I recently read the following from Harry Kraemer’s book, From Values to Action:
“Communicating your values helps set the expectations for what behavior is acceptable and what is not acceptable. The clearer you are on this point, the better that people will understand whether their personal actions are consistent with the values you have set.”
The first point of focus in Total Quality Auditing® (TQA) is all about auditing ethics and culture at our organizations. I believe Kraemer hits on my first action item perfectly on with his statement, “Communicate Your Values.”
Internal Auditors, here is your first step:
Determine whether your organization has identified ethics as a critical value, and if it is not or not emphasized enough, influence until it becomes the number one, communicated value.
And notice I did not use the word “recommend” or “recommendation.” I said influence. TQA is also all about active over passive behaviors. Recommendations, to me, are passive. It is time we have an active role in our organizations, starting here.
Once ethics is front and center as an organizational value and is communicated as such, the second step (also of critical importance) is to ensure that people in the organization are living the value. It is time to truly audit the culture.
It appears in the last decade, organizations (and perhaps the auditors within those organizations) have overlooked the importance of ethics and are wondering why they are the victims of a crisis. Almost each of the examples I use in my Ethics and TQA trainings were featured in the Morning Brew’s “The Decade in Review”… BP, Volkswagon, Wells Fargo, Boeing, Facebook, and all contributors to the opioid crisis, including J&J and Purdue Pharma.
In 2020, I will once again offer a series of webinars covering all the key elements of TQA – starting with how internal auditors can influence ethics and audit culture. Thousands attended TQA trainings in 2019 – make sure you plan to attend this year! Register for the 2020 series at a discounted price of $220, or select individual webinars for $20 each.
For more information or group discounts, directly contact Audit. Consulting. Education. LLC at Jo@AuditConsultingEducation.com.
