Sunshine Act, Ethics and Consequences

Yesterday, I was privileged to present to 1200 sales reps of a major healthcare company, a program on the ethical implications of the Sunshine Act.
Premise:
Transparency means having a reflective process in place and providing tools that allow honest feedback on one’s decisions. Consider these four focal points to keep that reflective process ongoing.
Highlights in a nutshell are:
1.Conscience(intuition, “gut”, moral code).
– Must be well informed
– Objectively educated
-Considered a non-negotiable.
2. Choice:
-On what basis on you making this decision?
– Be aware of whom you benefit, whom you burden and how that choice was made.
– What will be the effect of that choice: pros and cons.
– Are you willing to be held accountable for your choice?

3. Culture:(beliefs and practices of a company)
-Any perception of wrongdoing can seriously harm your reputation.
– Find every opportunity to practice the virtues of integrity, trustworthiness, honesty
and compassion.
– A culture is only effective if people trust those who were instrumental in creating it.

4. Compliance: What does the law say?
– Always a key consideration of every decision made.

– When in doubt:
* Never make the decision, yet!
* Ask your compliance department for input.
* Think about the short and long term effect.
* Make the decision when you have all the information you need.

I’m reminded of the quote by Robert Louis Stevenson: “Sooner or later we all sit down to a banquet of consequences.” The choice is what kind of consequence, good or bad?

fbucaro

Like you, business ethics and ethical leadership expert, Frank Bucaro has seen the challenges and problems of corporate leadership, particularly over the past few years in regards to poor decision-making, SEC violations, and record breaking financial settlements in a number of different industries. With over two decades of executive training, speaking, writing and with real life experiences, his view and approach to ethics in the workplace is uniquely different. He emphasizes that ethics is a moment-to-moment choice and has little to do with position, titles, personalities or education. Ethics is everybody’s responsibility from the top down. His goal is to help organizations to: a. Strengthen their ethics training initiatives in order to significantly decrease the odds of an ethical/compliance violation. b. Energize, train and motivate employees to understand the value of consistent “high road” behavior as a business advantage. c. Support individuals and thereby the organization by contributing to its success by quality, ongoing values based leadership development. Frank is known for his very practical, slightly irreverent, yet somewhat humorous approach to ethics and leadership development. His conversational style and real life stories connect with his audience in a personal, intense and practical level. Companies such as Bayer Healthcare, BP, ReMax International, EnMax Energy, Danone, etc. have partnered with Frank when they want to proactively stress the message, tools, insights and practical applications that good ethics IS good for business!