By Neal Trautman

Ethics teams can play a vital role in achieving the department’s ethical mission statement. As Tom Peters, co-author of the best seller "In Search of Excellence", said in reference to the power of teamwork. "The amount of performance improvement that is possible from these turned on teams is not small — it is enormous."

A team member is any employee who solves or acts on ethical improvement opportunities by participating on a team.

Virtually any task can be accomplished better with an effective and efficient team, than by someone working alone. Though teamwork is superior to individual effort, it cannot reach its greatest potential without team members understanding their responsibilities.

• Assist in identifying areas for improvement,
• Provide solutions through team effort,
• Educate yourself about the team process,

• Participate in team activities,

• Support the overall ethics mission,
• Be an ethical role model.

Selecting Team Members

There are two crucial guidelines for selecting those who will be members of the ethics committee/team. First, they must have a strong, positive reputation for personal integrity. Second, attempt to select individuals who have experience or a current assignment in the following areas.

• Background investigations/hiring process

• The FTO program

• Corrections (if you have a jail)

• Patrol

• Civilian

• Investigations

Each member of the team should be responsible for continually assessing, enhancing or maintaining the integrity in one or more specific areas of the organization. In addition to the above areas, responsibilities for maintaining positive role modeling, accountability and the overall culture of the department should be assigned to someone of the team. Each member will give a status report related to the integrity of their assigned areas at every team meeting.

The ethics team process is a way of insuring ethical behavior by team members learning how to effectively influence the conduct of all employees so that unethical actions don’t occur.

There are four key principles that build a strong foundation for ethics teams: clarity, objectivity, commitment and ownership. Each principle is applied by team members in the following way:

• Clarity - Has the team defined the issue, objective or challenge so that everyone on the team understands it?

• Objectivity - Has the information been used in such a way that the team overcomes personal bias?

• Commitment - Has an atmosphere been established that conveys interest and trust through keeping everyone involved and informed in the teams progress and process?

• Ownership - Does the team have both authority and responsibility for the area it has chosen to improve?

The above principles are important because they will keep the team from getting sidetracked and wasting time. Whether working as a team or individually, the principles help to anyone to be more effective and efficient in everything they do.

P-D-C-A (Plan, Do, Check & Act) is a process the team uses to guide itself toward the team goals & objectives. Many specific tasks will be faced and overcome by the team. The P-D-C-A process keeps team efforts organized. It’s simply an extremely effective way to approach any objective.

l Plan - Establish team goals and plan how to achieve them.

l Do - Do what you have planned to see how it works.

l Check - After doing it, analyze the information to determine what worked well and what didn’t.

l Act - Based upon the analysis of your results, act to improve the process.

Just as ethics must become a way of life for all employees, team members should apply P-D-C-A to everything they do. It is simple and creates continual improvement. In addition, it’s motivating because the team accomplishes so much more than standard committees.

Everyone shares the frustration of having attended meetings only to leave feeling the meeting was a waste of time. This happens when the person conducting the meeting is unprepared, with no organized agenda, process or meeting guidelines to follow.

For teams to have productive meetings they must set meetings guidelines. While these "rules of conduct" can be customized by every team, the following are suggested examples.

• Members must work hard and be responsible.
• Only criticize ideas, not people.
• Always keep an open mind
• Attend all Meetings
• Do not be late for meetings
• Pay attention and participate

The ethics council appoints a team leader while teams are being organized. He or she should be an individual who is respected by fellow employees, self-driven, goal oriented, organized and understands how to motivate others.

• Leading teams through the team process.

• Leading team meetings according to a meeting agenda he or she has written prior to the meeting.

• Teaching team members how to use basic statistical tools.

• Informing supervision and management of the teams progress.

• Keeping team records.

• Being a good leader.

• Acting as a communicator between the team and other areas of the organization.

The team should select someone to permanently take minutes of every meeting. The minutes should, at a minimum, include the following;

• Time, date and location of meeting,

• Who attended the meeting,

• What occurred during the meeting.

The recorder should always read the minutes from the last meeting after the team leader reviews the meeting agenda.

by Neal Trautman

Tuesday, February 03, 2004   dw