The Innovative Brain Archive
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How Your Stories Can Change the WorldA Case for Radical Responsibility “Thinking is easy, acting is difficult, but to put one’s thoughts into action is the most difficult thing in the world.” — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Would you believe the answer is the same? What’s wrong with business today?Are you as angry as am I about the perceived state of ethics in American business today? Almost every day on the front page or three of the Wall Street Journal there is an article about corporate wrong-doing, and the efforts of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) or the US Congress to do something about it. Usually it focuses on regulations, enforcement and punishment. And who can blame the government policy wonks? It makes for great sound bites:. “Yes! We’re sending CEOs to jail! And they’ll lose all of their chateaux in Aspen, their plush private jets and swanky yachts.” Sounds good, right? The fact is, there have been some egregious behaviors going on with some of our bigger companies. So government and the press have gone after them. Good. Unfortunately some of this mud is sticking to every company out there, and most of us don’t deserve it. So whom can we blame?
Ouch. Chances are that means you. We know it means us. Now stay with us… Cultural demandsWhat brings out the ethical best in business units is individual responsibility and the stories that result. When employees and bosses work in such a way as to cause there to be frequent stories told of high ethical behavior, the corporate culture ends up demanding that behavior at every level. Ethical behaviors, retold as stories in corporate cultures, beget more ethical behaviors. Slick behaviors, retold as successful edge-pushing scams, beget more ethically marginal behaviors. It’s that simple. A few examples we know intimately. One food product manufacturer had a contaminant in their product that was far below what the Food & Drug Administration would find unacceptable. Did they let it go? No, Regardless of government standards, they found it unacceptable for their own standards. In spite of the fact that it was a VERY difficult contaminant to trace to its source, they didn’t give up. They found and eliminated it. That story is told around the company as one illustrating what they mean by quality. The story: “our quality standards are greater than are required by the FDA.”
Answer to the quiz:The right answer? We need to choose to behave in a way that great stories can be told. Culture- creating stories. Stories that impress the people who hear them. Stories that you’d love to tell your grandparents and grandchildren. Stories that demonstrate you taking radical responsibility to make a positive difference in the world around you. Sounds simple, yes? Let’s face it, it’s easy when it hits the fan to whine, complain and bitch about it. More difficult to ask someone to fix it. Even more difficult to think about what you’re going to do about it. Most difficult to actually choose to do something about it. Especially when it hurts in the short run. But it’s these levels of responsible activism that create the best culture-creating stories. Do something?
And what was the cost? Well the Enron collapse caused a measurable portion of the wealth of the United States to evaporate, pension fund values dissolved, and trust in auditing firms suffered. Plus, three noted “whistle blowers” earned Time Magazine’s “Person of the Year” distinction at the end of 2002. But that’s not the point. The point is that things shouldn»t have gotten that far. Did somebody know there were improprieties happening? Of course. Why didn’t anybody do anything about it? Who knows. I’m sure they had their good reasons. But what if more people had said to themselves, “this isn’t right. So what am I going to do about it?” Let’s face it. The second we have to start teaching people about ethics, the company is screwed. It’s not about people understanding what is or what is not allowed, it’s about people doing what they know is right and standing up against what is wrong. Many people do take this responsibility… but it requires vigilance for our own laziness… our own “stay below the radar screen” behaviors… our own desire to only bring good news to the shareholders, the board, our bosses. It’s up to us to change the world
At the end of the day, the only thing that we have any control over is our actions and what we think/say. Thinking out-loud is storytelling. Henry Ford said, “If you think you can or think you cannot, you’re right.” Now Henry didn’t do everything right either. And neither will any of us. But he created a can-do culture by thinking out-loud: “We can do this!” The headache of taking responsibilityLike McNeil Consumer Products (a Johnson & Johnson subsidiary) who handled the Extra-Strength Tylenol®capsule cyanide tampering case in the early 1980s in such an exemplary (and rare) way. Rather than cover it up, or ignore it, or blame it on suppliers or employees or the bogeyman, they took responsibility. They advised consumers not to use any Tylenol product until the issue was solved while they removed over 30 million bottles nation-wide from the shelf (and took a $100 million charge against earnings).
How do you do that?So here are some simple things to help with the complex task of taking radical responsibility for your actions and thoughts so you create the stories a winning organization needs:
So what are you going to do about it?
And you and I won’t get it right always. But the more we try for “always,” the closer we get to “often.” Which brings us to Mahatma Gandhi who said, “You must first be the change you wish to see in the world.” Notice that he didn’t say “Someone else must do something and if you like it maybe you could possibly do something similar.” Nope. He said YOU must first BE the change. Don’t talk about it, BE it. In other words it’s up to you to start looking for where you can straighten out your company, your life, your world. Then tell us your story. We’ll listen. We may even re-tell it. Together then, we’ll change a culture! So… what are you going to do about it? |
Pop Quiz: Please think about your answers to the following questions:
We could start by assigning blame to the press’s favorite scapegoats, like over-paid CEOs,
unethical corporate attorneys and greedy financiers. Are they guilty? Sure. But the majority
are not greedy, overpaid and unethical. And, there are more people to blame (and we’ll make
the list short): every darned person who works in every darned organization anywhere. And their
stockholders who demand 20% return every quarter.
We worked with another company that issued a recall because of a product packaging issue.
Again, the recall was not required by the FDA, the package was labeled in such a way as to excuse
the defect, and the recall was resisted by the manufacturer and other companies using the same
packaging product. Our client issued the recall to their customers at their expense — and
took the hit in the press for having a defective product. Because it was the right thing to do.
That story is told and retold within the company. Must be nice to be in a position to make those
decisions, right? 
The people who blew the whistle on accounting wrongdoing at Enron, WorldCom, Adelphia, and other
organizations took this to a high level. They weren’t content to sit around and watch people do
what they knew was wrong. At the end of the day they didn’t say, “Gosharoo, somebody should do
something about this!” And then go home and watch television. They took their case to people —
both inside and outside of the organization — who could do something about it. Until they found someone
who finally DID something about it. 
Cultures are nothing more than the behaviors that a group of people follow on a regular basis. What most
determines these culture-creating behaviors are the stories that people tell about what creates inclusion, and what
creates exclusion from that culture. You are in control of the stories you create. You are in control of the
stories you tell. Therefore, you are in control of creating the culture around you.
In the Tylenol case, someone took radical responsibility and others followed. During the Tylenol cyanide scare, with
the name and reputation of J&J at stake, company managers and employees made conscious decisions that were inspired
by the philosophy and values embodied in the company’s Credo (i.e. “dominant cultural story”) (read it
at http://www.jnj.com) and likely their own values. They explored their values, had some discussions and then said,
“This is what we have to do. This is what’s right.” No matter what the cost. And they slept better at
night. And lives may or may not have been saved. But an example for the world and a higher bar for corporate responsibility was set. 
Learn how to focus your concentration The single most helpful thing you can do to improve your world is to control your
thoughts about how you see the world. If you see the world as out of your hands, you’re right. If you know that you can do
something about it, and focus on how to make it happen and let go of the thoughts that get in your way, you’ll change
your world. Practice focusing your concentration every day. Here’s how: spend at least five minutes every day focusing on
something simple (a sound, a word, a simple image, your feet touching the floor) and when you notice your mind wandering (and it
will wander), bring yourself back. Every time you bring yourself back, you develop the muscle that controls your attention. So
that you can consciously choose your reaction to what happens around you.
Pay attention to your language. Our language is a powerful determinant of how we act. For instance, we often say “He
makes me angry.” Not true. But if I say that to myself, I’ll act based on what I’ve said. I’ll blame
and attack the person who made me angry. But, if I acknowledge that my anger is my choice, I’m much more likely to respond
constructively. Any language that puts responsibility on another person for creating our experience of the world is dangerous.
It creates stories that make us weak. And that’s no way for a world-changing leader to be.
Forget ethics classes. Don’t worry about the SEC. Congress isn’t going to fix this. In a perfect world, we’d all do
these things all the time. We’d start asking ourselves the question, “What might be all the things I can do to fix the situation.”
And then we’d start doing them. Of course when we’re up to our navel in alligators, that’s difficult to do. But the more
you and I can get into the habit, and practice it on little things (nobody’s made coffee? Don’t spend energy complaining, make
coffee!) or on the big things (my partners aren’t communicating with me? Guess I’ll have to start communicating with them),
the more likely we are to get it right when it really counts.