Posts Tagged ‘Integrity’

Process, Rules, Responsibility and Accountability

It’s Sunday 23rd January and I am flying over the Indian Ocean on my way to Jakarta. I have a parachute on my back and will jettison in on a team of people we trained to use PLM (Product Lifecycle Management) 12 months ago. They are struggling. It is no surprise. 12 months ago they worked with no process, rules, responsibility or accountability. We gave them everything they wanted. The thing is process and rules need to be followed, responsibility needs to be taken and accountability needs to be felt. They are doing none of those things.

WHY? When they know it will make a difference?

As I read the Times, one after the other these stories added to the argument well underway in my head.

First the crimes of neglect. The parents of two brothers whose toxic upbringing, led to them torturing two innocent children. “31 missed opportunities to take action that would have prevented the crime”.

We live in an imperfect society where we know that people can ignore their responsibility and are not always accountable for their actions. To protect the innocent people who get caught in that imperfection there is a process and rules, a safety net.

How could this safety net have missed so many opportunities to make a difference?

Part of the training we deliver is “don’t be sheep”. If after following the process and rules you can see that something is wrong take accountability for ensuring that the right decision is made, don’t just tick boxes and then sit back and ignore responsibility by thinking your job is done.

Courageous Frances Inglis, jailed for 9 years for the mercy killing of her son. The process and rules allow for the starvation of her son, “If a vet let a dog die like this, he would be reported to the RSPCA”, but not by lethal injection which is of course what we do to put an animal out of its misery.

The process and rules followed but to what end? I have no doubt the Frances was willing to end her own life to stop the suffering of her son, being imprisoned does nothing to protect anyone, not her or society. So by following the rules and process here what difference have we made?

The mother of “Britain’s sickest child” jailed for 3 years after faking his illness. This boy had been seen by doctors more than 325 times and had undergone 9 operations. She managed to do this by bullying hospital staff and playing them off against each other.

The story focuses on the cruelty of the mother and I am not for one minute disputing that but come on, 325 times in front of a doctor and 9 actual operations, she is not the only person under the microscope here surely?

Don’t be sheep

My final story “courage and comradeship keys to survival in an inhospitable land” working in Sangin, Helmand. The armed forces the pinnacle of a world that relies on people following process and rules, taking responsibility and being accountable. People who understand the value of these things and the difference they make but who have the intelligence and courage to do what is necessary when it is necessary.

These are people who make a difference everyday

So as I close the paper and look at my parachute I thank my luck stars that a life will not depend on me finding out why this team are not following the PLM process and rules and are shirking both responsibility and accountability, but I will act like it does because I know it will make a difference.

Surrender to Love

When we christened our change management company ‘Cheeky Monkey’ we were warned it would be a marmite thing – people would either love it or hate it. We were good with that. We are emotional, we want people to be emotional, and we wanted our name to be a catalyst for that process.

We did not want to be wallpaper

How many times a day do you say “I love… something” and mean it? You know, the heart beating faster, adrenalin pumping, couldn’t be happier that you have that thing or are in that place or with that person you love.

How many times a day do you say “I hate… something” and mean it? The feeling of disgust swirling inside, a sickly view that you just don’t want to be part of or a place that you don’t want to be in, something that you would be willing to take a stand against.

How many days go by when you don’t say either you love or hate something?

How many days are you just wallpaper?

When you work on delivering change, everyday something amazing happens, good and bad, it’s a roller-coaster of highs and lows. We struggle to recruit staff because not everyone is comfortable with that, people think they are until they have to surrender themselves to these emotions day in day out, then we realise, many people are more comfortable being wallpaper.

Why?

There are many reasons why people are less emotional than they used to be.

My personal favourites are:

  • Political correctness
  • The “everyone’s a winner” mentality
  • Fear of having the spotlight on you by rocking the boat

You will have your own theories which we hope you will share.

Life is not better for this; we are not better people because of this.

One of our partners said:

“If there are people out there that love Cheeky Monkey, you need to keep the name because there are not many things people openly love any more.”

That has got to be one of the saddest statements I have heard in a long time.

Surrender to love

Today, open yourself up to your emotions, find something you love or a place that you love to be in, or even better a person you love to be with. Face it, feel it, and then tell someone about it because there is no better feeling, it will make a difference to your day.

Posted by Nina in Leadership on September 15th, 2009 | No Comments

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Honesty

As part of the British Science Festival, Brunel University Law School and the British Science Association have collaborated on a project to discover if a common standard of honesty among people exists. The research focuses on criminal law and the need to prove defendants dishonesty in order to gain a conviction.

I consider myself to be an honest person and wanted to test my belief in the ‘honesty lab’, thankfully I still consider myself to be honest, but my contribution to this research highlighted the fine moral line that guides our perception of what is honest.

Are we “doing honesty” or being honest?

In this “dog eat dog” world we will all face circumstances where we are tempted to apply situational ethics to gain the edge.

Last week the British Olympic gold medallist, Rebecca Adlington, hit the headlines when she refused to wear a performance enhancing swim suit because she considered it cheating. A legal battle by the manufactures has prevented the suit from being banned, and so, Rebecca’s competitors will wear this suit and believe that their honesty and integrity is intact. When the truth is out, who has the edge?

Honesty = Trust

When we act dishonestly we become a mystery, people are not able to read us and this leads to distrust and suspicion. Without trust we have no credibility and it is this that is at the core of being able to influence people and provide strong leadership.

Trust = Confidence

If we consider that we all need a level of confidence to conquer life’s problems, can success hinge on others having confidence in our actions and motives? Confidence is what encourages us to take risks and success is rarely achieved without risk.

Be True to Yourself

The results from the ‘honesty lab’ experiment will be presented at the British Science Festival in September, until then my belief will be that the level of a person’s honesty is linked to their self respect and respect of others. Be true to yourself, when we are real and open as people we show our true self to others, we can show that we are genuine and can be relied upon.

“The truth is the only thing worth having, and, in a civilized life, like ours, where so many risks are removed, facing it is almost the only courageous thing left to do” – E.V. Lucas

Posted by Yasmin in Leadership on July 31st, 2009 | 3 Comments

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