It has become very popular for organisations to state their values as a way of signalling who they are and what they stand for. In a world where organisations are trying to signal what makes them different, or special, this makes sense. Whilst, at a corporate level, values may be an important statement, they provide a great opportunity to drive ethical guidelines throughout the organisation. 

In the book, we found lots of valuable lessons in understanding how others have tried to implement them. We can see what works and what doesn’t, and some of these really are important. For example, we know values will not turn a toxic environment into a safe one, and we also know that a handful of people deciding what the values are, and then simply communicating them to everyone, will almost always result in failure.

We also have the added dynamic that many larger organisations, especially in our public sector, have been around for a long time, and how and why people work the way they do might have become embedded over years, and even decades. So there must be a path to follow, which offers the best opportunity for success, and to get the maximum benefit, for all, from values. 

Get this implementation process right and we can see the difference between just selecting some words and integrating them into people’s everyday work because they have meaning.

Values can contribute greatly towards trust in the workplace, if implemented correctly. This is because they are a method of introducing ethics into the workplace, and this supports the truth, a part of our circle of trust.

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We would hope, especially in public service, that good ethics are important. We certainly hold leaders to account, if they act unethically, but it is important for all in an organisation to pay attention to this area. It even matters to people on their first day, as we shall see.

In the book, we spend a chapter looking at an area of team dynamics to see how damaging unethical conduct can be, even affecting an entire team or department. In the example we created, Martin behaved badly but managed to get promoted to lead the team. We saw that his past misconduct prevented him from confronting others about their behaviour, resulting in him isolating himself from the team by staying in his office, attending meetings, and finding other ways to avoid his responsibilities. 

Using a different example, we can imagine a group of people attending a police training college on their first day. We have a basic need to fit in with others, we want to be insiders, not outsiders, and this could be especially so in an emergency service, where you might have to rely on others for your own safety. As we are social animals, this bonding process starts as soon as we meet others. In our need for acceptance, we can do things to gain attention or to be liked by others. This might be the posting of an inappropriate photograph, or a comment on social media or in a chat room. We post something and sit and wait for the recognition that we desperately want from those people, the like buttons, the praise, the comments as to how funny we are, and all the time we have lost sight that those people will not forget what you are doing. The anti-Semitic joke here, the racist comment there, not realising that in five years, when you receive a promotion, you will find yourself unable to hold others to account because of your earlier conduct.

This is so important for all staff, at whatever level, that it needs to be part of the induction process in any organisation. It really is a day one issue, as there is no training can be provided to restore someone’s moral authority, when they have so easily sacrificed it by their own, earlier, poor conduct.

This ethical issue matters, as it supports the truth section of our circle of trust.

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Honesty matters. We like to think we are honest, and hope those people in our lives, like those in the workplace, are honest as well. Not only does it matter to us, but in those large public sector organisations, there is often a large number of assets, perhaps measured in the millions of pounds. 

In the book, we brought together many things to understand what influences us when we consider honesty. We saw the big impact on us of how others conduct themselves, that we readily pick up the signals given out by colleagues, supervisors and managers, and even the organisation itself. We considered religions and what they tell us about these things, the experiences we have had in our own lives, and even what difference it makes if we think we are being watched.

Then we looked at another side to honesty, for which we needed to use a graphic to help us understand. The graphic was of a scale and was to show us that a complication of honesty is that people can often view an act differently from others. Examples of this might be taking stationery home from work for one of your children to help them complete a school project. Or taking home some furniture from work, without permission, but which you knew was going to be thrown away. Are these acts of dishonesty? We even created a video with some examples to help explain this, and all to show the need for guidelines, signals and signage, so people understand what is right and wrong. Because it’s not always as obvious as it seems. Here’s the video link.

Honesty is important because it supports the truth section of our circle of trust.

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There are few mechanisms, in any workplace, as powerful at stopping bad things from happening as when staff speak out, when they notice something wrong. Additionally, those reports and inquiries urge people to speak up in the workplace if they see something they know shouldn’t be happening. So, with support and logic from all sides, why don’t staff always do this? Why do some stay quiet, or look the other way, rather than doing the obvious and right thing to do, and speak up? 

In the book, the longest chapter covered this subject, showing just how complicated it was. We examined hierarchies, authority bias, how people are treated for speaking out, and many other areas, revealing that what initially seems simple is far from straightforward. 

People know they should speak up if they see a problem or concern. If they do not, it is because they feel, or know, that it is not safe for them to do so. It is an environmental problem, not a lack of knowledge that keeps people quiet. The way to resolve this is to remove the dangers by shaping the environment so that speaking up is expected and is the perfectly normal thing for people to do.   

Staff don’t speak up because it is not safe to do so, and this hurts the safety section of our circle of trust. An unsafe workplace will be low in trust.

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