When I started this blog 11 years ago, I split my posts between training adults and leadership topics. Trainers are leaders, and selecting people as trainers requires current leaders to think about whom the potential future leaders are. Leading by example is one of the best ways to demonstrate to others what your expectations are. However, leaders also need to provide formal training on a variety of topics for everyone in their organization. Ethics is one of those important topics.
I found this post and decided to revisit and update it. Everyone grows over time. They learn things. While the principals in the original post are still valid, this updated version allows me to share lessons I learned in the last decade as a leader.
There are so many ways to approach ethics training that it is unethical to have people sit bored while training ethics. Instructors can conduct ethics training on three levels. The first is to demonstrate by training ethically. The next is to provide ethical training. The third is to identify organizational behaviors that require changing and provide training that will change that behavior. What follows is a short dissertation how trainers can accomplish each of these goals without having to speak above the din of snoring in the classroom.
Training ethically means that you do the right things to prepare for the lesson. Understand how much time you have to teach. Understand who your audience is. Prepare and rehearse your content. Doing these things shows others your value them and their time. I found over time that I do not necessarily need to see someone do these things to know they prepared well. I started working with the Executive Director of another nonprofit after watching a scatterbrained attempt at presenting complicated material in a short period of time. She was given 20 minutes to present but the presentation lasted 90 minutes shortening the time other presenters who were better prepared had to speak. A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to watch her make another presentation. She made the complicated seem simple and hit her time hack on the money.
It was obvious she put in the time to figure out how to simplify her message. She developed a plan to present the most important material. She rehearsed her timing and prepared clear handouts to complement what she spoke about in the presentation. All these things showed she respected the audience. When you do this in an ethics presentation, it shows others you are an ethical person.
The next major area of ethics training is training ethics. Teach organizational standards, orders, policies or other written documentation governing behavior in your organization. These rules establish expected behavior. Let students know what the maximum and minimum penalties, as well as the typical penalty for violating norms. Often these topics are approached by reading each document verbatim. A better idea is to assign the reading to be completed before class, review the material in the form of questions and answers, and then use stories as examples of acceptable and unacceptable behaviors. Facilitated classes are great opportunities to share ethical theory with students, showing how their biases affect their focus of organizational standards.
While understanding rules, regulations, policies, procedures, and laws are all important, also take time to teach people your guiding principles. As hard as organizations try to write rules for every situation, they never can. After 41 years in the Army, I noticed there were lots of times that regulations often gave contradictory advice. When I talked to enlisted leaders, I discussed how to match Soldier’s actions against the Army Values. I told them that if a Soldier’s action did not live up to the Army Values, they likely violated a regulation. If they quote a regulation that says what they did was okay, talk about how the behavior violated the Values and how the values are a higher rule than the regulations. Often, leaders who run a foul of a rule in an effort to live their organizational guiding principles face less or no admonishments.
The next area is training to change behaviors. Repetition is required for this training to be successful, but do not teach the exact same class to the exact same audience time after time. Both you and your students will become bored quickly. The point of this training is to focus student attention to behave in compliance with the organizational mission, principals, expectations and desired norms. Use this time to explain what the mission statement means to their section. Talk about how the organizational principals support the mission. Express your vision for the future of the organization. If you are training others, then you have been chosen to lead. Leaders have a better view of what lies ahead. Share your vantage point with others so they understand the importance of doing the right things the right way.
When you take time to review the meaning of each of your organization’s principals and provide examples of what those behaviors look like you provide better information than if you simply lecture. Tell stories of how people succeeded by following the ideals espoused in your principles. Share why each one important to supporting the mission. Sharing the why and how through stories keeps people’s attentions and offers examples of expected behaviors.
As you develop training for each of these areas, you will soon find you have far more material to cover than the time available. Newer trainers will curse and try to squeeze everything into the allotted time. Experienced trainers recognize the opportunity to provide follow-up training without repeating previous classes, improving student attention and retention in subsequent classes. Focus on the three areas, ethically train, train ethics and change behavior. When you do, your students will clamor for more.
