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#188388 - 05/10/04 03:58 PM Suggestions Needed!
Anonymous
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Tomorrow I am giving a one hour talk to the summer banking interns in our state. The subject is ethics and the goal is to start them off on the right foot as they begin their new careers. I have spoken on the subject many times in previous years, but I am really looking for some fresh new angles and anecdotes to use.

Got any "hooks" for me?

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General Discussion
#188389 - 05/10/04 04:52 PM Re: Suggestions Needed!
NotALawyer Offline
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I really like the identity theft commercials (can't remember the company though). In one, a petite lady in a dentist's office is mouthing the words of a man's voice. The voice talks (in great detail) about the prep-work he went through to "get ready for the ladies" on his next trip, all paid for with other's credit cards. The point being, breaking the rules not only hurts "the man" (the company) but also affects one or more individuals personally.


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#188390 - 05/10/04 05:45 PM Re: Suggestions Needed!
Retired DQ Offline
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Well you could mention Enron, as a model of "how not to act".
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#188391 - 05/10/04 06:05 PM Re: Suggestions Needed!
redsfan Offline
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Mary Beth, I recently attended a seminar by management consultant and speaker John Maxwell. I am currently reading his book "There is No Such Thing as Business Ethics." His take on business ethics is simple: they don't exist. There is not a separate code of conduct for business activities. Either one chooses to live an ethical life or not. One's ethics should extend to all phases and areas of one's life, including one's professional life.

He describes the process as follows: First, make a decision to lead an ethical life (easier said than done). This involves deciding to live ethically no matter the cost. Then, choose a framework or set of rules that will be used to make decisions. Finally, stick to it.

Maxwell's framework is The Golden Rule. He claims it is flexible enough to apply to any personal or professional situation, yet strong enough to work. I have not thought his thesis through totally (I have only just started reading the book), but it appears to have considerable merit.
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#188392 - 05/10/04 08:10 PM Re: Suggestions Needed!
Sinatra Fan Offline
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Mary Beth, Click here for Chuck Colson's take on business ethics at Harvard University.
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Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things. Peter Drucker

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#188393 - 05/11/04 02:58 PM Re: Suggestions Needed!
SMQ, CRCM Offline
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Between the lines
A new twist on an old scenario---picture yourself at work, you go about your daily routine, answering calls, waiting on customers, making copies, etc. At the end of the day $9,000 is missing from one of the teller drawers or the vault. After much discussion between management and the employees, mgmt turns over to police, a decision is made to polygraph everyone that was working in the branch that day.

What questions are they going to ask and how are you going to respond?
Have you ever stolen anything?
Have you ever been dishonest?
Have you ever told a lie?

Now everything that you ever did since you were 5 years old is running through your mind. How comfortable are you with those thoughts?
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#188394 - 05/11/04 03:30 PM Re: Suggestions Needed!
DawgFan Offline
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Steve, great article. Thanks for sharing.
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#188395 - 05/11/04 04:07 PM Re: Suggestions Needed!
Sinatra Fan Offline
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You're welcome! For a book-length treatment of how we should act in business, see "Why America Doesn't Work," by Chuck Colson and Jack Eckerd. It does "In Search of Excellence" one better, by giving a solid foundation for good business practices.
_________________________
Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things. Peter Drucker

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#188396 - 05/11/04 04:46 PM Re: Suggestions Needed!
Paragon Offline
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Mary Beth, I recently attended a seminar by management consultant and speaker John Maxwell. I am currently reading his book "There is No Such Thing as Business Ethics." His take on business ethics is simple: they don't exist. There is not a separate code of conduct for business activities. Either one chooses to live an ethical life or not. One's ethics should extend to all phases and areas of one's life, including one's professional life.

He describes the process as follows: First, make a decision to lead an ethical life (easier said than done). This involves deciding to live ethically no matter the cost. Then, choose a framework or set of rules that will be used to make decisions. Finally, stick to it.

Maxwell's framework is The Golden Rule. He claims it is flexible enough to apply to any personal or professional situation, yet strong enough to work. I have not thought his thesis through totally (I have only just started reading the book), but it appears to have considerable merit.




I also feel that it has merit. It's more than likely that those entering the workplace at this time are already conducting an ethical life, or not. If you are not ethical, you may fit right in as there are plenty of current examples of ethical breaches resulting from corporate culture or pressure from management, pressure that emerges when a company finds itself unable to live up to financial forecasts or expectations and tries to bend the rules to achieve them. Most people will try to do what they're being asked to do because they want the company to succeed and they want to feel good about achieving their goals. Most people do not have the moral development to resist those pressures. To make matters worse, standing up and saying no to the boss is often not an attractive option for many employees, who just want to make a living and not make waves, lest they be alienated or even fired by management.

A recent study found that about a third of employees surveyed said they had witnessed ethical misconduct in the workplace; 13 percent of employees from companies with ethics programs in place still felt pressure to compromise their companies' standards; 23 percent of employees who felt this pressure in workplaces that had no ethics program.

So, the hook is a review of the downside of having no ethics.

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#188397 - 05/11/04 11:04 PM Re: Suggestions Needed!
Anonymous
Unregistered

THANK YOU! I appreciate all the input here, as well as that given to me via PM and phone calls. I was able to draw from all of them.

Since I had an entire hour, in addition to using the ideas you all gave me, I touched on such other things as:
- personal ethics and corporate ethics (personal ethics means you're reliable, dependable, you follow through, do what you say, say what you mean, etc.); corporate ethics depends upon individuals within the company speaking up and taking action when they see things being contemplated that step over the line ethically or legally. I mentioned the incident involving Mellon Bank acting as a processing center for the IRS a few years ago. Overworked employees couldn't keep up, so they started hiding tax returns, rather than processing them. By the time they were discovered, 40,000 returns with tax payments of $810 million had been squirreled away. Mellon lost their contract with the IRS, had nasty damage to their reputation, and 106 employees lost their jobs or were transferred.)
-- We had a little "current events" quiz. Who are Sheron Watkins, Coleen Rowley, Joseph Darby? When you hear the names Jayson Blair, Jack Kelley, Andrew Fastow, what comes to mind?
-- I gave examples of practices that might technically be legal, but had a high "slime factor";
-- I outlined the types of consequences that can result from unethical behavior, and talked about how those consequences can stick with you forever and close the door to opportunities one might otherwise have had. I mentioned the scandal involving the McDonald's monopoly game a few years ago, where crooked employees of Simon Marketing secretly gave the winning game pieces to associates, thus rigging the game.

Did any of it really sink in? Don't know, but they were attentive and serious-looking, so I can only hope . . .

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