Robert Cialdini is a speaker who focuses on influence and persuasion. His content is ethically appropriate. The approaches he advocates are used in entirely non manipulative ways that never deceive or coerce others into assent. Persuasion is a key capability of police. Persuasion seeks to influence others by changing their attitude or behaviour. In this short video, Robert Cialdini explains the science of influence and persuasion based on research evidence.
How we can use these insights ethically?
https://www.prsb.vic.gov.au/the-science-of-persuasion
Professor Mary Gentile presents the Giving Voice to Values approach to values-driven leadership development and ethics education. Rather than a focus on ethical analysis, the Giving Voice to Values curriculum focuses on effective and ethical action, by building the skills, confidence, moral muscle and the habit of voicing our values.
The conversation addresses how Victoria Police officers can voice and act on their values effectively, how we can improve our effectiveness in voicing our values and being heard and how we can create an environment where values are voiced and heard.
Assistant Commissioner Therese Walsh, Victoria Police Professional Standards Command provides introductory remarks and a panel discussion with examples and enablers of values based conversations follows with Professor Mary Gentile, Assistant Commissioner Kevin Casey, People Development Command and Commander Therese Fitzgerald, Southern Metro and Member of the Professional Standards Division, PRSB.
https://www.prsb.vic.gov.au/giving-voice-to-values-how-to-speak-your-mind-when-you-know-whats-right
It is encouraging to see an increased focus on mental health in the workplace. It is also important to remember that leaders' concern for people needs to be authentic and based on respect for the dignity of each person:
"If your concern is purely utilitarian—and you feign concern to help ensure performance levels don’t slip, people will see right through it. Your regard for the mental health of your team must be born from a genuine concern for them as human beings, and the delight they experience in contributing to your organization. Treat performance results as an outcome of that kind of leadership. Treating people as only a means to an end is a sure fire way to damage their mental health and your team’s performance."
https://www.prsb.vic.gov.au/why-leaders-need-to-prioritise-their-teams-mental-health
To build on the gains made in recent years, ethics training will have to accomplish several goals. First, ethics training needs to focus on unleashing participants’ intrinsic motivation to be ethical, rather than rely on solely on a compliance mentality that justifies ethical behavior through rewards and punishment. When people are intrinsically motivated they persevere through difficult times and are less likely to take short cuts. By making ethics something that leaders want to do and need to do in order to succeed, we can increase commitment to ethics in organizations and reduce the likelihood of ethical lapses which can be more likely to occur if our field of vision is narrowed by external incentives.
https://www.prsb.vic.gov.au/future-of-ethics-training-trends
To make their behavior contagious, ethical leaders need to harness the power of "elevation."
Moral rules and codes are important but moral inspiration comes from people's ethical behaviour. When we see or hear about acts of kindness, we feel elevation - an emotion that has the power to spread leading to upward ethical spirals. Let’s share positive stories that exemplify our values because they are more likely to motivate us all to do better.
https://www.prsb.vic.gov.au/the-little-known-emotion-that-makes-ethical-leadership-contagious
https://www.prsb.vic.gov.au/reviews/review-decisions/review-division-44
Learn directly from experts in ethics
https://www.prsb.vic.gov.au/professional-standards/ethics-conversations
https://www.prsb.vic.gov.au/registration-application-renewal
Can people really miss a gorilla right in front of their eyes? You bet your sweet bananas they can! This video provides a tongue-in-cheek exploration of inattentional blindness with Professor Dan Simons and the often ignored Invisible Gorilla himself.
Simons is a faculty member of the Department of Psychology at the University of Illinois and the Human Perception and Performance group of the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology.
https://www.prsb.vic.gov.au/the-invisible-gorilla
For the slopes are slippery... Getting away with minor infractions makes it easier for people to justify bigger, more serious ethical violations. Addressing even the smallest ethical transgression is important. So is checking our own behaviour and rationalisations. A new study finds that getting away with minor infractions ends up making it easier for people to justify bigger, more serious ethical violations. Over time, small ethical transgressions–like stealing pens from work–can put employees on the “slippery slope” of increasingly bad behavior.
https://www.prsb.vic.gov.au/the-slippery-slope-effect-minor-misdeeds-lead-to-major-ones