Hubris and Ethics

By Pascal Dennis (bio)

Hubris is the ancient Greek word for arrogance, excessive pride or self-confidence.

Hubris is a common root cause of unethical behavior and, arguably, the most dangerous enemy of great companies.

(Check out this fine book on hubris and the Enron catastrophe entitled The Smartest Guys in the Room.)

What's the countermeasure to hubris?

Humility -- the extreme awareness of limits, of standards, of all that we are not. Humility is one of the Great Virtues, and underlies Prudence, Temperance, Courage and Justice.

Justice, for example, is only possible if we’re humble enough to accept a higher standard or code.

Visual management, 5 S, standardized work and all the other elements of the Lean business system are designed to keep us humble.

Our old Toyota plant in Cambridge Ontario won many awards. "How could they give us an award?" we'd wonder. "We're so screwed up..."

We need great companies -- they show us what's possible.

And great companies need humility - for the same reason.

Best,

Pascal




In case you missed our last few blogs... please feel free to have another look…

TPS and Agile
Lean Means Don’t Be a Dumb-Ass
Scatter - Our Nemesis
The Biggest Weakness is Contemporary Business Culture?

Lean, Leadership & Ethics, Part 1

By Pascal Dennis (bio)

Been reflecting about each of these lately, and how they relate.

But what’s Ethics got to do with anything?

We’re in a proverbial knowledge economy. The market caps of, say, Google, Facebook and Apple, dwarf that of Toyota.

Google, Facebook and Apple have comparatively little in physical capital. ‘All’ they have is intellectual capital, and in particular, human capital.

How does human capital differ, from say, physical or financial capital?

Unlike, say, a machine, or a bond, human capital can chose not to deploy. Human capital can chose to walk out the door, in fact.

“That army will win which has the same spirit,” said Sun Tsu twenty-five hundred years ago. It’s never been more true.

Yet Gallup’s latest State of the Global Workplace report tells us that only 13% of employees are engaged in their work!

Big company disease and organizational dysfunction is so deeply entrenched that we barely flinch at such data.

Imagine you’re a factory manager and your machines are operating at only 13% of capacity!

Why are people so disengaged? Gallup doesn’t say. But I suspect that disillusionment, or even disgust, at what the organization stands for, or how management behaves, is a major reason.

There’s more. Millennials (those born after 1980) will comprise 75% of the workforce by 2025. And Gallup tells us that ethical behavior in corporations is even more important to millennials than to their parents.

Of course Ethics matters. People will not follow swine, at least not willingly, for very long. People will certainly not commit their hearts and minds – unless they feel good about what the organization stands for.

Best regards,

Pascal




In case you missed our last few blogs... please feel free to have another look…

The Work of Leaders
Why is Lean So Hard? – Organizational Elements
The Trouble with Corporate Clichés
Economy I and II - Never the Twain Shall Meet?

Ethics Again

By Pascal Dennis (bio)

What is a standard?

A picture of what should be happening.

Why are standards important?

Because they make problems visible, so we can fix them. And because a clear picture of Okay/Not Okay, or of right and wrong, allow us to relax and focus on the task at hand.

Standards free us up and enable creativity.

This is true in every industry from design to manufacturing, to business services, and to health care. And it’s also true with respect to personal behavior.

A recent coaching engagement reinforced these fundamentals truths once again.

The organization is faith-based and tries to live the Great Virtues that inform every great religion. These include Prudence, Temperance, Justice, Courage, Faith, Hope and Charity. (A ‘virtue’ is a standard, no?)

Working with these fine people is enjoyable and motivating. Their fundamental goodness and humility allow you to relax and focus on the work.

Their mission, a genuinely ‘Noble Goal’, motivates you to do your very best. It’s no surprise the organization has been around for a long time.

Young, immature organizations and industries often lack bedrock standards. Unscrupulous leaders think they can ‘get away with stuff’. To often, they mistreat their employees, suppliers and customers.

Those that survive come to realize the centrality of Ethics. People won’t follow swine, at least not for long.

You can see this process being played out in the newer industries of our day – software design, social media, telecommunications, contract electronics and the like.

The best companies in each industry are beginning to discover Ethics and beginning to lay a foundation for long-term success.

I can imagine my above coaching partners asking, “What took you so long?”

Best regards,

Pascal




In case you missed our last few blogs... please feel free to have another look…

Lean/TPS in the Public Service – Part 3 – Obstacles & Countermeasures?
Lean/TPS in the Public Service – Part 2 – What are the Obstacles?
Is Lean/TPS Possible in the Public Service? – Part 1
Henry & Edsel Ford – the Pride & the Sorrow

Ethics Enables Leadership

By Pascal Dennis (bio)

Our Ethics blogs have generated plenty of good buzz -- thanks all!

A few more thoughts. Ethics enables Leadership - the way standardized work (STW) enables front line work.

STW reflects our current best and safest way of doing a given job. If we work to STW, we're confident we'll produce good quality & volume, with safety.

In a very real sense, STW protects us, giving us stability, continuity, confidence and freedom from anxiety.

Ethics entails standards of behavior which, if followed, provide very similar benefits.

The Cardinal Virtues, for example, provide constancy of purpose, mutual trust with team members and market partners, and reduce the risk of attack & prosecution.

Good Ethics provides predictability. Everybody in the organization can relax and focus on the job at hand.

It's much easier to achieve our Purpose, year after year. A pretty good return, no?

Ethics enables leadership. Good Ethics is good business. Say it three times aloud.

Now, it's damn high standard, especially for lowly sinners such as your faithful Business Nomad.

But we have to try.

Pascal




In case you missed our last few blogs... please feel free to have another look…

Leadership in Times of Crisis
More on Walt Disney
Walt Disney -- Lean Thinker
Do We Manage Our ‘Screens’ - Or Do Our Screens Manage Us? - Part 3

Pascal Dennis Bio

Lean, Leadership & Ethics, Part 1

By Pascal Dennis (bio)

Been reflecting about each of these lately, and how they relate.

But what’s Ethics got to do with anything?

We’re in a proverbial knowledge economy. The market caps of, say, Google, Facebook and Apple, dwarf that of Toyota.

Google, Facebook and Apple have comparatively little in physical capital. ‘All’ they have is intellectual capital, and in particular, human capital.

How does human capital differ, from say, physical or financial capital?

Unlike, say, a machine, or a bond, human capital can chose not to deploy. Human capital can chose to walk out the door, in fact.

“That army will win which has the same spirit,” said Sun Tsu twenty-five hundred years ago. It’s never been more true.

Yet Gallup’s latest State of the Global Workplace report tells us that only 13% of employees are engaged in their work!

Big company disease and organizational dysfunction is so deeply entrenched that we barely flinch at such data.

Imagine you’re a factory manager and your machines are operating at only 13% of capacity!

Why are people so disengaged? Gallup doesn’t say. But I suspect that disillusionment, or even disgust, at what the organization stands for, or how management behaves, is a major reason.

There’s more. Millennials (those born after 1980) will comprise 75% of the workforce by 2025. And Gallup tells us that ethical behavior in corporations is even more important to millennials than to their parents.

Of course Ethics matters. People will not follow swine, at least not willingly, for very long. People will certainly not commit their hearts and minds – unless they feel good about what the organization stands for.

Best regards,

Pascal

Soccer Ethics

By Pascal Dennis (bio)

A fish rots from the head – Sicilian proverb

While Nelson Mandela was reading, reflecting and seeking to understand his Robben Island jailors (making lasting friends and supporters in the process), Jacob Zuma was playing soccer.

You know the rest of the story. Mandela grew into one of the 20th century’s great heroes and senseis, the father of modern South Africa, the rainbow nation, widely beloved and respected round the world.

Jacob Zuma, by contrast, has brought South Africa to ruin and disgrace, selling it to the sordid Gupta family for thirty pieces of silver.

My South African friends say that Zuma practices ‘soccer ethics’ – lie, cheat, steal and get away with whatever you can. Soccer ethics dissolves standards – there is no right and wrong. There is only, ‘what can I get away with’.

We see soccer ethics on display in this year’s World Cup, no? Neymar, Brazil’s star, and his ilk are cheaters, are they not? They fake injuries brazenly with the hope of drawing unjustified fouls.

[I hope my Brazilian friends and colleagues will forgive me for singling out Neymar. He is simply the most obvious example, and certainly not alone.]

Video replays are exposing the cheaters, and the world is heaping derision on them.

Soccer ethics creates a peculiar mindset: I have no responsibility to anybody but myself. The cheaters’ worst excesses are deserving of a Yellow or Red card – a penalty that would seriously damage their team’s chances.

Moreover, their behavior brings dishonor to their sport. Does they reflect on this? Does it at all hinder their conduct?

A fish rots from the head. Let me suggest, the cheaters on the pitch reflect the cheaters in FIFA management. Sepp Blatter, disgraced former FIFA-head, has more in common with Tony Soprano than he does with Nelson Mandela.

And like Jacob Zuma, Blatter thinks he has done nothing wrong.

I can’t help contrast soccer ethics with ethical codes in say, golf or rugby. [Football can Learn Lessons from Rugby] [Ten Golf lessons for your Company]

Of course, golfers and rugby players sometimes violate the standards, drawing quick & decisive countermeasures from each sport’s ruling body. And censure from fans, other players and often one’s self.

Phil Mickelson is still apologizing for hitting a moving ball on the putting surface in this year’s US Open.

Soccer ethics shame the beautiful game. How do such standards evolve? That’s a blog for another time.

But the leadership lessons are clear: What you do is what you get – so do the right thing.

Who do you want to emulate - Nelson Mandela or Jacob Zuma?

Best regards,

Pascal

Ethics Again

By Pascal Dennis

What is a standard?

A picture of what should be happening.

Why are standards important?

Because they make problems visible, so we can fix them. And because a clear picture of Okay/Not Okay, or of right and wrong, allow us to relax and focus on the task at hand.

Standards free us up and enable creativity.

This is true in every industry from design to manufacturing, to business services, and to health care. And it’s also true with respect to personal behavior.

A recent coaching engagement reinforced these fundamentals truths once again.

The organization is faith-based and tries to live the Great Virtues that inform every great religion. These include Prudence, Temperance, Justice, Courage, Faith, Hope and Charity. (A ‘virtue’ is a standard, no?)

Working with these fine people is enjoyable and motivating. Their fundamental goodness and humility allow you to relax and focus on the work.

Their mission, a genuinely ‘Noble Goal’, motivates you to do your very best. It’s no surprise the organization has been around for a long time.

Young, immature organizations and industries often lack bedrock standards. Unscrupulous leaders think they can ‘get away with stuff’. To often, they mistreat their employees, suppliers and customers.

Those that survive come to realize the centrality of Ethics. People won’t follow swine, at least not for long.

You can see this process being played out in the newer industries of our day – software design, social media, telecommunications, contract electronics and the like.

The best companies in each industry are beginning to discover Ethics and beginning to lay a foundation for long-term success.

I can imagine my above coaching partners asking, “What took you so long?”

Best regards,

Pascal

Pascal Dennis Bio

Hubris and Ethics

By Pascal Dennis

Hubris is the ancient Greek word for arrogance, excessive pride or self-confidence.

Hubris is a common root cause of unethical behavior and, arguably, the most dangerous enemy of great companies.

(Check out this fine book on hubris and the Enron catastrophe entitled The Smartest Guys in the Room.)

What's the countermeasure to hubris?

Humility -- the extreme awareness of limits, of standards, of all that we are not. Humility is one of the Great Virtues, and underlies Prudence, Temperance, Courage and Justice.

Justice, for example, is only possible if we’re humble enough to accept a higher standard or code.

Visual management, 5 S, standardized work and all the other elements of the Lean business system are designed to keep us humble.

Our old Toyota plant in Cambridge Ontario won many awards. "How could they give us an award?" we'd wonder. "We're so screwed up..."

We need great companies -- they show us what's possible.

And great companies need humility - for the same reason.

Best,

Pascal

Pascal Dennis Bio

Lean, Leadership & Ethics, Part 1

By Pascal Dennis

Been reflecting about each of these lately, and how they relate.

But what’s Ethics got to do with anything?

We’re in a proverbial knowledge economy. The market caps of, say, Google, Facebook and Apple, dwarf that of Toyota.

Google, Facebook and Apple have comparatively little in physical capital. ‘All’ they have is intellectual capital, and in particular, human capital.

How does human capital differ, from say, physical or financial capital?

Unlike, say, a machine, or a bond, human capital can chose not to deploy. Human capital can chose to walk out the door, in fact.

“That army will win which has the same spirit,” said Sun Tsu twenty-five hundred years ago. It’s never been more true.

Yet Gallup’s latest State of the Global Workplace report tells us that only 13% of employees are engaged in their work!

Big company disease and organizational dysfunction is so deeply entrenched that we barely flinch at such data.

Imagine you’re a factory manager and your machines are operating at only 13% of capacity!

Why are people so disengaged? Gallup doesn’t say. But I suspect that disillusionment, or even disgust, at what the organization stands for, or how management behaves, is a major reason.

There’s more. Millennials (those born after 1980) will comprise 75% of the workforce by 2025. And Gallup tells us that ethical behavior in corporations is even more important to millennials than to their parents.

Of course Ethics matters. People will not follow swine, at least not willingly, for very long. People will certainly not commit their hearts and minds – unless they feel good about what the organization stands for.

In the weeks to come, we’ll dig into Ethics and how it relates to Lean and Leadership.

Best regards,

Pascal

Pascal Dennis Bio

Ethics Enables Leadership

By Pascal Dennis

Our Ethics blogs have generated plenty of good buzz -- thanks all!

A few more thoughts. Ethics enables Leadership - the way standardized work (STW) enables front line work.

STW reflects our current best and safest way of doing a given job. If we work to STW, we're confident we'll produce good quality & volume, with safety.

In a very real sense, STW protects us, giving us stability, continuity, confidence and freedom from anxiety.

Ethics entails standards of behavior which, if followed, provide very similar benefits.

The Cardinal Virtues, for example, provide constancy of purpose, mutual trust with team members and market partners, and reduce the risk of attack & prosecution.

Good Ethics provides predictability. Everybody in the organization can relax and focus on the job at hand.

It's much easier to achieve our Purpose, year after year. A pretty good return, no?

Ethics enables leadership. Good Ethics is good business. Say it three times aloud.

Now, it's damn high standard, especially for lowly sinners such as your faithful Business Nomad.

But we have to try.

Pascal Dennis Bio

Leadership, Ethics and The Wolf of Wall Street

By Pascal Dennis

LPI Leadership & Ethics Series

Last time I asked: How are Leadership & Ethics related? Why do they matter?

Today I'd like to riff on Martin Scorcese's splendid new movie The Wolf of Wall Street.

Here's a very brief overview: Leo DeCaprio, in arguably his best performance, plays Jordan Belfort, a corrupt stockbroker who defrauds and ruins thousands of people.

Belfort lives a life of wild excess, and gleefully breaks every ethical standard. He's finally caught, spends two years in jail and emerges as a motivational speaker.

How have people reacted to the film?

The BusinessWeek reviewer, who watched the movie with a theatre full of Wall St. touts, was disturbed by it, and by their reactions to it.

The touts wildly cheered Belfort's outrageous swindles, and booed the FBI agent trying to bring him to justice.

New Yorker and New York Times reviewers were troubled by the invisibility of Belfort's victims.

Why, they ask, does Scorcese leave them out, and put Belfort front & centre?

What does the movie have to do with Leadership & Ethics?

Let's begin with Scorcese, a deeply Catholic director, for whom Ethics and spirituality is a central theme.

"I'm a lapsed Catholic," he tells us. "But I am Roman Catholic, there's no way out of it." (Once of his most personal and important movies, The Last Temptation of Christ, is an explicit attempt to wrestle with these themes.) We can be sure that Scorcese reflected deeply on the ethical implications of the Belfort story.

In my view, by making the movie an over-the-top farce, Scorcese has smuggled Ethics into the discourse. Bathing Belfort's crimes in such an appealing light is jarring, and to many people, disturbing. As a result, major media outlets like the New Yorker, BusinessWeek, and the New York Times are asking questions they normally might not ask. Certainly, people are looking at Wall Street with an even deeper fear and loathing than before.

Is Belfort a leader? Yes and no. He has charisma, energy and creativity. He even has a sense of generosity and loyalty to his team. But he's undone by the absence of an ethical anchor. Reportedly, the real Belfort has found a moral core and is much happier because of it. (See the fine BusinessWeek piece a few months back.)

So Belfort has become a much better leader, and one with staying power.

I'm sure he's also a lot more boring. As Lean practitioners may attest, good organizations are also boring.

Week after week, year after year, they achieve their business targets - no fuss, no muss. Good leaders are the same way, and good parents.

By making an outrageous, roller-coaster of a farce that glorifies grossly unethical behavior, Martin Scorcese has struck a blow for Ethics!

Well done, Marty!

Best,

Pascal