Prior to celebrating Thanksgiving tomorrow, one of my favorite holidays of the year, I am reminded of the poor conduct visible to all of us on our planet and our very average ethical business cultures in place.
Most organizations I talk with think they have the right systems, controls, procedures, policies, and stated values present to not warrant outside ethical training or a review of their cultures.
Driven by increasing regulation and compliance pressures, they are consumed by conforming to these additional burdens for fear of penalties, censures, or fines. In their shoes I would do the same.
However, I think they are missing the bigger picture and not putting the majority of their time and resources into building ethical and morals based cultures on the front end. Make no mistake about it, this is where the rubber meets the road.
Let’s agree on one indisputable fact: no one has their arms around conduct, humans are flawed, and fraud can be found everywhere.
That said, it is essential that leaders take a proactive strategy in building the best ethical cultures they can and make this as important as driving sales.
Building a foundation for morals based ethical cultures is hard work and requires diligence at all levels within organizations. It is not a part time effort and cannot be primarily linked to written codes of conduct/stated values.
But, it is the best way to prevent fraud from taking place.
How do you protect yourself from fraudsters?
While no easy answer, I suggest the following areas to focus on:
1) Employees- they are either the greatest asset we have or potentially the greatest liability. Talent acquisition is the key. Organizations should always review employee competence, do they fit values wise, what are their values, and can they potentially lead by example?
2) Creating ethical and morals based cultures is simply good business. It is critical to retaining employees, early detection of problems/dilemmas, and rooting out rot.
3) Every company and organization should have an active board of directors or advisers to actively monitor values and ethical cultures.
4) Open up your doors to outside law and accounting firms. Don’t shut them out or keep them at arms length. Transparency and honesty works.
5) Every employee must be involved with ethical enforcement and deterrence. We all need to build and sustain moral compasses putting them into daily play.
6) Willful blindness as felony conduct is unacceptable and gatekeepers must never deliberately ignore wrongful conduct.
7) Leaders must lead by example in their use of corporate funds, equitable employee compensation, open communications, protect whistle-blowers, hold rule breakers accountable, and build ethical cultures.
In advance of Thanksgiving it is imperative to pick up our ground game and get down to business.
We should be grateful and thankful for what we have.
Moreover, let’s proactively build and sustain our moral compasses.
Let’s strive to make our planet better, eliminate moral & system rot, and treat all people with respect, consideration, and courtesy.
Failure to try is a recipe for disaster and one that turn us all into turkeys.
Our time is now. Blessings to all and Happy Thanksgiving!!
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