The Ethical Optimist

As a native of NJ, I tend to pay close attention to press involving auto insurance rates…after all, we pay some of the highest rates in the nation. So, the news reports this morning of Progressive’s Black Box idea gave me pause.

Here’s how it works, Progressive (an auto insurance carrier) has begun offering drivers the chance to cut their auto insurance costs based on how they actually drive via a high-tech monitoring device installed in their cars. So, instead of rating your driving ability on arbitrary criteria such as your credit score or age, they rate it on …gee, your actual driving ability.

At first pass, it sounded enticing. Then, after reading my morning paper, I got in my car to drive my three children to various jobs, camps, etc., and wondered if I really wanted big brother watching me from above as I blew threw a yellow light (okay, it was really pink), going 45 in a 40 so I could make it to the first stop in time.

Mind you, I’ve only had one accident in the 30 years I’ve been driving, and that was at the age of 19.

Then I started thinking, what if there was a black box at work? What if it monitored every phone call, email, pitch letter, typo, etc.? Or, what if clients could log on and view the team at work…track how much time they actually spent on accounts, could listen in on pitch calls, strategy sessions, etc.? What would it mean to the average agency?

What if it were linked to compensation?

Hmmm…..interesting food for thought.

I supposed it would work very much like the black box in my car…it would make us more accountable for what we do.

So, the question for today is, “Where is your black box?” Perhaps it is, “Who is your black box?” How do you instill into every employee that sense of accountability and responsibility to the client and their business? Perhaps by letting them know that “big brother” is inside each and everyone one of them.

Hey folks.  You may have noticed that my posts are a bit screwed up…bear with me. I’ve revamped the site and am moving to a new host server, and we’ve lost some recent posts.  Just got back from a week on the road and things are a bit hectic so I’ve got some catching up to do! I’ll be back in a bit…thanks for your patience.

Remember Kermit singing, “It’s not easy being green”? Well, it’s not easy being a PR ethicist either! There are days when I feel like I’m swimming upstream.

Such is the case with the brouhaha over Andrew Cohen’s on-camera essay for CBS News’ “Sunday Morning” program this past weekend. A show which, by the way, relies heavily on PR folks for its content.

Mr. Cohen felt the need to lambaste my profession for pointing out the ethical faux pas made by former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan in admitting that he had “lied” to the American people in his role as mouthpiece for the Bush Administration.

Cohen feels that we dare not point the finger when we are “an industry, the every essence of which is to try to convince people that a turkey is really an eagle.”   He goes on to say “Show me a PR person who is “accurate” and “truthful,” and I’ll show you a PR person who is unemployed.”

Really? I seem to be doing quite well…maybe it’s because I’ve built my business based on being an ethical PR practitioner? I actually have a great business BECAUSE I’m honest.

Frankly, I think Cohen let his personal bias against PR folks, who reporters have a love/hate relationship with, cloud his objectivity.

Needless to say, a veritable horde of PR folks went on the defense, including the PRSA.  Jeffrey Julin, Chairman & CEO of PRSA (and a great guy, by the way), made a great point when he wrote, “For public relations professionals, engaging diverse and often skeptical audiences requires top-flight skills in communications, creativity and even persuasion, but a trust once lost cannot be regained. Unemployment, contrary to your opinion, is reserved for the professional who has lost his or her credibility.”

Jeff’s right on the mark.  If I was a “flack” I wouldn’t have the solid relationships with clients, reporters and others who are my bread and butter.

Are there unethical PR people? Of course there are. There are unethical people, period…in every profession.  Like lawyers and journalists, we get a bad rap because we’re more visible than many other professions.  When we have something to say, it’s out there for the world to see…and it’s an increasingly transparent world.

Cohen seems to be whining under the resulting onslaught from the PR community.  In fact, he says he is “now the target of a public relations effort to ridicule my effort, my points, my character and integrity.”  Really Andy, talk about spin and hyperbole! Conspiracy theory anyone? Yeah, we all got together at the local Starbucks and planned the campaign against you (but keep that under wraps).

Then, talk about liars, he says, “I am not taking it personally.”  Bullshit, of course you are! Who wouldn’t? Are you now exempt from the human race?  You said something ridiculous and now you’re trying to explain yourself.  Hey, just admit you went overboard (you tried, but it was a lame attempt) and take the hit.

His resulting diatribe of defense holds little water…more the ramblings of a child caught with his hand in the cookie jar who now says he never wanted a cookie in the first place.

In any event, he does make one relevant suggestion in saying, “use this [sic] as an opportunity to discuss among yourselves how a profession built on spin can survive with its credibility intact in a world where people are more sophisticated than ever in ferreting out such spin from the truth.”

He’s quite right.  The world is increasingly transparent and those who survive on spin won’t survive for long.  We need to take a closer look at the clients we represent and whether or not we are the stewards of an honest and open dialog. If we’re not, we have some explaining to do.

That said, every voice has a right to be heard and represented whether the media or public agree with it or not.  That’s not spin, it’s democracy.

Wow! There is so much to write about this week, I can barely keep up!

First and foremost is all the buzz about former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan and his new book.  My fellow PR colleagues are coming out of the woodwork to comment on his revelation that he “lied” on behalf of the Bush administration.

It’s an interesting ethical debate, but I think many are missing the larger picture.

One of McClellan’s quotes really hit home for me.  In an AP Television interview he said, “You’re in a bubble atmosphere, and sometimes because of your affection for the person you’re working for and your belief in that person, you sometimes lose perspective.”

It was the “bubble” atmosphere comment that got me.  It goes back to some of my earlier comments about how organizations need to build an ethical culture.  A former employer, Herb Corbin, used to say, “The fish stinks from the head.” What he meant was, the head of the organization sets the tone for ethical behavior.  So, it begs the question, how culpable was McClellan within the context of the culture of the White House?

As many of you know, I routinely do ethics training workshops. One of the things I’ve learned is that the rank and file are often afraid to go against the status quo, even if their feelings or beliefs conflict with what’s going on around them.

It’s up to the leaders of an organization to make clear where the ethical bar resides.

Sadly, a recent survey done by PR News indicates that a majority of organizations conduct their own ethical training and report ethical violations directly to the CEO.  So, if the fish does indeed stink from the head, it’s the blind leading the blind in this case.

This is why we’re seeing a movement throughout local governments, NGOs and the like to hire outside ethics trainers and develop more effective ethics training programs.

More importantly, procedures for the anonymous reporting of ethics violations or concerns need to be in place so people feel free to speak up before these issues snowball into crisis situations.  In these cases, there must also be a mechanism for oversight and enforcement.

Just telling people to be “ethical” and expecting them to make the right decisions isn’t enough. People cannot operate in a vacuum, and they need to know someone will listen to, and act upon, their concerns.

In the end, it also boils down to personal responsibility.  When someone has a high-paying, powerful position, it’s not always easy to walk away.  That’s a very personal decision they need to make.  McClellan ultimately resigned and came clean.  Despite the criticism, he made a decision that he felt was right for him.

Could he have done it differently? Perhaps…but before we judge the individual, let’s take a closer look at the bubble in which he found himself.