Murphy Has Been Found     

The CIA had lost track of one its top operatives and called in one of their top spy hunters.  The CIA boss says to the spy hunter, “All I can tell you is that his name is Murphy and that he’s somewhere in Ireland.  If you think you’ve located him, tell him the code words, ‘the weather forecast calls for mist in the morning.’  If it’s really him, he’ll answer, ‘Yes, and for mist at noon as well.”

So the spy hunter goes to Ireland and stops in a bar in one of the small towns.  He says to the bartender “Maybe you can help me.  I’m looking for a guy named Murphy.”

The bartender replies, “You’re going to have to be more specific because, around here, there are lots of Murphys.  There’s Murphy the Baker, Murphy the Banker, Murphy the Blacksmith.  And as a matter of fact, my name is Murphy, too.”

Hearing this, the spy hunter figures he might as well try the code words on the bartender, so he says, “The weather forecast calls for mist in the morning.”

The bartender rather quickly replies, “Oh, you’re looking for Murphy the Spy.  He lives down the street.”

I read with great interest a recently released report from the Chartered Global Management Accountants (CGMA) organization titled, “Managing Responsible Business, A Global Survey on Business Ethics.”  The report is based on a global survey of management accountants in some 80 countries.  The key findings in the report are:

1.      Corporate leadership appears to be less actively engaged in reviewing and taking responsibility for ethical performance compared to 2008.  A weakened “tone from the top” has potentially serious implications for the overall ethical operating culture of an organization.

2.      In accounting for ethics, the good news is that there was an increase in organisations both collecting and reporting on ethical information and corporate social responsibility.  The bad news, however, is that the number of firms collecting and reporting information is still a minority and lag way behind the 80% of organisations that have ethical codes.

3.      Despite an increase in ethical codes and training, there is greater pressure within organisations to act unethically.  Pressures are most apparent in some emerging economies. 

4.      Security of information remains the greatest issue of concern across all markets.  Bribery has risen from 6^th to 3^rd in the rankings of issues of concern.  Fewer now believe that business has a moral imperative to help address global issues, with a decline from 84% to 77% since 2008.

The overall conclusion drawn from the survey results is that while there have been positive developments in terms of building the architecture for ethical codes and policies, the translation of these into actual practice and everyday business processes is lagging behind.  

When I completed my study of the CGMA report, I felt a little like the spy hunter and wondered, where are the ethics leaders?  My goodness, how long does it take a company, a firm, a country, a world to learn something about right behavior?  Where is the ethics leadership?

I’m glad, even excited to tell you that I am optimistic and do see bright hope in the development of ethics leaders.  Oh yes, there are some excellent models today in the corporate realm, in professional firms, in universities, in government and in our homes.  I want to tell you about one significant development that gives me great confidence in ethics leadership for the future.

Dr. O.C. Farrell and his wife, Dr. Linda Farrell are Professors of Marketing and Bill Daniels Professors of Business Ethics at the University of New Mexico.  They are renowned for their research, scholarship and publications in ethical decision-making, stakeholder relationships, social responsibility and are welcomed throughout the country as speakers on the subject of business ethics.  Under the overall auspices of the NASBA Center for the Public Trust (CPT) O.C. and Linda will provide content for a university student certification program in ethics.  This vast CPT project is focused on ethical leadership and will be delivered in six separate modules on line through universities all over the country.  The conclusion of the program is reached by a student passing through the rigors of course work and confirming examinations and then receiving her Certificate.  Can you imagine the edge this type certification gives a student as he pursues a career?  No, it doesn’t automatically make him an ethics leader but it does—more than anything else I’ve seen—move him in the right direction in a positive, confident manner.  Again, imagine hundreds, thousands and tens of thousands of students going through the CPT certification program validating their intent to be part of a dynamic culture of ethical leadership.

However elusive ethics leadership may now be in our fast-paced organization cultures, I am encouraged that CPT and the Farrells recognize the leadership potential with our university students.  The CPT Ethical Leadership Certification Program will better secure the future for integrity and ethics in the marketplace through the identification and development of tomorrow’s ethics leaders.

 Murphy has been found!

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Per aspera

Lying                                                  

                                      

A jogger running down a country road is startled as a horse yells at him.  “Hey!  Come over here buddy!”

The jogger is shocked but cautiously moves over to the fence where the horse is standing and stutteringly asks, “Were you talking to me?”

“Sure was,” replied the horse.  “You see, I’ve got a problem.  I won the Kentucky Derby a few years back and this ignorant farmer bought me and forced me to plow his field.  I’m sick of it.  You know, you could go up to his house, offer him $5,000 to buy me and you’ll make a lot of money ‘cause I can still run.”

The jogger muses, “Boy, a talking horse!”  He begins thinking of all the financial possibilities, runs up to the house, finds the old farmer sitting on the porch and makes him the offer.  “I’ll give you $5,000 for that broken-down old nag you’ve got in the field.”

Replies the farmer, “son, this has happened before.  You can’t believe anything that horse says.  He’s never even been to Kentucky.”

You may have read recently in the WSJ an article by Dan Ariely, Why We Lie,  adapted from his forthcoming book, “The (Honest) Truth About Dishonesty:  How We Lie to Everyone—Especially Ourselves.”  Among other findings in his research on lying and cheating, Ariely asserts the following:

• ·        Everybody has the capacity to be dishonest and almost everybody cheats—just by a little.

• ·        It is the small-scale cheating which most do, not the high profile cases such as Madoff, which is the most corrosive to society.

• ·        Cheating is infectious (“everyone does it” type mentality).

• ·        For the masses of “honest people”, the prospect of heavy fines or increased enforcement measures have little effect on their behavior when it comes up against the brute psychological force of “I’m only fudging a little” or “It’s for the greater good.”  Think of those who cheat just a little on their taxes, increase a homeowner’s insurance claim, or take small pieces of company property home.

As interesting as the above are, I found the most poignant point is Ariely’s conclusion that those of us who claim to be honest people but who might cheat in small ways are strongly affected by reminders of moral codes.  While lectures and training may have little effect on people, reminders of morality—right at the point where people are making a decision—appear to have an outsize effect on behavior.  Ariely concludes in this way:

“We want to install locks to stop the next Bernie Madoff, the next Enron, the next steroid-enhanced all-star, the next serial plagiarist, the next self-dealing political miscreant.  But locking our doors against the dishonest monsters will not keep them out; they will always cheat their way in.  It is the woman down the hallway—the sweet one who could not even carry away your flat-screen TV if she wanted to—who needs to be reminded constantly that, even if the door is open, she cannot just walk in and “borrow” a cup of sugar without asking.”

I must admit that upon reading his article, I at first recoiled at Ariely’s suggestion that it takes moral reminders to keep honest people honest and truth-tellers truthful.  But then I tried to be honest with myself and did recall a few instances of exaggeration, hyperbole, well…okay, maybe  a couple of small, itsy-bitsy white lies, little fibs, maybe a pencil or two from the office….that’s enough confessing.  The larger point is that most of us must be reminded of what is right, what is acceptable and what is in the interests of the greater good.  No doubt that was the driving force in Mom and Dad compelling me to attend Sunday School “as long as you live under our roof.”

There are many great companies and professional firms who also embrace the “moral reminder” approach to deter cheating, stealing and lying.  Codes of conduct, signed conflict of interest statements, frequent employee meetings on responsibility and accountability, and continuing, constant awareness of what the company or firm stands for and how they want to be viewed are part of the moral reminder agenda.  Great companies, firms and people are recognized for tenacity to cultures of appropriate conduct, cultures of character, and cultures of embracing ethics and integrity.  Companies and firms appearing on Forbes’ “America’s Most Trustworthy Companies” are purpose and values driven organizations.  Whole Foods Market, Progressive Insurance, Buffalo Wild Wings, Herman Miller, and NorthWestern are just a few examples of many outstanding companies who lead intentionally with truth and transparency as documented in their reminders to employees, vendors, customers, and stockholders.

While cheating may be infectious as Ariely suggests, I would counter with an even stronger assertion that integrity, fair play, and doing what’s right is equally contagious, significantly influential, and culture-changing.  To spread the contagion of right-doing we all need to be reminded of company rules, appropriate conduct, expectations, and our spiritual and ethical bases.

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Per aspera

Swing For the Fences                                                          

An elderly woman lived and died in a small Midwestern town.  She had never married and had pretty much kept to herself.  But Nancy Jones had been the oldest resident in the town and, when she died, the editor of the local paper knew he had to run a special obituary in the newspaper.  However, the more he thought about what to write, the more he realized that, other than reaching an extraordinary age, Miss Jones had never really done anything particularly noteworthy.

Becoming increasingly frustrated with the challenge before him, the editor, decided to ease the pressure and give the obituary assignment to the first reporter he came across.  Well, he happened to run into the sports reporter who eagerly took the job and quickly penned the following obituary:

Here lie the bones of Nancy Jones.

For her, life held no terrors.

She lived an old maid.  She died an old maid.

No hits, no runs, no errors.

Even if you’re not that much into sports you can’t escape the analogies, phrases and metaphors that have become idioms of life imitating the games we play:  “take it to a new level”; “Monday morning quarterback”; “on the ropes”; “full-court press”; “down for the count”; “saved by the bell”; “throw one’s hat into the ring”; “end run”; “swing for the fence”; “par for the course.” 

And then there’s Nancy Jones’ “no hits, no runs, no errors” signifying neutrality, idleness, lack of purpose, lack of success, do-nothingness and mediocrity.

Poet, essayist, critic and author James Robert Lowell succinctly stated the Jones’ approach to life this way, “not failure but low aim is the crime.”

It’s tempting, it’s convenient, it’s easy to go negative on business enterprise today.  Wall Street has been bashed, assailed and criticized as being representative of cheating, dishonesty, greed, and insensitivity to morality, ethics, integrity and right doing.  Much of the media would have us believe that corporate America is “going to the dogs.”   I don’t buy it and I trust you don’t either.

Oh yes, there are cheaters and crooks on Wall Street, on Main Street, in government, in education, in accounting, in law, and even in our houses of worship.  But by far and in the vast majority are people, companies and firms who are purpose driven, intent on conducting their business with integrity and who compete vigorously in the marketplace to justify investment dollars provided by a trusting public.  These companies take risks, invest substantial sums, employ lots of people, enhance communities, and occasionally make mistakes and are subject even to ethical lapses. 

There is a big difference, a defining difference in companies whose values and mission lead to passionate pursuit of operating with integrity and those companies which either purposefully deceive and cheat or companies which almost idly stumble along devoid of risk-taking, devoid of involvement with community or even its employees, and content with embracing the status quo.  Purpose and passion driven companies are not perfect companies and their employees and officers sometimes mess it up.  Some of these failures are ethical lapses leading to distrust.  But another big difference in these companies is that they immediately, upon becoming aware of failure, not only make it known to their customers and other stakeholders but also enter quickly into a remediation program which includes holding responsible parties accountable.  

We don’t accept excuses for cheating, integrity lapses or “hiding the ball.”  We will accept and in fact admire and respect confession, transparency, accountability and remediation.  I would much prefer doing business with companies and firms who are in President Teddy Roosevelt’s words “In the Arena” (***) making and addressing their mistakes than those entities which, while fearful of further investment, mistake, failure and the media, will place their entities in neutral.

Jim Collins whose books have sold over 10 million copies summed up in his recent best seller, Great By Choice, what it takes to be a difference maker and not merely another company struggling along.  Hear his words:  

“When the moment comes—when we’re afraid, exhausted, or tempted—what choice do we make?  Do we abandon our values?  Do we give in?  Do we accept average performance because that’s what most everyone else accepts?  Do we capitulate to the pressure of the moment?  Do we give up on our dreams when we’ve been slammed by brutal facts?  The greatest leaders we’ve studied throughout all our research cared as much about values as victory, as much about purpose as profit, as much about being useful as being successful.  Their drive and standards are ultimately internal, rising from somewhere deep inside.”

Great companies are not perfect companies.  They do have leaders who choose to “swing for the fences” realizing that there will be some runs, some hits, and yes, even some errors.  Not perfection but passion for building a better company and a better community.

Ad astra per aspera

***THE MAN IN THE ARENA

(Theodore Roosevelt)

    It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.