In Creeds, Codes & Values, I noted values are the most powerful, but misunderstood, and mis-used tool, available to organisations.

The reason for these two issues is the same. There appears to be an assumption, perhaps a hope, that values are simply a knowledge problem.

I used the example of integrity, and said that by having this as a value, it will not magically transform staff conduct. That statement alone will change nothing. You cannot just get staff together, or even worse, simply email them, to tell them what values have been worked out on their behalf. Following on from that, then asking corporate communications to come up with signage and email footers that can be pinged around the organisation.

Introducing values, and the process of working them out, is important, but it is only the first step. What happens after that is just as important.

Following values is hard work. It is not a set and forget exercise. If you think about values as a person rather than as an organisation, you can see why. To live aligned to values means that you sometimes have to take difficult, perhaps inconvenient, choices. It can be easier to show no restraint, to look the other way, and to pretend you didn’t see something. Values mean you don’t just do the easy thing, they guide you to do the right thing. They are your conscience, the thing that ticks away in your mind, and so it is with our organisations. They are the guardian of the conscience of the organisation and the principles that guide your people, day in day out.

Values are easy to talk about, but can you walk the walk? That is the question that matters.

There is a price to pay for living with values, and this is true for people and organisations.

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In the book, we walk through organisational life to determine what is changeable and what is not. What matters and what really matters a great deal, and this allows us to see where leverage can be applied. We can sum this up to three actions. Identify the weaknesses or problem, understand the dynamics, and use the right change levers.

In integrity and ethics, this point of focusing in to find out about weaknesses and vulnerabilities is important. This is because, though there is a general point about integrity and ethics in organisational life, you can zoom in on specific roles to see where issues might arise.

In the leadership of others, we can see how a person who lacks integrity becomes limited to either simply issuing orders or looking the other way. In our hierarchies, we look up to leadership at every level for the signs they are giving off.

Other groups receive this attention, too, like police officers. Here, though, you can see that there are some specific issues. One reason this might be problematic is because police officers, perhaps inevitably because of the work they do, will form a strong bond as a group. This bonding starts on day one at training school. We have looked at the need for people to fit in, at our desire to be insiders, not outsiders. This need, a perfectly normal human need, can lead us to do things so we can gain acceptance. This might be posting inappropriate photographs or comments on social media or in chat rooms. Once posted, these things are seen by others and cannot be unseen. Individuals lose their integrity and if the public become aware, especially with the police, then the entire service and profession can suffer. Worryingly, this is not the only integrity hazard that police officers face. There are others, too.

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The difficulty with honesty is that we assume it’s a straightforward issue. We think that when we look at something and judge it dishonest, others will do the same. As we saw, this is likely to happen, but only at the extremes. At those points, acts of honesty, or dishonesty, are obvious to many of us. It is in the middle where the problem lies.

In the book, we illustrated this issue in the middle with a simple swing-o-meter. When you see this, you can understand how people can look at the same issue but judge it differently.

This realisation shows the need for guidelines and signalling to provide anchor and reference points.

Honesty is important, we can all agree on that, but with large organisations sometimes having huge inventories and assets, it really is vital. With the realisation that honesty can be problematic, we can then ensure guidelines are in place. Staff are then free to focus on what really matters, their customers.

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There are few mechanisms, in any workplace, as powerful at stopping bad things from happening as when any staff member feels they can speak out, when they notice something wrong happening. As we have seen, though, it is not a knowledge problem; it is a workplace environmental problem. Anyone who has worked close to a business owner in a small organisation will confirm this. In that environment, if you see something wrong, you would simply speak to the boss, of course. What else do you think you would do?

The obstacles that stop people from challenging are substantial, but not insurmountable.

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Whistle blowing has legal protection in the UK, so that’s all straightforward then. No, I don’t think so.

As we noted in the book, whistle blowing sits at the extreme end of the challenging scale. A better way to look at whistle blowing is to try and work out why all the other mechanisms and systems have failed, to the point that someone has had to blow the whistle. This is why I have said that it always shows organisational failure and offers no guarantees that it will catch all issues. If you are relying on this solely to prevent issues, you may well have a false sense of security.

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In large complex, multi-layered organisations, it is highly unlikely that those at the top have a good grasp of what daily life is like for those at the bottom. This is not a problem if everything is good, but how do you know whether it is good?

You need to understand what is happening in your organisation, including in the places where you cannot see. Is there danger hidden away, ready to boil over so that people get hurt, or worse? I can help drill down to find out what is going on, and to help to find any danger. I can work alongside your teams, or provide additional resources to help.

This is a far easier and safer way of sniffing out discontentment and danger, than waiting for the pain, followed by the inquiry afterwards.

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Maybe you’re not sure whether you need help, or if we can provide it. The easy way to find out is to talk by booking in a session, or sending through a query on the contact us page. It will cost you nothing and we’ll get back to you as quick as we can.

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