• 1. Speak-up : The Role of Leadership is crucial
• 2. Speak-up : How Leaders can conduct effective Speak-Up conversations
• 3. Speak-up : Why coworkers do not speak up on ethical issues

Ethical problems can be complex and difficult to resolve. If we want to address an ethical issue with another person, we can easily give that person the feeling that we question their moral identity (“You are a bad person!”). Therefore, we have a tendency to avoid the topic, if we have not practiced facing them effectively before. That is why preparing, practicing and rehearing a speak-up conversation is so important. Yes, I do recommend that you rehearse your critical ethics conversation with a trusted person.

Here is a guideline on how to prepare well:

• Research the facts:
  It is crucial to not prepare a meeting on a sensitive issue, if you are already convinced that the other side has bad motives. The other person will sense this and automatically get defensive. Thus, effective solution finding is blocked. So do look at the facts like in a documentary film and try to understand the other side without judging. No interpretations, no judgements! Imagine you are a doctor and need to come up with a diagnose. For example: Somebody cuts you off your parking spot. You assume that the person is a selfish jerk. Then this person comes up to you and apologizes: His wife is in the shopping center and needs to go to the hospital. (This process of automatic judgment of others’ behavior is called the «Ladder of Inference». You can watch this TED video clip that explains it beautifully http://ed.ted.com/lessons/rethinking-thinking-trevor-maber) 
• Improve your power:
  Show your boss, that you are a valuable and loyal employee not a trouble-maker and that you have a legitimate concern.We all can improve our power even in the most powerless of situations.
  This anecdote about Nelson Mandela perfectly illustrates this idea: When Nelson Mandela was in prison on Robben Island he got up every morning at 4 a.m. to do his boxing exercises. He was a trained boxer and staying fit gave him a source of strength and dignity in his unfree and humiliating prison situation. He also had studied all the rules and policies of the prison organization. He knew all his rights and privileges but also the limitations of what his guards were allowed to do. This enabled him to cite the exact numbers and wordings of these rules in situations of conflict.
• Proper timing and place:
  We all know that there are times where we are just not receptive for critical comments. Think about the time when you wanted to talk to your patents about a bad grade…You did not do that, when they were tired, in a bad mood or watching the news. Chose the right moment. Furthermore, private meetings are better than team sessions. If possible, meeting at a neutral place can help, too.
• Problem and solution always go together:
  Try to already have ideas on potential solutions for the problem when you address an ethics and compliance issue. For this, you need to have thought through possible options, consequences and their pros and cons.
  If you do this well, addressing your boss can actually be an opportunity: You show that you care about the success and well-being of the company and want to avoid unethical decisions and prevent harm.

If you prepare your speak-up talk like this, you will already feel much more confident and professional, than if you just stumble into your boss’s office and denounce an ethical problem.

Let’s now see what is important during the speak-up situation:

• Show up with confidence:
  Sure, voicing an ethics and compliance topic with a colleague or even your boss can be scary and challenging. That is exactly why you need to show up with confidence, because otherwise it will be much more difficult to be taken seriously and convince others of your arguments. Here are some techniques that are helpful: Speak slowly, avoid qualifiers (like actually, only, I just thought…), take breaks to think, don’t be afraid of silence, silence is your friend.
• Understand the other side first… If you start such a sensitive conversation with an accusation, the other person will quite naturally shut down and become defensive. This is completely normal. Anybody would do that. Therefore, it is much more effective to start by asking questions like:
  • «Have you thought about…?»
  • “Can you help me understand…”
  • “Why have you decided…?”

Trying to fully understand the other side first and concentrating on a common interest is crucial, because it is possible that the other side just did not think about the ethical dimension of a situation (e.g. due to time and performance pressure). If they just overlooked the problem and you already accuse them of being an unethical person, unnecessary damage is done and the conversation is over.

• Explain your perspective:

Only if you have completely understood the other side and you still think that there is an ethics and compliance problem, share your opinion in a non-accusative way. You could e.g. say:

• “I want to share my perspective. 
• I’m worried /uncomfortable/feel uneasy about….”

Ideally, the other person will see your point and be open to finding a better solution and/or change her behavior. 

• Agree on next steps:

In order to make sure that your brave act of speaking- up will have the wanted consequences it is a good idea to agree on the next steps necessary.

• Have a withdrawal strategy ready :

If the other person is not responsive, you can say things like:

• “I just asked because I’m concerned about you and I wouldn’t want you to get in trouble” or 
• “I wanted to be sure we protect the organization’s reputation.” (see Amy Gall in the resources below)

This way you can withdraw gracefully from the conversation and decide if you need to escalate the issue to your boss, your boss’s boss, HR or Compliance.

In summary, we see that speak-up is not easy to do, but good preparation and a confident and respectful delivery help. It is crucial that the person who dears to speak up concentrates on a critical but respectful mind-set that focuses on common goals. 

At the same time it is clear that the most skillful speak up communicator will fail if the leadership and the culture of an organization does not encourage a climate of open feedback. As we have seen in recent corporate scandals like Volkswagen or Wells Fargo, an organizational climate characterized by fear, high performance pressure, and an authoritarian leadership style is poisonous for speaking-up.

Therefore, the creation of a true speak-up culture always has to start at the leadership and corporate culture level.

Resources on Speak-up:

Books

• Peter T. Coleman and Robert Ferguson Simmons: Making Conflict Work: Harnessing the Power of Disagreement, 2015
• Shari Harley: How to Say Anything to Anyone: A Guide to Building Business Relationships That Really Work, 2013
• Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny : Crucial Conversations Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High, 2011

Articles

• Deb Calvert: 3 Reasons People Don’t Speak Up, August 3, 2015 http://www.peoplefirstps.com/3-reasons-people-dont-speak-up/?utm_content=bufferc1453&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer
• Amy Gallo: How to Speak Up About Ethical Issues at Work, Harvard Business Review June 04, 2015, https://hbr.org/2015/06/how-to-speak-up-about-ethical-issues-at-work 
• Joseph Grenny: Research: We Should Speak Up About Ethical Violations More Often, Harvard Business Review January 08, 2014, https://hbr.org/2014/01/research-we-should-speak-up-about-ethical-violations-more-often/ 

By Dr. Bettina Palazzo

Der Beitrag 4. Speak-up : How to prepare and conduct a speak-up conversation erschien zuerst auf Dr. Bettina Palazzo.

Previously in the speak-up series:

• 1. Speak-up : The Role of Leadership is crucial
• 2. Speak-up : How Leaders can conduct effective Speak-Up conversations

Speaking up on topics of ethics and compliance is hard to do. Already speaking up when you disagree or have bad news can be difficult in organizations. 

It is even more difficult to speak up on sensitive ethics and compliance issues. Usually, we have not learned to say the unpleasant truth. 

Already as children, we learn that aunt Betty gets hurt, if you tell her frankly that her new hairstyle is a disaster. You certainly do not tell cousin Mark that you think he is a cheat when he boasts about his clever «tax saving» strategies.

We have learned to lie. We have learned that candor about the unethical behavior of others (especially if they are more powerful as us) might ruin the relationship.

These fears are justified. We know from research on internal whistleblowers, that many of them suffer from the „shoot the messenger“ symptom: They are not believed, they get retaliated against and often eventually loose their job. Also the toll on their mental health can be high: The feeling of bein judged as a traitor, a liar and a trouble maker can lead to depression and even suicide. One study showed that 75% of the women that spoke up about sexual harassement eventually lost their job. We see coming forward with ethical problems at work can be a huge risk.

Furthermore, ethical problems are often not black or white, but grey. This makes it difficult to draw the line, which can make us more insecure.

Finally, people hesitate to rock the boat if they have the impression that nobody else seems to notice. This is known as the bystander effect – a social-psychological phenomenon that refers to the fact that if there are many bystanders in an emergency situation, the likelihood of one person intervening and taking action goes down. This is because everybody is expecting the others to react first (diffusion of responsibility) and nobody wants to stand out of the crowd. The effect is amplified if the situation is ambiguous and bystanders are unsure if an intervention is socially adequate. This is exactly what is often the case in situations where ethical judgments play a role. (For a great illustration and explanation of the bystander effect, watch this video with Philip Zimbardo and the Heroic Imagination Project: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjP22DpYYh8)  

Consequently, silence is contagious. You observe that nobody else is speaking up, so you do not do it yourself. That is why it is so important to create a corporate culture where speaking up is normal and where employees have seen others speak up without negative consequences.

Because it often does feel unpleasant to speak up, we come up with all kinds of rationalizations, why it is ok not to do it:

• “It’s not a big deal.”
• “I don’t have all the information.”
• “This is someone else’s responsibility.”
• “This must be the way these things are done (at our company, in this region, in our industry, etc.)”

In reality, this a sure sign that you should actually speak up.

A survey among European companies showed that only half of the people that observed ethics or compliance violations spoke up (Source: Daniel Johnson : Ethics at Work: 2015 Survey of Employees – Continental Europe, http://www.ibe.org.uk/list-of-publications/67/47#pub2220)

Obviously, the existence of ethics hotlines are not very effective for the creation of a speak-up culture. Very often employees do not trust these hotlines. Sometimes for a reason, sometimes not. But in either way we know from research that poeple in general prefer to discuss ethical issues in an informal way and they prefer being asked for their critical feedback instead of being expected to come forward on their own (Detert, J. R., Burris, E. R., Harrison, D. A., & Martin, S. R. (2013). Voice Flows to and around Leaders: Understanding When Units Are Helped or Hurt by Employee Voice. Administrative Science Quarterly, 58(4), 624–668. https://doi.org/10.1177/0001839213510151).

Despite all of this there still are people who dare to speak up.

What do you think? Who are these people? What is different about them? Do they not have these fears? Are they maybe very brave heroes? Are they maybe in a more powerful position?

No.

People who do speak up on important concerns do this because they have spoken up before. The degree of fear, power or bravery play no important role. It is the practice that makes the difference!

Speaking up is an ability that can be trained like a muscle that gets bigger with exercise. Addressing sensitive issues is not something that comes natural to most of us. However, there are effective ways to do this without jeopardizing our career or our relationship with our boss.

How to prepare and conduct a speak-up conversation with confidence and courage will be the topic of the fourth and final part of this blog post series on speak-up:

4. Speak-up : How to prepare and conduct a speak-up conversation

By Dr. Bettina Palazzo

Der Beitrag 3. Speak-up : Why coworkers do not speak up on ethical issues erschien zuerst auf Dr. Bettina Palazzo.

In part one of this series on speak-up we saw that leaders need to encourage their team members to speak up long before there is a critical thing to say : They need to create a culture of constructive feedback, where saying uncomfortable truths and keeping each other accountable for ethical behavior is normal. Speaking up is most of all a communication and relationship problem. If you have good communications and a good relationship with your coworkers, if they trust you, if you share responsibilities with them, speaking up is much easier.

Sounds easy and logical?

Of course, but in practice it is not so easy to do.

As with most leadership topics we often observe a knowing-doing gap: In theory we know what would be the right thing to do, but in practice there are many obstacles that keep us from doing them. It is a bit like living a healthy life: We all know what to do (no sugar, alcohol, cigarettes, lots of exercise, enough sleep etc.), but actually doing it in a consistent way can be so hard. It is like Chip and Dan Heath say in their bestselling book « Switch » : Your rational mind is just the tiny rider on the big elephant of our irrational behavior, desires and emotions. Our rational mind might decide that it is the right thing to do to go jogging every morning at 6 a.m., but the irrational elephant of our deepest emotions and desires throws the alarm clock in the corner, when we need to stand up to go running.

To overcome the inertia of our own inner elephant, we need a lot of practice, reflection and feedback. That is why good leaders need to invest in self-development work. If they find ways to effectively deal with their inner irrational elephant, they can also go ahead and create an environment that makes it easier for their followers to become better leaders themselves. Leaders’ influence on their followers’ elephant is always limited, but they can influence the path of their followers’ elephants. 

In the case of speak-up, leaders need to work on their own intuitively defensive reaction to unpleasant feedback (elephant) and they need to create structures that make speak-up normal.

In my fist blog post I already spoke about the structures that can turn speak-up into a normal practice (e.g. integration in team meetings). 

Now I will explore how leaders need to react to a team member’s voicing of ethical concerns.

Let’s imagine the following scene :

Your coworker Claire, an engineer, comes to see you and tells you that she thinks that the new promising product your team has been working on since one year will need an expensive safety check. She also thinks that without this safety check this product could create a lot of damage and might even endanger lives. You are infuriated: In your opinion, Claire has the tendency to over-engineer and is not enough business oriented. Furthermore, you are under a lot of pressure from your boss to finally push this product to market. It would be very difficult for you to explain another delay because of the – in your opinion – unlikely possibility of safety risks. 

How should you react?

They have to do seemingly simply things like listening to their team members. Easy said, hard to do. We are often hard-wired to respond instead of taking the ideas of others in. Especially leaders are tempted to jump too quickly to conclusions and offer solutions. Understandable, after all a manager’s job is to solve problems…sometimes they are so eager to solve the problem, that they do not take the time necessary to really understand what is going on by using tools like active listing and asking the right questions. Leaders should never underestimate the small problems their team members might address. You never know, they might be the beginning of bigger problems or the tip of an iceberg.

You natural tendency could be defensive. You really want to market this product soon and you are uncomfortable to explain this to your boss. After all, no product is without risk…and we need to earn money here. Consequently, chances are that you tell Claire that she should think business and stop over-engineering. This, of course, would discourage and demotivate Claire. She will maybe share her experience with colleagues who will conclude that speaking up about sensitive issues is not worth it and might harm your relationship with you as a boss.

The negative effect of this single incident of unsuccessful speak-up goes far beyond this single event. Responsible leaders have to be aware that their behavior is under constant observation and interpretation by their coworkers. That is why just saying, «My door is always open» or “Please tell me your honest opinion.” without constantly acting accordingly will not create an open speak-up culture.

You really need to be serious about your openness to critical voices from your coworkers. It has to be authentic and credible. 

Consequently, when a coworker comes to you with unpleasant or critical feedback and you feel the urge inside of you to defend yourself, always mentally press the pause bottom before saying anything and follow this guideline:

• When a coworker speaks up, always treat them with respect and openness.
• Thank them for speaking up.
• Watch out for your tone of voice and body language: Don’t look at your phone or computer, no aggressive or condescending tone of voice. No grim face. Be open and friendly.
• Get to the heart of the matter, ask questions, be curious. Useful sentences could be:
  • “I have the feeling you are not telling me everything…”
  • “It is important to me to have your critical uncensored opinion…”
  • “Is there anything else I need to know?”
  • “What are your thoughts about this…?”
• Do not judge or try to fix it, before you have understood the whole story. Practice active listening techniques: “If I have understood your right, you are thinking…”)
• Do not get defensive. Feedback is always a gift.
• Follow-up: agree on what should happen next.
• Update you coworker in time.

Agreeing on what should happen next and update you coworker in time is key.

If your coworker took the energy and courage to speak up, it is crucial that you keep her updated. Otherwise, you enforce the message that speaking up is not worthwhile. And this is one of the main reasons people do not speak up. Why put yourself on the line, if nothing changes?

The importance of the leader’s role in speak up cannot be over-estimated. 

Now we know that managers need to do, in order to encourage speak-up and how they need to react to coworkers who actually do speak up. 

It is time to look at the other side: Coming up in the last two parts of my speak-up series:

• Speak-up post no. 3: Why employees do not speak up and who are the courageous people that do dare to speak up.
  3. Speak-up : Why coworkers do not speak up on ethical issues
• Speak-up post no. 4: How employees can prepare an effective speak-up conversation and how they can conduct this difficult talk with courage and confidence.
  4. Speak-up : How to prepare and conduct a speak-up conversation

by Dr. Bettina Palazzo

Der Beitrag 2. Speak-up : How Leaders can conduct effective Speak-Up conversations erschien zuerst auf Dr. Bettina Palazzo.

Speaking-up on ethics in organizations is hard, but crucial. What can companies do, if they want to create a speak-up culture?

The Speak-up Series:

Scandals like Volkswagen or Fells Fargo made it clear again: Before a scandal erupts, many, many people in the company knew about the ongoing ethics problems for quite a long time. But, why did they not speak up?

If people speak-up or not on unpleasent topics depends on many complex things like leadership, corporate culture and personal character and skills. Let us explore this fascinating landscape together:

• In this first part of the speak-up series we will explore how leaders discourage that their team members address uncomfortable truths and what they can do about it.
• In part 2 we will learn how leaders need to conduct speak conversations that make it safe and worthwhile for employees to speak up. 2. Speak-up : How Leaders can conduct effective Speak-Up conversations
• Part 3 explains why employees do not speak up and who the courageous people are that do dare to speak up. 3. Speak-up : Why coworkers do not speak up on ethical issues
• And part 4 suggests h ow employees can prepare am effective speak-up conversation and how they can conduct this difficult talk with courage and confidence 4. Speak-up : How to prepare and conduct a speak-up conversation

1. Speak-up : The Role of Leadership is crucial

Speaking up on topics of ethics and compliance is hard to do. Already speaking up when you disagree or have bad news can be difficult in organizations. But speak-up is important, because companies need to know about ethical problems early, before they become a major scandal.

Research shows that before a corporate scandal is revealed, people in the company knew about the problem for at least a year.

In order to encourage speak-up, you need a climate of trust, where coworkers can speak up in a safe environment knowing that their opinion counts and that they do not have to fear negative effects for themselves and their careers. Very often, though, Leaders discourage speak-up without even noticing :

• Leaders are bad role models and do not speak up to their superiors themselves. Coworkers will always model their behavior to how their superiors behave. An example: Regular handwashing is very important to prevent infections in hospitals. The most important factor in increasing handwashing is when senior doctors act as role models and frequently wash their hands.
• Leaders have an authoritarian leadership style that is based on command and control. Clearly this is unfavorable for the creation of a relationship between managers and coworkers that allows to speak up easily. An authoritarian leader presumes he/she knows best and does not empower coworkers to freely share their own, dissenting opinion. When coworkers disagree, they use the force of their authority to get their will.
• Leaders do not listen to their coworkers.
• They do not actively ask for their coworkers’ opinion
• They are not open to feedback.
• They do not give constructive feedback themselves to coworkers.

We can see, if leaders want their team members to speak up, they need to work on a more participatory leadership style and create a climate where giving and receiving constructive feedback is normal. Only if this open and safe culture is well established, employees will speak up.

The importance of the leader’s role in speak up cannot be over-estimated. This quote from the book « Making Conflict Work: Harnessing the Power of Disagreement » by Peter T. Coleman and Robert Ferguson sums it up so nicely:

«People with low power who are not convinced their honest perspective is really valued instinctively withhold their ideas. A leader has to do much more than say things like «My door is always open» or «I really want to know what you think” to get the goods from subordinates. The leader has to prove again and again through statements and actions that honesty is valued and that constructive disagreement goes unpunished.”

So how can leaders create speak-up culture?

They have to do seemingly simply things like listening to their team members.

Easy said, hard to do. We are often hard-wired to respond instead of taking the ideas of others in.

Especially leaders are tempted to jump too quickly to conclusions and offer solutions. Understandable, after all a manager’s job is to solve problems…sometimes they are so eager to solve the problem, that they do not take the time necessary to really understand what is going on by using tools like active listing and asking the right questions.

Leaders should never underestimate the small problems their team members might address. You never know, they might be the beginning of bigger problems or the tip of an iceberg.

Furthermore, leaders need to sharpen their senses and watch out if coworkers fall into silence over a topic. If everybody is chronically of the same opinion in team meetings and nobody ever offers a dissenting opinion, it is time to take a trusted team member a side and ask some open questions.

Finally, leaders need to make speaking up normal:

• They should explain to all of their team members form their first day of working together, that sharing their open opinion with him or her, is vital and that they will be receptive to constructive feedback and always say “thank you”.
• Leaders can integrate speak-up into their team meeting routines. Of course, they will need to role-model this first.
• Leaders need to prove that their followers can trust them and that speaking-up will be safe and worthwhile.

So we see, speaking up is first and foremost a communication and relationship problem.

If you have good communications and a good relationship with your coworkers, if they trust you, if you do share responsibilities with them, speaking up is much easier.

By Dr. Bettina Palazzo

Der Beitrag 1. Speak-up : The Role of Leadership is crucial erschien zuerst auf Dr. Bettina Palazzo.