When ethics training with no ethics training.

This past week, The West Virginia Ethics commission announced a one hour ethics training session open to all employees and is open to the public AND people could get CEU’s for ethics credit.
As I read the article and the topics to be covered in that hour, I found:
1. There was no mention of the word ethics in the modules presented.
2. There was no ethics training module in the course material.
3. They were proud to do a “1 hour training session on ethics.”
4. And the most amazing of all, at least for me, is the timeline of “one hour” of “ethics” training in which all the modules to be covered were all compliance topics and again one not reference to ethics in the description.
I began to wonder as to how many other “ethics commissions” do exactly the same thing by emphasizing compliance under the umbrella of ethics. Here are few suggestions to help avoid this perception of actually doing true ethics training.
1. If you have an ethics commission, make sure that it does ethics training!
2. The process of thinking ethically is uniquely different than from thinking compliance, meaning that they are not the same entity.
3. Every time training like this happens, there is confusion that compliance is the same as ethics and in my mind “cheapen” the effect that true ethics training could provide.
4. Stop giving CEUs for ethics when there is no ethics training. This becomes a joke for many people.
As the New Year begins, now is the time to reflect on your own compliance/ethics training initiatives. What will you do to promote, research, implement, and reinforce differently this year to help your people to not just be complaint, but what will be your commitment to your people in the process of thinking ethically?

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!