The Center for Ethics, Governance, & Accountability

I continue to urge the study of ethics as a proactive exercise for all non-profit organizations. In my previous articles, I have stated that I find ethics to be among the most important business issues of our time (and all time). The purpose of this article is to draw distinctions between the options for ethics introspection and to urge an active and thoughtful approach to the study of ethics and its resulting application to your organization.

Simply stated, nobody can define ‘ethics’ for your organization. Sure, it’s a pretty easy thing to provide you with a list of things that are obviously wrong that you should avoid, but the power of a ‘study in ethics’ lies primarily in the active study of the issue, not in the passive reading of standardized prescriptions, books, or series of articles. In other words, to really study ethics, you must truly give it some thought and, most importantly, you must apply your thoughts to the particular circumstances of your own organization. If you take the time to do that, you can raise the issue of ethics from the level of ‘compliance’ to ‘excellence’ – and, your non-profit will have an opportunity to positively distinguish itself in a time of unprecedented funding competition among your contributors and grantors.

Fairly common is the notion that ethical behavior may be defined as ‘doing no harm’ and, while I do not disagree with this premise, I do not believe it is appropriately proactive for the kind of study in ethics that I advocate. There is just something about the phrase ‘doing no harm’ that immediately leads me to wonder about going a step beyond. And, in any commitment to excellence, going the extra distance is always the determining factor. It just seems that the notion of ‘doing no harm’ only take us to a point of achieving some minimum standard, of erring on the side of caution, of not stepping across the line, of playing it safe. This interpretation of ethics falls short of its full potential.

If your study in ethics leads you to adopt a mantra of ‘doing what’s right’ then it becomes considerably more proactive. While only you can define what ‘right’ means for your non-profit organization, it is entirely logical that discerning what is ‘right’ becomes a more aggressive and positive study than avoiding what is ‘wrong’ (i.e. the notion of ‘harm’).

I was once consulting with a quasi-governmental housing agency and was in a meeting with a number of its top managers. The issue at hand was the development of a relocation policy for residents about to be effected by the renovation of a housing development. The management staff was struggling with the specifics of the development of the policy – which was a very appropriate subject for discussion, debate, and decision – after all, the policy would need to be fair, anticipate all manner of unforeseen contingencies, and be applied consistently among several hundred affected residents. In other words, although unspoken, the policy needed to be ethical (however that was to be defined). It needed to either ‘do no harm’ or at least minimize the amount of harm inherent to the naturally disruptive activity of relocating a household. The challenges of developing the policy were real and the angst surrounding the discussion was appropriate.

After a healthy and open dialogue session, the enlightened executive director summed up staff’s various concerns, issues, and suggestions by simply stating that he wanted the organization to be firmly grounded in ‘doing what’s right’ in the application of the policy. To this day, I recall the positive and transformative shift that occurred in that meeting once the notion of ‘doing what’s right’ was introduced as the guiding principle.

Now, of course, ‘right’ means something a little different to everybody, so how does ‘right’ really provide direction for staff when determining proper policy interpretation? Well, I can tell you this, without any reservation, I do not recall a single incident when ‘right’ did not result in exceeding expectations and tipping the scales in the appropriate direction whenever an interpretation of that policy arose. The person selected to head the activity had no experience in that area – nobody on the staff did – but she understood the concept of ‘right’ and she applied it fairly and consistently. She also completed her tasks on time and on budget, so the daily performance of her duties required difficult decisions; it was never intimated that ‘right’ would always be easy. The notion of ‘right’ turned her daily application of a much-dreaded relocation requirement into an award-winning, unprecedented fulfillment of a critical activity that was a very early step in the scope of work for a large multi-year project. Had the initial relocation part of the project gone poorly, the success of the overall renovation would have been potentially irreparably jeopardized. Quite simply, though, it worked. And, it worked very well. Through this case study, I now have a realistic understanding of ‘doing what’s right’ and knowing that it works.

I would recommend that your own study of ethics include some research and some quiet time. Does your organization have an ethics policy? If so, get it out and review it; if not, find a couple of examples and study them. Then, spend some quiet time and ponder how you would craft your own ethics policy for a presentation to your board of directors. I believe that this approach will provide you with a successful study in ethics and will begin to shape a draft policy that can transform your organization – from ‘safe’ to ‘excellent’ – and, I believe the future of your non-profit depends on it. Endeavor to make it so.