Winter Reading: Switch III - Goals and Destinations

Anonymous

Wed, 02/13/2013 - 03:51

A Destination for Government Ethics Training 
Most cities and counties treat ethics training as a one-off
phenomenon. Toss a hundred people in a room, give them a lecture
about how to be good, and that's it for at least a year or two. One
of the case studies in Chip and Dan Heath's book <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Switch-Change-Things-When-Hard/dp/0385528752/" target="”_blank”">Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard</a> (Crown, 2010) offers
a different vision of ethics training. 
 
A first-grade teacher in a school that had no kindergarten found
huge skill gaps among her students. The same sort of skill gaps
exist among government officials and employees. She realized that
she had to do more than teach them. She had to motivate them, and
give them a clear destination. So at the beginning of the school
year she announced that by the end of the school year, they were
going to be third graders, that is, they were going to be big and
smart and even cool. 
 
A destination causes people not just to think when they are
learning, but to think how to get to the destination. And it makes
the whole process make sense. It's not just ethics training, it's
something more.

An ethics trainer with an hour to lecture is not going to be able to
promise anything. But an ethics trainer who has a vision for ongoing
ethics training can. Ongoing ethics training consists of a
semi-monthly newsletter, occasional quizzes, general advisory opinions, FAQs,
and other sorts of info, and news in the form of summaries of ethics
decisions, settlements, and advisory opinions. 
 
With a stream of information carefully designed to be interesting
and not too annoying, an ethics trainer can say to a class, By the
end of the year, you're going to truly understand conflicts of
interest. By the end of two years, you'll be professionally
handling your conflict situations and engaging in discussions of
others'. And by the end of three years, you may be leading a seminar
on how government ethics applies to your department. 
 
In other words, you will be knowledgeable, professional, and maybe
even cool. Just like third graders appear to new first graders. The
problem in government ethics is that, in most cities and counties,
there isn't a single conflicts of interest third grader (in contrast, there are lots of
management third graders, financial third graders, and public works
third graders). The idea of an ethics third grader has to be
instilled in people. 
 
A Destination for a Government Ethics Program 
One problem with government ethics reform is that the chosen
destination is usually unrealistic, both in itself and in terms of
what is done to get there. The goal is generally to end
corruption and to prevent scandals. But the scandals to be prevented
often have little or nothing to do with government ethics. And
"corruption" includes everything from broken promises to stealing
money out of campaign committee funds. As for scandals, no one has any
control over them. They can be manufactured out of almost
nothing. Learning to deal responsibly with conflicts won't directly
bring an end to scandals or corruption. It is only one piece of the
puzzle. 
 
And it is a piece that can itself lead to scandals when, for
example, an ethics commission selected by the mayor dismisses an
ethics complaint against the mayor, or when the public discovers
that the ethics commission has no teeth with which to penalize an
ethics violator. An inadequate ethics program that appears to be
under the control of high-level officials is never going to lead
anyone to the promised destination. 
 
A government ethics program's destination has to be something that
can actually be attained, for example, the professional handling of
conflict situations through the use of professional, independent
ethics advice, the timely filing of disclosure statements by
officials and by those seeking benefits from the local government,
and the settling of cases when officials fail to properly handle a
conflict situation. 
 
It would be great if one could point out other cities and counties
that have attained this goal. However, there is, as far as I know,
no documentation of the successes of local government ethics
programs, with the exception of information imbedded in ethics
commission annual reports. This is something City Ethics should work on. 
 
The language for ethics reform should not involve scandals and
corruption. It should involve professionalism (pride) and gaining
the public's trust through an independent, comprehensive ethics
program. 
 
No Dry Holes 
There's a case study in the book about British Petroleum (BP)
drilling for oil. It used to strike oil only 1 out of 5 times it
drilled a well. Oil explorers felt they had succeeded if they hit
.200. BP wanted to do better, so it set a goal of "no dry holes,"
which required explorers to put on their geologist hats and really
think things through before drilling a well. They became more
careful and systematic. And "no dry holes" as a goal also brought an
end to rationalizations for poorly conceived operations. One
especially problematic rationalization was that a business partner or a
government was pressuring the company to drill ("Drill, baby,
drill!"). The new goal "toughened up their resistance to
governmental and partner pressures." 
 
In local government ethics, a goal of "no ethics violations" puts
prevention ahead of other concerns. It would require officials not
just to wing it and play the odds, hoping that their ethics
decisions either would be ignored or would be found correct by the
ethics commission. Officials would have to think through (and
hopefully discuss) their conflict situations and, when the way to
handle it was not completely clear, seek advice from the ethics
officer. A goal of "no ethics violations" would put an end to the
use of rationalizations such as "I am a man of integrity" or "I
learned all about ethics at church" or "It was just an oversight."
It would quickly become clear that these arguments won't cut it. 
 
A goal of "no ethics violations" would also take the pressure off
officials to put loyalty to their political leaders, supervisors,
and colleagues ahead of discussing or reporting the handling of a
conflict situation. As the Heaths note, it toughens up the
resistance of lower-level employees, giving them "an equally
credible voice in the decision." Let's face it, an official's aides
usually have a much better view of the official's handling of a
conflict situation than the official has. If the goal is "no ethics
violations," the aide will not only be helping the government, but
also the official by bringing up the conflict as soon as possible,
before it becomes an embarrassment for her, or even threatens her
career. 
 
But you can't just set a destination. You have to back it up with a
"good behavioral script." For example, you have to provide timely,
professional ethics advice. You have to provide adequate training.
You have to help officials out by requiring applicants for
contracts, permits, and grants to disclose their relationships with
officials. You have to have clear, well-written rules, advisory
opinions, decisions, and educational materials. And you need the
full support of higher-level officials. In other words, you have to
have a comprehensive ethics program. Otherwise, you are asking the
impossible of officials. 
 
<a href="http://www.cityethics.org/search/node/switch%20heaths">Click here to read the other six blog posts on Switch.</a> 
 
Robert Wechsler 
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics 
 
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Winter Reading: Switch III - Goals and Destinations

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