Gilbert Arenas, The Washington Wizards (the team he plays for), and the National Basketball Association have made headlines over the last couple of weeks because Arenas was found with handguns in his locker, which is a violation of the N.B.A.’s collective bargaining agreement. To make matters worse, Arenas was later filmed warming up for a game laughing, holding his hand like a pistol, and ‘shooting’ at some of his team mates; a response to the situation that did not sit well with the commissioner of the league. As a result Arenas has been suspended indefinitely, forfeiting the remainder of his 16 million dollar annual salary and possibly voiding the rest of his 6 year, 111 million dollar contract. He is also currently facing federal charges on illegal possession of a firearm.
Many organizations have a code of conduct of some kind. Professional sports teams, educational institutions, professional & volunteer associations, businesses, the clubs we formed when we were kids, etc. all have some set of expectations that they ask their members to sign or agree to as a requirement for participating in the organization. Codes of conduct are almost a given in any kind of organizational life.
There are many reasons for the existence of these codes. In principle, they indicate what life is supposed to look like for a member of a particular organization. In the workplace, they are generally intended to make clear the terms of employment and how the employee is supposed to conduct themselves as they do their job. And, among other reasons, these codes are also often used to protect a company’s image or help to avoid litigation.
All of these are valid reasons, but what seems to be absolutely key to the value of any code of conduct, is when the code is firmly embedded in a set of core values that are known and promoted throughout the organization. An organization who moves the discussion of expectations and workplace conduct to the level of why – the core values of the company – not just what, has a much greater opportunity to create a culture where rules are not the primary issue, but rather the mission and vision of the organization.
In his book, How The Mighty Fall, Jim Collins comments,
“Any exceptional enterprise depends first and foremost upon having self-managed and self-motivated people – the #1 ingredient for a culture of discipline. While you might think that such a culture would be characterized by rules, rigidity, and bureaucracy, I’m suggesting quite the opposite. If you have the right people, who accept responsibility, you don’t need to have a lot of senseless rules and mindless bureaucracy in the first place!” (pg. 56).
What I think Collins is trying to get at is that great organizations know that clearly defined expectations for the workplace are necessary, but they also know that when people are committed to the core values of the organization, they more naturally do what is best for the organization without being told to do it.
One of my primary interests when I began Concord Professional Development was exploring codes of conduct and how they best function in organizational life. It can be a challenge to move a code of conduct from being a document that is simply signed and forgotten, to one that genuinely informs and guides the day-to-day activities of an organization. I wanted to assist organizations in finding ways to make their codes of conduct function more effectively on this day-to-day basis, and to connect more concretely with their core values.
If you would like to further discuss how I might be able to help your company work through some of these issues, please let me know and I would be glad to meet with you.
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on Friday, January 15th, 2010 at 12:48 pm and is filed under Comments.
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Handguns In The Locker Room
Gilbert Arenas, The Washington Wizards (the team he plays for), and the National Basketball Association have made headlines over the last couple of weeks because Arenas was found with handguns in his locker, which is a violation of the N.B.A.’s collective bargaining agreement. To make matters worse, Arenas was later filmed warming up for a game laughing, holding his hand like a pistol, and ‘shooting’ at some of his team mates; a response to the situation that did not sit well with the commissioner of the league. As a result Arenas has been suspended indefinitely, forfeiting the remainder of his 16 million dollar annual salary and possibly voiding the rest of his 6 year, 111 million dollar contract. He is also currently facing federal charges on illegal possession of a firearm.
Many organizations have a code of conduct of some kind. Professional sports teams, educational institutions, professional & volunteer associations, businesses, the clubs we formed when we were kids, etc. all have some set of expectations that they ask their members to sign or agree to as a requirement for participating in the organization. Codes of conduct are almost a given in any kind of organizational life.
There are many reasons for the existence of these codes. In principle, they indicate what life is supposed to look like for a member of a particular organization. In the workplace, they are generally intended to make clear the terms of employment and how the employee is supposed to conduct themselves as they do their job. And, among other reasons, these codes are also often used to protect a company’s image or help to avoid litigation.
All of these are valid reasons, but what seems to be absolutely key to the value of any code of conduct, is when the code is firmly embedded in a set of core values that are known and promoted throughout the organization. An organization who moves the discussion of expectations and workplace conduct to the level of why – the core values of the company – not just what, has a much greater opportunity to create a culture where rules are not the primary issue, but rather the mission and vision of the organization.
In his book, How The Mighty Fall, Jim Collins comments,
“Any exceptional enterprise depends first and foremost upon having self-managed and self-motivated people – the #1 ingredient for a culture of discipline. While you might think that such a culture would be characterized by rules, rigidity, and bureaucracy, I’m suggesting quite the opposite. If you have the right people, who accept responsibility, you don’t need to have a lot of senseless rules and mindless bureaucracy in the first place!” (pg. 56).
What I think Collins is trying to get at is that great organizations know that clearly defined expectations for the workplace are necessary, but they also know that when people are committed to the core values of the organization, they more naturally do what is best for the organization without being told to do it.
One of my primary interests when I began Concord Professional Development was exploring codes of conduct and how they best function in organizational life. It can be a challenge to move a code of conduct from being a document that is simply signed and forgotten, to one that genuinely informs and guides the day-to-day activities of an organization. I wanted to assist organizations in finding ways to make their codes of conduct function more effectively on this day-to-day basis, and to connect more concretely with their core values.
If you would like to further discuss how I might be able to help your company work through some of these issues, please let me know and I would be glad to meet with you.
This entry was posted on Friday, January 15th, 2010 at 12:48 pm and is filed under Comments. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.