development isn’t one of them.