Discussion 7AOOE

Auditing of Organizational Ethics and Compliance Programs”  Please respond to the following:Examine the significant values of conducting an ethics audit in an organization. Select five (5) areas that you would focus on if you have to conduct an ethics audit, and provide a rationale for your selections.Read the article titled, “10 Steps to Good Governance,” located here. Next, develop a checklist for an ethics audit that incorporates the ten (10) steps identified in the article. Provide a rationale for your response.W10 hat does a golfer, tennis player orcricketer (or any other professionalsportsperson) focus on to achievehigh performance? They nearlyalways give the same answer: “Repeat myprocess (that is the process they have practiseda million times) – replicate it under realpressure and trust in my ability”That’s why Matthew Lloyd throws the grassup under the roof at Etihad Stadium. It iswhy Ricky Ponting taps the bat, looks down,looks up and mouths “watch the ball”. It’sunnecessary for Matthew Lloyd to toss thegrass. There’s no wind under the roof – it’ssimply a routine that enables him to replicatehis process under pressure.Ricky Pointing knows you have to watch theball. Ponting wants the auto pilot light in hisbrain to fl ick on as he mutters “watch the ball”.High performance in sport is achieved through focusing on yourprocesses, not the scores.It is absolutely no different in local government. Our businessis governance and we need to be focusing very hard on ourgovernance processes. We need to learn these processes, modifythem when necessary, understand them deeply, repeat themunder pressure and trust in our capabilities to deliver. If we dothat, the scores will look after themselves.I want to share with you my ten most important elements inthe governance process. Let me fi rst say that good governance isthe set of processes, protocols, rules, relationships and behaviourswhich lead to consistently good decisions. In the end goodgovernance is good decisions. You could make lots of gooddecisions without good governance. But you will eventuallyrun out of luck – eventually, bad governance process will leadto bad decisions. Consistently good decisions come from goodgovernance processes and practices.Good governance is not only a prerequisite for consistentlygood decisions, it is almost the sole determinant of yourreputation. The way you govern, the ‘vibe’ in the communityand in the local paper about the way you govern is almost thesole determinant of your reputation. Believe me, if reputationmatters to you, then drive improvements through goodgovernance.So here are the ten core elements:1. THE COUNCIL PLANAn articulate council plan is a fundamental fi rst step to achievingyour goals. It is your set of promises to your community for afour-year term.Unfortunately, there are too many wrong plans:• Claytons Plans – say too little and are too bland. Delete thename of the council from these plans and you can’t tell whoseit is! There’s no ‘vibe’ at all.• Agreeable Plans – where everyone gets their bit in the plan.There’s no sense of priorities, everyone agrees with everythingin the plan and we save all the real fi ghts and confl icts to befought out one by one over the four-year term.• Opposition-creating Plans – we don’t do this so often but wesometimes ‘use the numbers’ to enable the dominant group ofcouncillors to achieve their goals and fail to accommodate thenon-dominant group’s agenda at all. Accordingly, we createan opposition and assign these councillors to the oppositionbenches for the council term.An articulate council plan is the least you owe your citizens.2. POLICY DEVELOPMENTAs a sector we undertake too little policy development whichsupports the achievement of our strategic goals. Yet goals orobjectives are what we want to achieve. For example, economicprosperity, environmental sustainability, community safety andcohesion are all goals.Strategies are simply ideas on how to achieve goals. For example,if economic prosperity is our goal then attracting new investmentis one of the ‘get there’ strategies.Policies are council ‘rules’ or ‘boundaries’ that establish a specifi ctreatment of a general circumstance. For example, if our goal iseconomic prosperity and our strategy is investment attractionthen our policy might be “no rates for fi ve years for new businessesemploying more than 50 people”.There is much too little policy development in the pursuit ofcouncil goals.3. COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENTWe all make mistakes in this area, but here are my fi ve top tips:(a) It works best when underpinned by a previously articulatedand understood strategic vision –• People need understand where we are headed before they arecomfortable discussing how we get there.• The strategic vision, the big picture, creates legitimacy for themany decisions, some controversial, along the journey.(b) There is no place for spin. This is all about transparency – it’snot so much what we decided at last week’s council meetingbut why we reached that decision. There are four reasons toengage –• Are we keeping promises (accountability)?• Are we grasping new opportunities (leadership)?18 | GN | FEBRUARY/MARCH 2010STEPSTO GOODYou know that goodgovernance isimportant, but howdoes your councilget there?Philip Shanahan hassome simple solutions.[Vision 2010.]1ST0EPSGOVERNANCEFEBRUARY/MARCH 2010 | GN | 19• Can people infl uence decisions (participation)?• Can people access services and opportunities (access andinclusion)?(c) Repetition and simplicity – we compete for people’s attentionin this marketplace. When you are sick of telling them, they’vejust started listening.(d) Be clear about the engagement you seek. Use an accreditedmodel like the International Association for PublicParticipation’s system to match the kind of community inputyou are really seeking with the engagement strategy you areemploying.(e) Be multi faceted. All the tools at our disposal are appropriatein different situations. Try using Twitter, blogging or justdelivering an A4-sheet to every home in a street about tobe reconstructed to tell them how much it costs, who is thecontractor, why the street needs a total makeover and who toring with problems.4. CEO MANAGEMENTSome still don’t understand the fundamental importance ofproperly managing the CEO. There is absolutely no place for‘folksy’ arrangements. And those who treat CEO performancemanagement light-heartedly or without rigour don’t understandthe power of the process to achieve real results.5. COUNCIL MEETINGSThe single most important governance activity which forges agovernance reputation is the council meetings.They create the governance vibe in your municipality.Some tips:(a) Fill each agenda with strategic, broad issues straight from thecouncil plan. If people aren’t talking about the issues in thepub, why are these issues on your agenda? I get annoyed whenpeople congratulate themselves on a quick council meeting– aren’t there any problems in those municipalities? Qualityagendas need quality planning and preparation.(b) Every council meeting should demonstrate who is in charge– by the way, councillors are – so:• Staff don’t talk much.• No ‘received’ or ‘to be noted’ recommendations – everyreport must invite councillor intervention.• Interventions from councillors need to be organised – who isthe council ‘whip’?• Every report includes sound expert advice, information andevidence.• Always be briefed, agree on no surprises or ambushes.6. REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNANCEMost thinking about governance is about corporate governance– councillors acting as a council. However, the electoral systemseems to mimic state and federal governments – councillors feellike a representative. Citizens treat councillors as a representative.They reckon they are a constituent. Local governments mustdevelop sophisticated systems and protocols that enablecouncillors to handle constituent representations. However, thosesystems and protocols need to protect and enhance corporategovernance – not undermine it.7. STEWARDSHIP AND BUSINESS MANAGEMENTCouncillors have an obligation to act in the long-term bestinterests of the municipality. That’s stewardship. So:• Monitor progress• Manage assets• Leave the municipality in better state than you found it• Understand the long term implications of decisions• Manage risks• Strive to improve service effectiveness and effi ciency.8. RELATIONSHIPSRelationships are usually affected by behaviours. Where behaviourcauses collateral damage to relationships we often get people inthe decision making process ‘playing the man not the ball’. Thatis, being in confl ict with a person instead of their opinion.Poor relationships, regrettably, usually result in lousy decisions.Councillors and their colleagues are all on the governmentbenches – relationships usually matter.9. ADVOCACYIt’s very important to your community. We already know thata signifi cant improvement in your community’s rating of youradvocacy effort will almost always be accompanied by improvedratings for all of your services and your overall performance.Advocacy works best when it comes from previous articulatedstrategic positions. In other words, if something is reallyimportant to your community, it ought to be in your councilplan. ‘Left fi eld’ advocacy is seldom appreciated and sometimes adownright failure.10. ETHICSThis is obvious. If they think you are dodgy, your good governancereputation is in tatters. If in some circumstance you feel confl icted,remember two things. Firstly, how would you feel if the whole storywas on the front page of the local paper – except your side of thestory. Secondly, use your instincts and intuition to help you decidewhat is best. Then check the rules verycarefully. If you only look at the rules, you’rebound to get confused and miss the point.So those are my ten key concepts. Goodgovernance isn’t so hard – it just deservesour careful attention.“WE NEED TO LEARN THESE PROCESSES,MODIFY THEM WHEN NECESSARY,UNDERSTAND THEM DEEPLY, REPEATTHEM UNDER PRESSURE AND TRUST INOUR CAPABILITIES TO DELIVER.”PHILIP SHANAHANIS A FORMER CEO OFDAREBIN CITY COUNCIL.HE HAS WORKED INLOCAL AND STATEGOVERNMENT FOR30