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Contrary to popular belief, judgment can be taught. As I wrote in last week’s post, “Matters of Judgment Can Be Taught: Starting with Leader (Mis)Behavior”, most leaders know the rules, but some choose to disregard them, in a misguided belief that the same standards don’t apply to them, that they won’t be caught, or that their great value to the organization overrides any misdeeds.

Where ambiguous workplace issues are concerned, it has become even trickier to determine when certain behavior crosses a line or whether it is merely a nettlesome business issue that requires careful factual analysis and an examination of the issues within the broader context of multiple circumstances.

For years, I’ve heard people say that you can’t teach judgment. Admittedly, I’ve said it myself a few times.

However, I have recently realized that it’s just not true.

There are two basic areas where judgment in legal, ethical and values-based workplace behavior can be taught.

The first area involves instances of leader misbehavior, as we saw with HP CEO Mark Hurd or even more blatant instances where leaders fraudulently violate rules for their own personal interest or financial gain.

Every organization should have a few clear and unambiguous rules and principles that are followed and enforced at every level. These principles build culture and set standards that can readily and credibly spread throughout any organization.

A string of executive controversies over the summer months have brought this issue into stark contrast. Two bewildering examples drawn from recent headlines include the firing of the:

• University of Georgia’s athletic director following a DUI arrest (when part of his responsibilities involved encouraging fans not to drink at UGA sporting events)
• HP CEO for breaches of trust and conduct who had pledged to lead his business ethically

In setting standards, I suggest leaders and boards figure out what’s really important. If you don’t live up to these rules, you’re gone, no matter what position you hold or who you are.

Oracle’s Larry Ellison is flat out wrong. On Monday, he publicly declared that Hewlett-Packard made an epic blunder in releasing CEO Mark Hurd following an investigation triggered by allegations of sexual harassment.

In an impassioned e-mail to The New York Times, Ellison wrote:

"The HP board just made the worst personnel decision since the idiots on the Apple board fired Steve Jobs many years ago…In losing Mark Hurd, the HP board failed to act in the best interests of HP’s employees, shareholders, customers and partners. The HP board admits that it fully investigated the sexual harassment claims against Mark and found them to be utterly false."

After taking over as CEO in 2005, Mark Hurd revived HP, turning around its performance, making strategic acquisitions and trimming the workforce. When other technology companies and the stock market faltered in recent years, HP’s performance kept rocketing upward.

Late Friday, we read the shocking news announcing Hurd’s immediate resignation from HP as the result of a sexual harassment investigation.

While Jodie Fisher, a former HP contract worker, has charged Hurd with harassment, reports seemed to indicate that Hurd did not have an affair or sexual relationship with her. Instead, HP reported that he covered up his activities with the claimant by filing inaccurate expense reports, and may have authorized payment to her for business services she did not perform.

For Mr. Hurd, with a solid business reputation as a buttoned-up, cost-conscious and results-focused leader, this is a tragic plunge in professional fortunes and an irrevocable blot on his career. His name is now linked with the scandalous circumstances that caused him to leave HP. He will be the ridiculed on late-night television, and more facts may surface in the mainstream and tabloid media. In ways we can’t yet anticipate, it will also affect HP’s direction as it unexpectedly begins searching for a new CEO.

I’ve been watching BP’s television commercials flooding the airways. They provide an impressive narrative on the wide range of actions and the commitment the company is making to clean up the Deep Horizon oil spill disaster.

As I saw my third or fourth ad today while exercising, I wondered how much BP was spending to spread the word about its response as part of its “We will make this right” campaign.

I did a quick Google search and learned that, as of June, BP was spending an estimated $50 million on TV advertising to manage its image, according to the Houston Chronicle. It would be hard to believe that amount hasn’t increased in light of the welcomed “good” news being reported right now about bringing the oil well under control.

Regardless of the final ad spending totals, I would imagine that the advertising costs will far exceed what the company and its partners would have spent to fix the problem and “make it right” before the disaster occurred.

Take a harsh economy, add an unstable personality, mix in daily personal and workplace pressures and toss in a triggering event – small but repeated offenses or cruel indignities. Sometimes the perfect storm will lead to unfathomable tragedy.

We don't know what trigger caused Omar S. Thornton, 34, to open fire and kill nine of his co-workers in Manchester, Conn. We know from news reports that he was losing his job, but thousands lose their job every week for a wide range of reasons and they don’t lead to violence.

Imagine this conversation:

Doctor: “We’ve reviewed the tests; our findings are in line with all of the other opinions. You need this operation. Without it, your life is at risk.”

Patient: “This is exactly what I’ve been told; I did my research and know you’re the best. Just one question: How long will it take to perform the surgery?”

Doctor: “The operation will last 3 hours.”

Patient: “Sorry, I’m too busy. I can only give you 2.”

That was the question posed during a recent client meeting. How do we get people to care more about each other? How do we get people to be more engaged and trusting? How do we eradicate negative behaviors from our workplace and encourage a higher level of professionalism?

Watching our clients shake their heads in frustration and wonder out loud about why it was so hard to get people to change, I smiled . . . and waited.

When they grew quiet, I asked, “Do you remember the first time you used hand sanitizer?” Blank stares.

I saw the red light go off – it blinked rapidly, insistently. The vibration began a few seconds later. I looked down: “You need to call the office immediately. We have to talk.” I called in. You have to make a decision – now. I didn’t have time to think. But I made the decision and made a big mistake. It cost me $10,000.

After that, I got rid of my pager as soon as I could.  That was 15 years ago. 

Now, I’m more closely bound to my BlackBerry than I ever was to that primitive pager.  The red blinking light goes off all the time –not just when a call comes in, but also when anyone has a random thought and pushes the email send button. My BlackBerry lights up 100 times a work day, 12 times an hour, every five minutes or so. The red light means danger – there’s a crisis that threatens you and needs your attention now, not later, but right now. Stop what you are doing, pay attention, act, respond!

Stephen M. Paskoff, president and CEO of Atlanta-based ELI^®, Inc., recently spoke at a Diversity Speaker Series for employees of The Coca-Cola Company, an ELI client.

In his presentation, "Building a Civil Workplace: But What Exactly Do I Do?" Mr. Paskoff led an interactive discussion among Coca-Cola employees about the behaviors and other skills that need to be practiced daily to build and reinforce a diverse, inclusive, collaborative and Civil Treatment^® workplace.

Some time ago, I had lunch with a colleague, a compliance officer for a widely known and respected organization who told me he’d spent several months reading almost one million emails as part of discovery in an employment case. Now he had only about 72,000 more emails to go.

During the discovery process, he reviewed executive correspondence, middle-manager emails, and exchanges between entry-level personnel. He discovered what certain people really thought about their team members, their jobs, roles and the company strategy. He read jokes, some proper and some not, and saw lots of exchanges that had no work purpose whatsoever.

A week ago, I listened to the best guitar music on Earth with my good friend and colleague, Ray Amelio, and 80,000 other fans at Eric Clapton’s “Crossroads Guitar Festival” in Chicago.

For 12 hours, the hot Chicago sun blistered us, despite lots of suntan lotion, as we listened to performances by ZZ Top, Robert Randolph, Vince Gill, Sheryl Crow, Eric Clapton, Steve Winwood, Buddy Guy, Robert Cray, BB  King, Derek Trucks, Susan Tedeschi and Jonny Lang, to name just a few of my favorites.

From time to time, conversations with prospective clients go like the one I had last week.

“They‘re simply not getting it. Managers, executives and employees are saturated with information and they’re zoning out. We give our leaders and employees great training videos to watch. We have them go to classes that address our issues. We deliver engaging e-learning and we send them reminders. But something’s not working. Not enough are getting key points and applying what they’re supposed to learn. How do we fix this?”

If you treat people right, they will want to come to work – and when they do, they’ll be more productive. And when they’re more productive, your business will be more profitable.

It’s a philosophy that ELI^® has stood on for over 20 years.

This week the U.S. Department of Labor ("DOL") issued an Administrator's Interpretation of the definition of "son or daughter" under the Family and Medical Leave Act ("FMLA") that will permit individuals who serve in the role of a parent to take leave upon the birth or adoption of a son or daughter or to care for a son or daughter with a serious health condition, even if the individual is not the child's biological parent or legal guardian.

This interpretation, announced in a June 22 DOL press release, will allow gay and lesbian parents, as well as grandparents or other relatives, who do not have a legal or biological parent-child relationship with the child to take covered leave.

Ask senior executives to assess the risk in a business matter and many will turn first to their lawyers for guidance. They’ll seek a legal opinion on topics ranging from employment decisions, to work practices, to product development, to financial transactions to manufacturing processes.

In our litigious society where legal costs and damages can be crippling, this makes sense.  Skilled lawyers can quickly identify legal hazards and readily find cases where bad outcomes occurred or were prevented.  They will also identify strategies for minimizing risk and lay out defenses which can be constructed to limit exposure.  

But my advice to organizational leaders is to rely on their legal experts with caution and in the proper context.  It’s dangerous to focus only on legal risk and potential limits on exposure alone, or to give them overarching precedence in looking at business issues. 

Do a quick Google search for “Best Places to Work,” and you’ll turn up an astonishing 92 million results, including Fortune Magazine’s Top 100 Employers, Working Mother 100 Best Companies, and Best Places to Work in Federal Government.  Scroll down and you’ll see a best companies list for just about every major city in America.

For the organizations lucky enough to find a highly coveted spot on these “Best Places to Work” lists, it’s a public relations triumph. However, I’m not sure what the acclaim really signifies. Nor do I know what it means for the people who actually work in the organizations that work in these “best” organizations.

Legal protections and the threat of financial damages clearly were not enough to prevent the recent catastrophic explosions on the BP deep-sea rig and in Massey Coal’s doomed mine.

Initially, the penalties imposed on BP were said to be limited to $75 million, a pittance compared to the vast wealth of sea-bottom treasure anticipated by successful drilling. In the case of Massey Coal, the company successfully contested fines and inspections, allowing them to reduce the cost of compliance while sowing the seeds of catastrophe.

In both of these tragedies, these organizations apparently had a distorted view of risk management. They apparently assumed that the risks of change, financial, operational, efficiency and others outweighed the costs and losses of less rigorous and, likely, legally mandated measures.

When the federal Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA) went into effect last November, many in the legal community -- including me -- questioned Approximately six months later, it’s still too soon to tell how the law will play out, as I point out in this video.

However, the EEOC recently reported one of its first GINA complaints, and it appears that the law may have a greater impact than many of us initially thought.

Two unrelated trends will soon collide at work, triggering a perfect storm of workplace discontent and employee disengagement

Miners used to carry a caged canary into new coal mines. As long as the canary kept singing, miners knew their air supply was safe. A dead canary signaled the need for an immediate evacuation.

The last canary disappeared from English coal mines in the late 1980s. Since then, miners have relied on inspections, instrumentation, regulation, administrative processes, complaint investigations, and their gut instincts to safeguard their lives.

Unlike human whistleblowers who often are ignored, called troublemakers, demoted, ostracized or fired, canaries send a clear and unmistakable signal of danger. With the recent tragedies at the Massey coal mine in West Virginia and the oil rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico, it may be time to bring back the canaries or listen to employees or others whose voices deliver the same message, as I suggest in this brief  video.

Two ELI clients recently asked me, “What does your company offer to refresh the Civil Treatment^® learning we’ve just done?” or “What workplace ethics and compliance training should we provide next?”

In some cases, these questions are prompted by new regulatory initiatives such as the Department of Labor’s new Plan/Prevent/Protect compliance strategy. For these clients, the immediate solution may be Wage & Hour-FLSA training.

For other HR executives, the more important and fundamental question is “What can we do now?” rather than “What can we do next?”

We need to banish soft skills at work. I’m not talking about the concept but the term. It’s misleading and counterproductive, making the underlying skills sound as if they are pointless, wasteful frills. Yet, any respected leader will tell you it’s the “soft skills” that distinguish effective leaders from outstanding operational producers or, at the management level, distrusted tyrants.

I just read and watched William Shakespeare’s history play, Henry V. The story tells how Henry V led his Army through France in 1415, defeating a much larger force at Agincourt.

A friend recently sent me a blog post advising employees how to diplomatically raise ethical workplace issues. Doing so may help prevent career damage and, in some instances, allow the problem to be investigated and resolved. The same week, I read an article written by a labor and employment lawyer who discussed how to avoid retaliation claims in terms of what is said and documented, including other minefields to avoid. Both made legitimate points, but each failed to address what I see as the most important issue.

Imagine that you go to work every day and are taunted to your face and called hurtful names by groups of your co-workers. Unrelenting insults and threats come blasting into your cell phone. You’re yelled at and mocked in front of your colleagues. Your manager sees some of this happen and asks you if you’re OK; you mumble “yes.” Later, you tell your leader you feel rotten, and you’re told it will get better if you ignore it. You do your best, and you keep going to work because you have to. Sometimes you’re literally pushed around and threatened with harm, and it doesn’t stop. And when you go home and go online, there’s the same stuff about you on your personal page for all your friends and the whole world to see. If you Google your name, the bad words and humiliating insults are there, all linked to you.

As I recently wrote, EEOC retaliation claims are on the rise. In fact, through last year, they represented the most frequently filed type of charge alleging illegal conduct. The EEOC and the statutes it enforces are only one source for such claims. Across the federal spectrum, a range of other laws prohibit retaliation, as do many state, local, and other administrative protections. Many of these regulations have enforcement provisions that can lead to massive liability. The pattern is simple: Someone raises a complaint and then alleges they were subsequently punished, with the result being that they suffered harm, potentially serious matters were ignored, and others were dissuaded from coming forward in the future.

We’ve made ethics, compliance, and daily behavioral standards too complex. By trying to convey too much, we accomplish too little. We need to simplify messages, repeat them to make them memorable, and cut through the clutter of information that confuses rather than clarifies our objectives. That’s my simple message; the rest of what follows is “proof.”

Bad doctors lose patients they shouldn’t, cause avoidable complications, distract team members who may deliver the wrong medication, or cause others to keep quiet when they should speak up about problems. I’m not talking about physicians who lack clinical skills, though some may. Rather, these bad docs may have great and even extraordinary talents. But they scream, berate, physically intrude, threaten, and demean team members – including other physicians, nurses, and other professionals – so abusively and repetitively that patient care may suffer as much as from acts of technical incompetence.

• The pharmaceutical firm that keeps selling a profitable medication though its researchers know it has significantly adverse side effects
• The hospital that tolerates physicians’ abusive behavior though aware of the distraction their conduct causes during day-to-day practice
• The automobile manufacturer that conceals a discovered defect that could cause fatalities rather than absorb the costs of expensive product recalls

Organizational disasters have resulted recently from each of these fact patterns. I know I’m not alone in noticing how the same kinds of action keep causing avoidable catastrophes.

“We’ve completed the investigation, and the matter has been resolved.”
“Did you verify what I told you? Has he/she been disciplined? Will this stop? What happens next?”
“All I can tell you is that this has been resolved; if you have further issues, please let us know. We are required to keep our findings and actions confidential. I’m sure you understand.”

Checklists save lives. That’s the key theme of Brigham and Women’s physician Atul Gawande’s insightful new book, The Checklist Manifesto.

“We’ve always worked through lunch.”
“I do all my admin stuff before the shift starts so I can focus on my real job.”
“I’ll do the training on my own time. I’m more productive that way.”

What’s striking in the daily employment law bulletins I read is that the biggest cases involve the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), until recently a long-slumbering phoenix.

Quick – name the largest employment discrimination settlements of 2009. Any of the top 10 will do.

The EEOC recently announced that retaliation charges topped the number of claims filed in fiscal year 2009.

Tiger Woods is in sex rehab, Jay Leno is returning to Tonight, Curt Schilling loves the Yankees, and Johnson and Johnson is charged with kickbacks and failure to address product safety issues.

Gilbert Arenas is a great basketball player. Not only does he have super skills and talent, but let’s not underestimate his smarts as he’s mastered a game with rules as complex as the Uniform Commercial Code.

As we enter into a new year, it is now time for resolutions and plans for 2010. Here's what I see as Ten Trends for '10, specifically as they apply to Civil Treatment^® topics...

My friend will lose his job soon – like too many others already have in this cruel, exhausting recession.

Safe cigarettes and risk-free investments are laughable verbal constructs used to lure the hapless, foolhardy, and unwary into buying hazardous products and parting with precious dollars at the cost of healthy caution.

Tiger Woods has been the premier sports brand for the past several years. We’ve wanted our businesses to perform like he plays golf, our kids to behave the way he acts, and our commitment and intensity to approach his impossible standards.

The New York Post made its own headlines last week, after being sued by a former employee for a range of blatant, outrageous acts of sex- and race-based discrimination and retaliation.

“We need your help – a doctor abused our patients. He’s gone, but this can’t happen again, ever.”

I’ve wondered when it would happen – for years there have been stories of athletes, proxies for other celebrities, who say and do what they want while their behavior is ignored, minimized, or attributed to “locker room” humor or conduct.

Steve Paskoff announces the three (3) Wii winners.

Steve Paskoff talks with a recently certified instructor about ELI’s programs and learning methodologies.

David Letterman is lucky. Some may question how that can be when his private affairs, literally, are now so public. And some may say, if he can do it and keep his job, so can I.

Last week’s White House meeting with Professor Henry Louis Gates, Sergeant James Crowley, President Barack Obama, and Vice President Joe Biden must have been the most publicized happy hour of the last 50 years (assuming, that is, that happy hours have been around that long).

View Stephen Paskoff's Video Blog about the changes to the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA).

I wish the whole world lived by the Prescriptive Rules^®. Have you ever been out with friends and had the deep desire to ask them to Guard their Words and Actions or to Get Help?

I just returned from a fantastic bike trip in France with my daughter, Rebecca, and my first cousin Craig, her godfather. We biked along the coast of Normandy and saw where our courageous soldiers stormed the treacherous beachheads to begin the D-Day invasion.

No matter what budget cutbacks or resource constraint we are faced with, one simple fact remains clear: It costs nothing for leaders to lead.

I recently facilitated a session for senior leaders of a public utility. In all ways, they were confident that they successfully lived by their values, with one exception: accountability.

Steve discusses the top HR challenge(s) organizations are facing.

View the latest Video Blog. Steve announces the iTouch winner of the ELI contest!

I had the recent opportunity to participate as a panelist at the Women in Cable Television (WICT) Event held in Seattle. Grace Killelea, Senior Vice President at Comcast, offered a keynote on The Four Cornerstones of Staying Essential.

ELI^® President Steve Paskoff announces the winner of the ELI contest.

Watch Steve's latest video blog on the Employee Free Choice Act.

ELI^® President Steve Paskoff welcomes viewers to his first video blog and announces the details of an ELI contest.

I was a discouraged defense trial attorney. During case after case, I was brought in to resolve a situation at a point where the facts had been established for as much as three years or more.

I’m a then and now member of the ELI^® team.

In late October, I had the privilege of speaking to 300 leaders employed by the Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM) in Nova Scotia.

Recently, I completed my first power-lifting competition.

This past May, I traveled with an ELI team to Glasgow, Scotland, to conduct a pilot session for a new client with offices in the U.S., Asia, and Europe.

A few months ago, I was in Belgium helping a U.S.-based client with a global mission...

I vividly recall a conversation I had in 2002 about a training company called ELI.

Actions may speak louder than words, but few things speak louder than words that are documented.

This fall we’ll introduce an updated version of Civil Treatment® for Managers and Civil Treatment® for Employees.

I remember times in my past life in human resources when I was juggling 23 (count them!) things at once and felt that no one could help with any of them.

The 2008 SHRM conference held in the windy city of Chicago was a glowing success.

I just watched Michael Phelps win his eighth Olympic Gold Medal.

A heat wave rolled through the South, and Atlanta has been swelteringly hot.

I've been hearing a lot lately about “The No Complaining Rule: Positive Ways to Deal with Negativity at Work.”

Recognizing that unprofessional, disruptive workplace behavior can adversely affect patient care and safety, JCAHO (the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations) announced new accreditation standards this month for healthcare organizations and their leadership.

Can business culture learn a lesson from the high-priced gasoline culture?

The blatant cases of harassment and discrimination are gone, people keep telling us.

A few months ago, I was speaking to a client who told me there had been incidents of bad practices and ethical issues arising in her workplace.

Last Friday I dead-lifted 260 pounds. In other words, I picked up a 45-pound bar with 107.5 pounds attached to each end and stood it straight up. It was heavy. It was also one of the most exciting things I’ve ever done in my life.

I have had several back-to-back trips this past month, flying from one city to another.

We piloted a Professional Global Management^® session in Brussels, Belgium last week, and I could not have asked for better results.

Beyond the political significance of Barack Obama’s epic speech this week, whatever its effect  on this year’s election, I hope and believe his remarks will kindle continued, thoughtful discussions about what race and color mean in our daily lives.

I’ve thought a lot about leadership over the past few years – it’s what every firm says it needs to build better, more efficient, inclusive ethical and lawful workplaces. Go to any bookstore and the shelves will be lined with first-person or biographical accounts of epic leaders –Washington, Lincoln, King, Patton, Schwarzkopf, Welch, Jobs, Gates. Those leaders are few and far between, and most of us read about them hoping to find nuggets of wisdom we can apply.

Our training sessions with Memphis, our German Shepherd pup, have continued.

We’re updating our Civil Treatment^® programs now, a complex, creative, and exciting process.

On Sunday, my wife and I attended a rally protesting the genocide in Darfur. 400,000 people have been killed, 2.5 million are homeless, there is untold violence, and the genocide continues.

Today is Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday -- he would have been 79 -- and as the upcoming holiday celebrating the man and his achievements approaches, I'm reminded of something he once said that is a driving force behind what we're all hoping to accomplish in the workplace:

In the midst of this exciting primary season, I’ll stay non-partisan but make this observation: Candidates in both parties are revising their messages in light of what the voters are saying is important.

Memphis Rae, our newest family member, is an 8-month-old German Shepherd puppy who we found through the Georgia Shepherd Rescue. She’s a great looking dog, very bright and mostly friendly, and gets along with our whole family, including Monroe, a gentle, regal Shepherd also from Georgia Rescue, who is about 2 1/2.

The Falcons are 3-11 having just lost to Tampa Bay. They may well lose the rest of their games -- an awful season. But the wins and losses are not what will be remembered.

I just got back from a long roadtrip from Atlanta to Boston to New York to Atlanta. Like just about everyone else I saw, I carried my version of the necessary road warrior package – a laptop, Blackberry/cell phone, ipod, and camera, plus separate chargers for each.

We just completed a major renovation to our office space, and I’m happy to say my new office is clean and it will stay that way.

Sometimes it’s hard to say goodbye to old friends – or, in this case, old characters who feel like old friends.

When it comes to fashion, it seems everyone has an opinion, and our course vignettes are no different.

The New York Times Test is mentioned often in the context of corporate misbehavior.

With millions watching a game that will make football history, the Super Bowl is a high-stakes event – the very definition of stress, tension, and intensity.

On a recent morning, our company visited the Martin Luther King Center and toured the MLK birthplace here in Atlanta.

We’ve been hearing stories of bloggers who’ve lost their jobs for writing entries that their employers decided were inappropriate.

So many conversations go nowhere because they’re monologues and the wrong person is talking.