The rabbi who helped his congregants escape the hostage standoff in Texas a few days ago credited the security training he received for keeping everyone alive.
When we practice something in advance, we can think more clearly when facing the real situation. We can also act more quickly. This is why military personnel, firefighters, and other first responders use most of their spare time to practice over and over again.
In corporate ethics, we can do the same thing. We can practice, in advance, how to respond to ethical dilemmas. Perhaps the best training in this area comes from Mary Gentile with her book Giving Voice to Values. Gentile starts with the assumption that most of us know the difference between right and wrong. What we need, she says, is to practice, in advance, how we would respond if we were asked to lie, cheat or steal – or if we observed someone else doing these things. If properly trained, we are more likely to respond in a way that will keep us and the company safe when the real thing happens.
Don’t wait to be “held hostage” by an unethical situation at work before you learn how to escape it.
Writing as “The Ethical Leader,” Yan Tougas draws on 15 years of experience as a compliance & ethics officer at a Fortune 500 company, sharing insights, wisdom and lessons learned. This post originally appeared on “The Ethical Leader” and is reprinted here with permission. Views expressed are that of the author. Visit him at YanTougas.com, connect with him on LinkedIn or follow him on Twitter.
Yan Tougas, Global Ethics & Compliance Officer, Raytheon Technologies Corporation
Yan Tougas oversees Raytheon’s global ethics programs, supporting a network of nearly 300 Ethics & Compliance Officers, managing the company’s Ombuds program, and ensuring that best practices are adopted across Raytheon’s business units. Ethical culture and leadership is the focus of all activities under his responsibility.
Yan joined Raytheon in 2000 and held positions of increasing responsibility at several of its business units. He took his current position at the Corporate Office in 2012.
Yan holds a LL.B from the University of Sherbrooke School of Law (Quebec) and a LL.M. from University of Connecticut School of Law. He sits on the Board of the Ethics & Compliance Initiative and on the Advisory Board of the Hoffman Center for Business Ethics at Bentley University. Yan currently lives in Connecticut with his wife and three children.
