Welcome to part three of four in our Let’s Talk series. So far we’ve discussed how sexual misconduct affects our creativity, and our last post addressed the individual level of sexual misconduct. Today we dive into the organizational level. You’ll discover three things you can do to prepare your organization for the worst of disasters.

I recently listened to a podcast from NPR’s How I Built This. After the sponsor message, another more peculiar message played. Here’s what the NPR representative said:

Hey there, we messed up. We made a change to our web servers that we didn’t expect to have any effect on podcasts. Clearly we were wrong and it forced a bunch of episodes into NPR podcast feeds, resulting in downloads you didn’t ask for. It also made it hard, or impossible, for you to find and listen to your favorite NPR podcasts. We are truly sorry for this. We fixed the root cause of the problem shortly after we discovered it, but it’s taking a while for that fix to make it to all podcast apps. If you unsubscribed from this show, or any other NPR show, please take a minute to re-subscribe. If you’re still having problems, please go to npr.org/help. We’re taking steps to make sure nothing like this ever happens again. Thanks for listening.[1]

I was gripped. I replayed that message several times, stunned by NPR’s courage. There’s something to be said about organizations who are proactive about their mistakes. The same certainly applies regarding sexual misconduct on the organizational level.

What steps can you and take to prevent and respond to sexual misconduct in your organization? Here are three suggestions.

1. Plan ahead.

I know what you’re thinking, “Oh great, contingency planning. Just what every designer wants to hear.” Hang with me for a minute. What if your organization adopted a plan to prevent and respond to sexual misconduct? What even counts as sexual misconduct? And what steps will you take with clients and employees to make sure no one is put in a compromising situation? You’ve got to plan for these things. The image of God, the reputation of your team, and the trust of your company depend on it.

2. Agree today to admit your mistakes and say you’re sorry.

Go back and read what NPR said again. Did you catch what they did? They said, “Hey there, we messed up.” Then they explained their mistakes and the implications of those mistakes on their listeners. Next they said, “We are truly sorry for this.” Finally they explained steps they are taking to not repeat their mistakes.

This takes a whole lot of guts. But if you are going to build trust again you’ve got to do it. The International Mission Board is another example of admitting organizational mistakes, specifically regarding sexual misconduct. What about your agency or your team? What will be said of you?

3. Invite dialogue.

This is the most important suggestion in this post. Think back to the 1980s. The Exxon-Valdez oil spill created a big mess. “11 million gallons of crude oil” flooded Alaskan waters and “It killed an estimated 250,000 sea birds, 3,000 otters, 300 seals, 250 bald eagles and 22 killer whales.”[2] A very big mess indeed.

In response, scholars Michael G. Bowen and F. Clark Power comment that “the moral manager is not expected know the ‘correct’ answer to every ethical issue, but rather to participate responsibly in an open dialogue with other interested parties.”[3] What a relief! You and your team don’t have to know it all. Certainly you should diligently research your options in the unfortunate event that your team is accused of moral failure. But don’t go it alone. Invite your “stakeholders” into the process.[4]

Before it Happens

Let’s say you manage a marketing agency. Before it ever happens, what if you held a Facebook live event to discuss with your customers what their views are regarding moral failure? What advice might they give to an agency like yours to prevent major blunders? What if you talked with legal counsel, or even leaders of organizations who have done well with this issue in the past? Be proactive.

After it Happens

And if something does happen, humbly invite dialogue to fix what has happen. Be brave enough to ask for advice and help. The International Mission Board did just that. They invited Gray Plant Mooty to “[conduct] a methodical examination of IMB’s past actions and current prevention and response policies and procedures” regarding sexual misconduct.[5] And they are all the better for it. Imagine how professional counsel like that will help them fix their current mistakes and prevent others in the future.

Next Steps

So plan ahead, agree to admit your mistakes and say you’re sorry, and invite dialogue. What other suggestions might you add?

Notes

[1] Guy Raz, host, “Framebridge: Susan Tynan,” How I Built This with Guy Raz (podcast), NPR, May 6, 2019, accessed June 30, 2019, https://www.npr.org/2019/04/26/717496919/framebridge-susan-tynan.

[2] History.com Editors, “Exxon Valdez Oil Spill,” A&E Television Networks, last modified August 21, 2018, accessed June 30, 2019, https://www.history.com/topics/1980s/exxon-valdez-oil-spill.

[3] Michael G. Bowen and F. Clark Power, “The Moral Manager: Communicative Ethics and the “Exxon Valdez” Disaster,” Business Ethics Quarterly 3, no. 2 (April 1993): 97, accessed June 30, 2019, https://www.jstor.org/stable/3857366.

[4] Ibid., 98.

[5] Gray Plant Mooty, “Examination Update,” International Mission Board, May 22, 2019, accessed June 30, 2019, https://www.imb.org/2019/05/22/examination-recommendations/. See also Julie McGowan, “IMB pledges to lead SBC in ‘best practices’ in abuse prevention and response,” International Mission Board, May 22, 2019, accessed June 30, 2019, https://www.imb.org/2019/05/22/imb-pledges-best-practices/.