In 2008 the United States experienced an economic meltdown.  Some say it is now a full blown recession and others claim indications of a recovery.  Either way, there is no money.

When there is no money, salaries and benefits remain stagnant, training budgets shrink and equipment we have taken for granted is no longer affordable.  Anyone looking to compensation and benefits for work fulfillment is in serious trouble.

So if there is no money, what do we look to for fulfillment in our work?  What kind of environment can leadership create that will sustain the organization, its people and the integrity of both through difficult economic times?

The answer lies in values, specifically values that have proven to sustain over time.  The answer lies in the attitude with which we view our work and public service.  In difficult economic times, we are forced to look inward and ask, “Why?”  Why am I doing this?  If it isn’t for the money (which it certainly isn’t right now) why do I choose to work to serve others?

Certain values are universal.  We know them to be because enough people in enough places over enough time have stated, written and lived them to be.  All kinds of values fall into the category of universally accepted values.  The list includes things like trustworthiness, respect, fairness, responsibility, caring, mutuality and generativity to name a few.  These are values that have been stated in various ways by various cultures over various times.

There is a different set of values as well.  Kind of a subset of these universal values, but not quite.  The different set of values holds a characteristic that the universal values may or may not hold — they get people jazzed up to respond to leadership.

When leadership and these values that sustain meet, wonderful things happen.  Values that create vitality and sustain an organization include:

• Regeneration – Investment in people for the greater good
• Integrity – Aligning with something greater than ourselves
• Humility – The desire to learn and serve
• Optimism – A confident and realistic outlook of the best for the future
• Receptivity – Making time and room for people
• Responsibility – The commitment to seek a high lievel of excellence

How these made the list?  They are not stated values, they are recognized values with a track record of creating an environment that shows energy and growth.  Growth both in character and effectiveness.  These are values that have helped governments overcome corruption, they have helped organizations grow and stay centered and they have helped individuals grow in their professional life.

Why we work will always trump what we work for, but this comes with a caveat.  The caveat is this, eventually the economic situation will turn around.  It always does.  Organizations wishing to keep valued employees must eventually make up for lost economic time.

Reinforcing Desired Values

If you are interested in effective vibrant orgaizational values, you need to know that it is not enough to just say, “These are our values.”  Values are not picked like apples off a tree, they are lived then recognized.

Start by listening to the stories you hear in your organization.  What are your people talking about?  What are they fond of?  What are they not so fond of?  From these stories you will start to recognize your values.

If you are not seeing vitality, ask yoursel and your employees what needs to change in ourselves as individuals and as an organization that will bring vitality.  Always start with behaviors.  This can be a humbling process, but the benefits far outweigh the initial discomfort of honest introspection.

Steps that can help you set a positive attitude for your organization include Identifying – Telling – Living your values.

We identify values through listening and introspection (see above).

Once identified, it is important to tell them both in writing and in word.  Telling reinforces.  Research shows that people respond to what words are put before them both in writing and in word.  Speak your values and write your values.

It is not enough to simply speak and write values.  We must also live them.  Most communication is non-verbal and the people who work in your organization are intelligent perceptive people.  They will spot a disconnect between actions and values in a heartbeat.  You are not fooling anyone.  Be prepared to fully live any value important enough to identify and tell.  Commit to your values.

Processes are important for reinforcing values.  Processes provide a fair mechanism for evaluating behaviors.  Many professional organizations have identified effective processes for reinforcing values.  Do some research and find what works best for your organization.

A word of caution, a little process goes a long way.  Nothing will oppress and burden people more than layers of bureaucracy and rules.

Processes should serve people, not the other way around.  Use process to keep the values in front of people.

Patience is essential.  Eventually people will disappoint us and we will disappoint them.  That is human nature.  Behaviors you see today are not the same as you will see tomorrow.

Growth and vitality are measured over long periods of time.  It may be tempting to react situationally.  When this temptation comes, remember that you put a lot of work and effort and went through a fair amount of pain to identify your values.  Honor them by sticking to them.

Develop a culture of apology and forgiveness.  A lot of these go a long way.

The Problem With Values

If values are not supported by a firm foundation and a system of accountability, they become subjective.  We tend to view ourselves morally in a more positive light than we view others.  This is human nature.

A solid foundation is vital.  We cannot self-evalute values so they must be held to a “higher science.”  Virtue serves this purpose.

Cardinal virtues, theological virtues, classical virtues, we can name many different virtues.  Naming is not enough. We must identify virtues.  Virtues make their subject good.  Virtue is the foundation of values.

We grow through virtuous habit. Virtue does this, it moves us from one state of character and conduct to another higher state of character and conduct.

A life that is not growing habitually is a life that lacks virtue.  Without virtue, values are meaningless.  What growth do you and others see in your life?

Integrity

Integrity brings life to values.

We hold many inerests and loyalties in our lives.  In our culture the prevailing  ethic is to compartmentalize our interests and loyalties.  We devote an amount of time and money to a loyalty or interest then move on to the next.  We call the first one we give our time and money to our priority, but it is not really a priority, it is just first in line.

This compartmentalization is what leads to a dual life.  For example, a husband and father can claim family first, spend several hours on a wonderful afternoon with his wife and children then go out at night and carouse with his friends in all kinds of ways that dishonor his wife and children, especially his daughter.  In the man’s mind he has served both needs.

Life doesn’t work that way.  Integrity is the thing that makes our integral parts whole.  When all aspects of our lives work together to serve a greater good, we are acting with integrity.

What is that greater good?  No one but yourself can tell you what it is.  You have to think about it and consider, “Do I have something in my life that serves all my interests together?”

Seek a greater good.  The affect can never be greater than the cause.

Bribes Put You on the Fastlane to Poverty, Death
Published on 17/04/2010
By Alex Kiprotich

Many Government officers, including the police, would rather take the bullet than admit to corruption charges, but not one Superintendent of Administration Police Gitahi Kanyeki.

Kanyeki is breaking this ground by speaking the truth, which he believes would eventually set the force free. And it is all in a social website, the Facebook.

He is charting unfamiliar territories for the Disciplined Forces who have been accused of all manner of ills, including leading corruption indices.

Kanyeki is puzzling many in his crusade for a corrupt free force by facing the public and confessing openly he has, in the past, taken bribes.
“Let us confront the hard facts. The nation is crying for change but nobody wants to change himself,” he says.

He says lives of police officers are full of tribulations, not because they were born to suffer, but because of curses they receive from those who bribe to have justice.

The superintendent says he has resorted to using the social websites such as the Facebook to reach a wide audience. He posts videos of himself addressing gatherings in official uniform.

“It is hard to have an officer in uniform confess to public that he has taken bribes,” says the 45-year-old officer.

Kanyeki says he took the bold step after realising most Kenyans extol the virtue of being honest but none was courageous enough to admit engaging in corruption.

“So many of us say corruption is bad but very few are bold enough to confess it when involved,” he says.

In the Internet videos, the officer introduces himself as a police officer and urges colleagues and the public to be honest to win the fight against the vice.

The last bribe

“I used to take bribes. It is evil and a cancer that kills eventually,” he says.

Kanyeki, who was the Molo Commandant before being transferred to Administrative Police headquarters in Nairobi as Staffing Officer One at the operations department, says the last amount he took, as a bribe, was Sh500.

 The bribe, he says, was to allow a woman to transport some firewood out of a forest.

“From then I have resolved not to take bribes again in my life,” he states.
He now warns all that corruption does not help and comes with curses from the giver.

He says those who receive bribes, keep spending the cash on unending life problems.

“Corruption is the worst source of money in life. It is cursed money and all those solicit bribes die poor,” he says.

He says when he started the campaign many officers who condoned the vice shunned him, but they have eventually seen the value of his message.

He says he was moved when he, and other officers under his command, visited an old woman whose livestock had been stolen in Molo. They found the granny on her knees, praying to God to punish the thieves.

He says it was not only the woman who aggrieved but also her only child and a cat next to her who all benefited from the cattle.

“This moved me because I knew for the thief to evade arrest, he must bribe an officer somewhere. I thought of the crying child, the kneeling woman, the cat, and their suffering touched me,” he explains.

Kanyeki’s efforts to fight corruption and change the image of the force have earned him recognition.

Last year during Jamhuri Day celebrations, he was awarded the Head of State Commendation and this year he scooped the 2009 overall best officer in innovation.

He was also awarded for his role in promoting peace in Molo during the post-election violence in 2008.

“The two major communities in the region were too hostile and we had to device ways of diffusing the tension,” the officer recalls.

He and other officers in Molo organised peace meetings with the locals and with time, they appreciated their role in bringing communities together.

Viewing with suspicion

The commandant, who joined the forces as a musician in Brass Band in 1984, calls on the public to help change the image of police force instead of just branding them corrupt, cursing or viewing them with suspicion.

“There are good officers in the force and the rest must change. It would be very difficult to answer a child who demands to know why you extorted bribes from innocent people during your retirement days,” he warns.

Kanyeki says his campaign has paid off, especially at his former station in Molo. None of my officers has been implicated in the embezzlement of the Internally Displaced Persons cash but other Government officials in the region have, he says.

He urges leaders to lead from the front and set good example to their juniors. “If our leaders lead from the front, the subjects won’t go against the grain.”

Early in the first decade of the 21st century, shortly after the 9/11/01 attacks on the World Trade Center a pastor friend of mine asked me what impact the attacks had on law enforcement.

I thought for a while.  Some of the immediate effects were obvious, a heightened sense of alert, lots of suspicious activity that was never suspicious before, a heightened awareness of people that didn’t look just like us.

For example, I flew to Toronto, Ontario several weeks after 9/11.  I remember having to get to the airport over an hour and a half earlier than I normally would have.  I remember seeing armed, uniformed military police everywhere.  This wasn’t the United States I remembered from just less than a month previous.  This impression was sealed when, as we waited to board the plane a random search was announced prior to boarding.  The first name called forward for the random extended search was a decidedly middle-eastern name.

All of these were immediate effects of 9/11.  The same type of effect as the renewal in patriotism, people flocking to places of worship, a renewed sense of kindness and oneness.  All of these immediate effects eventually faded into the background as life hummed along and people’s sense of hypervigilance, patriotism and renewed community subsided.

There were lasting effects though and this is what my pastor friend was getting at when he asked how law enforcement changed with 9/11.  Prior to 9/11 law enforcement and government service in general went something like this:  a) We’ll tell you what the problems in your community are, then b) we will tell you what we are doing to address those problems, then c) we’ll tell you how we did in solving the problem.  Public service prior to 9/11 came distinctly in the flavor of, “We are the government, we are here to help.”

After 9/11, and I mean immediately after 9/11, that all changed.  People began to define what the issues and problems are that we need to address.  Government could no longer afford to ignore problems that government did not see as important.  A new era of responsiveness began.

The concept of military and law enforcement intelligence also came to the forefront.  We saw terror alerts change colors frequently.  People began to demand information that would keep them safe, tell them where not to travel to and tell them who to look for.  Since then, we have seen the emergence of the world wide web, creating a new publishing forum for documents on the Internet, and a new responsiveness on the part of the government (it is not a surprise that the more user-friendly IRS emerged during this time).  A new era of accountability and transparency began.

These changes have been the standard since 9/11,but now there are different forces acting on government that are demanding new competencies to deliver government service as we enter the second decade of the 21st century. (courtesy Souder, Betances, and Associates, Inc.)

These major forces include:

• Globalization.  Government service and law enforcement in general is no longer about home town issues only.  What is happening in a person’s neighborhood is still what will impact quality of life and a person still remains much more likely to be the victim of a theft of liquor from their garage than a victim of terrorism.  While all this is still true, the people we serve are faced more and more with the threat of fraud originating in other places and even other countries.  Jurisdictional lines are blurring and collaboration and cooperation are of essence to efficiently deliver public service in the Internet age.

 

• Technological shifts.  Government and law enforcement traditionally function in a vertical system, from top to bottom with measures at every step for command and control.  The world however, including our society in the United States is functioning almost completely in a horizontal system where relationships trump systems in helping people get things done.  This is profoundly effecting society in general and entities that function vertically specifically.  The speed of technology is outpacing systems and laws for data accountability.  The exponential technological shifts we are facing will require a whole new way of thinking about data and how we in government share it.

 

• Demographic Changes.  Demographic changes come in two flavors, age and race/culture.  In terms of age, After 2010, the number of people over age 65 will grow dramatically as baby boomers reach this age bracket.  The very old population, those age 85 and older, will rise rapidly until 2010, after which its growth will slow, reflecting the low birth rates during the depression of the 1930s.  Today’s elderly population and an anticipated future elderly population will have an impact on the delivery of police and government services and the type of family structure in the community with a growing number of multi-generational households.  Elderly people not only will increase in number rapidly after 2010, but they also will account for a larger proportion of the total population.  As this rise in elderly people occurs, the dependency ratio – the ratio of the number of children and elderly to the number of working-age people – also will begin to go up.  A relatively small number of workers will have to support a large number of retirees and children, increasing the potential for inter-generational conflict.  In terms of race/culture, right here in Minnesota the percent of Minnesota’s population that is nonwhite or Latino is projected to grow from 14 percent in 2005 to 25 percent in 2035 with the numbers of Latino, black, and Asian Minnesotans projected to more than double over the next 30 years.  All regions of the state will become more racially and ethnically diverse than they are now.  The trends in my home state match the trends nationwide.  An increase of even 1% or 2% of any race other than white will have an impact on the delivery of government services and law enforcement.  A change in the racial demographic will bring unique cultural differences that will impact the delivery of police services.  The primary implication is in language.  It will be necessary for police officers to be at least familiar with different languages than English as the racial demographic changes.  In addition to language, changes in racial demographics bring issues with cultural differences in family dynamics and community interaction.  A cultural competency is critical.

Change is happening almost constantly now.  Are you ready?  Do you understand what competency gaps exist that need to be filled in order to serve effectively in the 21st century?

John Bermel, Influence International