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What is "lack of integrity"? It can't be defined granularly enough by a CEO. He can make an example of some particularly egregious behavior--and that does help-

What is "lack of integrity"? It can't be defined granularly enough by a CEO. He can make an example of some particularly egregious behavior--and that does help--but there are millions of small decisions that happen every day.. and the employees will need to decide if each of those actions represents a "lack of integrity" or not. And the truth is, they already have some practices, that they aren't going to question unless directly prompted to do so. Just as you repeat numerous rituals and habits regularly--you don't reexamine them until something forces you to. What this means is that the CEO cannot order everyone to behave with integrity. They must be convinced of what integrity is, what type of behavior that represents, etc. So that when they make these small decisions, they are consistent with the culture the CEO is trying to create. You can't order them to behave with integrity--because that's so vague as to be meaningless. Everyone will make up their own definition of integrity, and it'll always fit so they turn out to be right. So I don't see the false dichotomy... There's no order a CEO can give that will change the culture in the way you describe (at least not in a large company like Uber). (I think it's worth pointing out that the people inside of Uber who made the bad decisions likely didn't see them as bad or wrong. Their mission and culture supported those decisions, and they believe them to be right. So when you say 'behave with integrity'... that's meaningless, because they believed they were right when they made the wrong decision initially. They were already acting with what they believed to be integrity.)

mehrdadn 9y ago
> What is "lack of integrity"? (etc.) Yeah, it's impossible to define it. But thankfully, you don't have to unambiguously define ethics and integrity for all of humanity and posterity to get somewhere useful. We're not writing probably correct algorithms here, we're dealing with humans. Some linear combination of "something illegal", "something you don't want landing on the New York times next to your name", "I know it when I see it", and "if this still isn't clear for you, you test me at your own risk" would be sufficient to take care of it: either they'll figure it out by themselves or they'll find out the hard way.
- rgbrenner 9y ago
  The clarity of that rule only exists in your head. Each person will draw the line differently, assess the risk differently, etc. Saying "I'll know it when I see it" does not result in a culture change. That just results in the CEO randomly enforcing his rule when he finds out about something he doesnt like.
  - mehrdadn 9y ago
    Again, like I said, it doesn't need more clarity than however clear or vague it is at the moment. Either people will figure out how to stay away from the gray area and whatever they understand your red line to be, or they won't and will instead have to find out the hard way. Your mere assertion that this won't work isn't any more convincing than mine that it will work.
    - rgbrenner 9y ago
      Well actually in management it is well known that your method wont work. There's a history of your approach, a lot of research and things we've learned from corrupt corporations, etc and there's a reason it's not used anymore. History, methods, purpose etc of corporate culture is quite interesting, and I fully encourage you to read more about if it interests you. Uber's new CEO has a monumental task ahead of him.

mehrdadn 9y ago

> What is "lack of integrity"? (etc.) Yeah, it's impossible to define it. But thankfully, you don't have to unambiguously define ethics and integrity for all of humanity and posterity to get somewhere useful. We're not writing probably correct algorithms here, we're dealing with humans. Some linear combination of "something illegal", "something you don't want landing on the New York times next to your name", "I know it when I see it", and "if this still isn't clear for you, you test me at your own risk" would be sufficient to take care of it: either they'll figure it out by themselves or they'll find out the hard way.

rgbrenner 9y ago
The clarity of that rule only exists in your head. Each person will draw the line differently, assess the risk differently, etc. Saying "I'll know it when I see it" does not result in a culture change. That just results in the CEO randomly enforcing his rule when he finds out about something he doesnt like.
- mehrdadn 9y ago
  Again, like I said, it doesn't need more clarity than however clear or vague it is at the moment. Either people will figure out how to stay away from the gray area and whatever they understand your red line to be, or they won't and will instead have to find out the hard way. Your mere assertion that this won't work isn't any more convincing than mine that it will work.
  - rgbrenner 9y ago
    Well actually in management it is well known that your method wont work. There's a history of your approach, a lot of research and things we've learned from corrupt corporations, etc and there's a reason it's not used anymore. History, methods, purpose etc of corporate culture is quite interesting, and I fully encourage you to read more about if it interests you. Uber's new CEO has a monumental task ahead of him.