As a child, I was afraid of the boogeyman, a make believe character often used to make children behave. Well I’m wondering, are you afraid of the whistleblower? If you’re a business leader and you aren’t, you should be. After all, the whistleblower is growing in stature and potentially more dangerous to our businesses as we speak. A decade ago, the whistleblower was a lonely spot indeed, however that is not the case today. In Part 1, I noted,
- I’m convinced that whistleblower protections and rights will continue to gain in stature and strength under this administration.
- I believe the whistleblower will become a primary tool for law enforcement in the future. In effect, the whistleblower becomes the low cost alternative to the investigative task force.
- The whistleblowers role of exposing silent problems in organizations will grow in importance in the future.
If I’m correct, business leaders must put in place systems that prevent whistleblower lawsuits from occurring in the first place. In essence,businesses must put in place systems that address silent problems early in their evolution, because whistleblower lawsuits eminate from silent problems. Yes, the problems that are being avoided, neglected, are going unnoticed or are being intentionally silenced are the source of all whistleblower lawsuits! Therefore, companies must put in place systems that identify silent problems. Here are a few ideas to go down that road.
- Educate your employees about silent problems, and how they impact business performance, culture, communication…
- Create a feedback system where employees, customers and vendors can report the occurrence of silent problems.
- Create a silent problem task force that is responsible for identifying, following up on and solving silent problems before they become toxic.
- Work with an independent 3rd party vendor where silent problems can be submitted and dealt with anonymously.
- Create a culture where silent problems become “Job 1.”
The role and relevance of silent problems in organizations is growing in importance every day. On occassion, they may be a mere distraction. Most of the time, they have a direct and negative impact on business performance. And every once in a while, they can throw a mighty blow, which could become a fatal Without Warning event. At the very least, silent problems are dangerous and cannot be overlooked.
The automotive industry has been in a funk for over a year now with declining sales, plant closings, massive layoffs and weak profitability. When I started this blog 9-months ago, more than once I’ve written about and chastised Toyota. This entry is little different, it simply confirms the multitude of challenges facing Toyota, because I’m convinced Toyota is coming unglued. For instance back in 