Freedom to speak up: candour leads to commitment, much more powerful than compliance

"I have been so depressed by this experience that I have often considered suicide.... I have lost all faith in the NHS and the employment tribunal system"

One of the witnesses quoted in Sir Robert Francis' review of NHS culture, the Freedom To Speak Up Report, published yesterday.

Candour is the foundation of a healthy culture.

The overriding culture of an organisation can be measured in the ease - or tension - of daily conversations.

It's easy for leaders to say "We need a culture of ethics" but hard to do.

To mak it so, a simple code of principles is far more useful than complex rules.

When rules and compliance take over, candour is the first casualty. That’s when ethics starts to go wrong. 

The cultural symptoms are easy to spot. People look over their shoulder, 'doing the right thing' becomes 'doing what I'm told and not thinking for myself'. Blame, control, fear take over. Inertia sets in. People are suspicious, the maverick voice is isolated, a mania of Cc-ing emails.

In a culture of principles rather than rules, something different happens. Within a shared belief of what we stand for, it's easier to open up. People feel permission to ask the tricky questions, confident that this is helpful not risky.

Candour comes when it is demonstrated to be safe and open, that sensitive matters can still be discussed in a common sense way. It's ordinary, everyday.

Candour becomes normal, part of 'how we do things'.

That’s why values need to be active - not just a list of words on a wall.

In cultures based on rules and regulation candour closes up.

And, as the NHS has seen, this will cause a whole lot more ethical risk than it prevents.

Francis calls for a culture in which

"Speaking up about what worries them is a normal part of everyone's routine"

A culture of principles leads to candour and commitment: compliance leads only to control or censure.

The foundation is the basis of belonging:

- purpose (what we're here for)
and
- ethos (what we stand for).

On top of this, the principles Francis has outlined allow openness and candour to flourish.

This sets the context, so that code of conduct, or policies for specific roles, can be more easily observed.

The new recommendations, which the health minister has committed to takingseriously, include:

• All staff feel safe to raise their concerns
• Leaders to demonstrate that they encourage raising concerns
• Chance for reflection on learning from experiences and how to improve
• Guardians for whistleblowers and those who want to speak up

This is relevant to any organisation, far beyond the specific context of the NHS.

Francis conducted a comprehensive study of experiences across the NHS, getting right to frontline. He stresses the need for informal exchange, early in concerns, rather than reliance on structure and bureaucracy. This resonates with what I've seen in many organisations recovering from regulatory ethical contravention or prosecution.

He acknowledges many examples of great practice and stresses that it's not just whistle blowing or raising issues that matters:

"My review also brought home to me how challenging it can be to receive concerns - issues can be difficult and sensitive to solve"

And of course, like healthcare, ethical prevention is better than cure.

If you have to blow the whistle it's already too late.

That's why freedom to speak up is so critical.

Do you have a culture of candour?

Talk to us about a quick litmus test to check

We help organisations create a culture of ethics and belonging

isabel@belongingspace.com
www.belongingspace.com

Culturevist and other (positive and respectable) C-words

Plenty of inspiration at the Culturevist event last night, in (positive and respectable) C-words.

Matt Partovi set up Culturevist just over a year ago, as a forum for Culture Activists.

He said he was 

"looking to find people who felt as passionately as I do about culture in business, to share ideas and challenges". 

He was happy if five people turned up to the first event: he reached over 80. 

And last night, the 9^th meet-up, 120 people took part, from all kinds of professional background and stages of life.

The theme was:

"Open Source Culture: What happens when everyone has a say?"

The format, five speakers with five-minute presentations, sparked stimulation.

Our hosts yesterday were ustwo, a global digital product studio with a particularly open and vibrant culture.

In ustwo's environment of structured-randomness - comfy sofas, drawings on the pillars, goldfish, and a tailor's dummy in a pink wig - we loosened quickly into an open conversation ourselves. Beyond the surface this was far more than the trappings of yet another groovy Shoreditch agency. 

Clarity and candour

Collin Lyons shared 11 key points of what makes the culture tick at ustwo, beginning with why you will never forget your first day as a member of the team

"Because you will be given the best welcome you will ever get, from everybody, all day". 

You are quickly, completely, invited in as part of the group.

The principle of openness and transparency runs through everything. 

"But it's not all sunshine and rainbows. Being this open means facing some tough issues".

In his next two points: 

- Hire for culture

- Communicate transparently

Collin shared the benefits of candour: deep principles with practical application and the commitment of all employees.

Perry Timms has tweeted notes on Collin's full list. 

Size is important for an open culture. There are around 200/220 people at ustwo globally, but a principle to have no more than 120 in any one studio. Clever, keeping just below Dunbar's number of 150, will help to keep a sense of Belonging and community. 

As always, when culture drives business success, it's not just nice: it has a point. For ustwo openness is essential for the demands of digital development. The work they do is fast, requires agility and constant iteration. The goal is to get things out and working, improvement rather than perfect and absolute. So if team members are not direct, or if small groups are huddled separately from each other, that will block the flow. 

Openness makes for  commercial health as well as personal reward at work, everybody thrives as a result.

Culture Hacking and Mapping

Esko Reinikainen @reinikainen of The SatoriLab 

introduced himself as a Culture Hacker who works for government helping to build culture for people who don't know what it is and don't want it.

A Finn based in Wales getting public bodies to change the way they think and interact: Esko surely has plenty of cross-cultural experience.

His specialism is how to narrow the gap between what we say and what we do. He gave an example of company whose claims of  

“We have an open culture”

were trashed in the daily reality of  

“My manager says if I know what's good for me I'll keep my mouth shut”.

Generously Esko has shared an example of the Culture Map, developed with David Gray, via twitter @reinikainen 

Coupling top-down with bottom-up

Laura-Jane Parker talked through experiences of nurturing culture at Direct Line after the split away from Royal Bank of Scotland: a tale of DeBelonging and ReBelonging. 

She shared the importance - alongside bottom-up development - of top-down leadership of values and culture. Culture belongs to everyone but leaders must, well, lead. As soon as leaders use the language of 'Us' and 'Them' the unity of culture is lost. The values are just nice words on a wall, not reality.

Commitment

Nick Matthews of Yammer's gave us three rules for openness

1) You really have to want to do it 

2) Choose your medium 

3) Leaders must lead 

He described commitment with no compromise. 

"If you want an open culture you have to really go for it".

Control and community

William Higham, a futurist from The Next Big Thing Company, pointed out how connected we are in almost every aspect of life: except at work. Organisations have much to catch up on to make culture and internal communication as connected as contact with customers.

He pointed us to two Cs for the future of corporate culture- Contol and Community. Control not just by those at the top, but in an agile way across the business. Community in a more fluid exchange of like minds and support, all connected.

Conversation

The quietly incisive Tom Nixon of Nixon McInnes suggested we all introduce ourselves with 

"What I need is..." 

so that we could match up conversations to offer appropriate support.  

It worked a treat. Plenty of evidence for David Gurteen's @Davidgurteen research on the power of conversations in business. 

(Un)Conference

And finally, Matt's specialism, a short unconference where people offered a subject and self-managed discussion in small groups.

Conclusion

Open source culture can make a powerful difference to organisations' success: and it takes commitment to keep it up.

One year in to Culturevist, there is an open conversation in this group. And, with the lightest-touch of control and intuitive culture, a clear sense of Belonging.

We even have some symbols (badges!) and habits - we like loose structure, fluidity and informal environments. We Culturevists share a purpose, and an ethos, we have developed a community and camaraderie. And we're keen to put our shared talents to mutual support and good use.

Well done Matt and Culturevists: we set out to chat and have built a community.

 

Join the next Culturevist event

http://www.culturevist.com/about/

@culturevist 

Does your organisation have a strong sense of belonging?
Talk to us about how to create effectiveness from Belonging.
 
isabel@belongingspace.com
www.belongingspace.com