The "3M test." Mentor, media and mother

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Whistleblower who set in motion corporate America's tough look at itself says faith is missing ingredient

Four years after the collapse of Enron, the whistleblower who helped to bring the failed energy giant's improprieties to light visited Pittsburgh to talk about ethics in the post-Enron age. But in the end, what Sherron S. Watkins really talked about was faith.

Watkins was a vice president at Enron when she sent an anonymous memo to company chairman Kenneth L. Lay warning that the company could "implode in a wave of accounting scandals" -- a memo that led to her testifying in the congressional investigation of Enron after its sudden collapse.

The woman who spoke at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary last week for a program on ethics was scarcely recognizable as the witness for the prosecution in those 2002 hearings, not only because the current Sherron Watkins is, well, a lot more svelte. She also did not match earlier descriptions of her as "fast-talking" and "steely." Instead, she came across as reflective and gracious.

Watkins now runs a consulting firm, Sherron Watkins and Co., that advises companies on how to cultivate ethical corporate cultures. Her message last week: written codes of ethics are not enough to prevent unethical behavior -- Enron's code of ethics was beyond fault. Even Sarbanes-Oxley, the new law requiring chief executive officers to sign off on their company's financial statements and provide transparency to their operations, isn't enough.

In the end, what is needed is a revival of faith, she said. Watkins referred to the moral climate in corporate America as "the second AIDS epidemic," with the acronym standing for American Integrity Disintegration Syndrome, and said that most of the executives seeking her services are not afraid of being the next victims of a scandal, "they're worried they might be the next villains."

For Watkins, this fear of ethical failure is not unreasonable. "Over 50 percent of white collar criminals going to prison are able to pass a lie detector test because they genuinely believe they did nothing wrong," she said. It seems they rationalize their crimes in ways that, to them, make them seem innocent.

Watkins suggested that businesspeople who find themselves facing temptation could check themselves with what she called "the 3M test," for mentor, media and mother.

This is how it works: Imagine yourself alone with your most admired and respected mentor and ask, "What would he or she think of this?" Then imagine your contemplated action being broadcast via the media and ask, "How would I feel if the whole world knew about this?" And then imagine that your mother knew about it -- what would she think and how would you feel?

What if behavior that fails the 3M test is consistently practiced or expected in your workplace? "If your value system is being challenged on a routine basis," Watkins said, "it's best to get out of the organization."

Raised a Lutheran, Watkins was a Presbyterian by the time the Enron scandal unfolded and said that the experience made her faith more real, and that her faith helped her through the experience.

She told the seminarians, "I think it's time for a third Great Awakening in this country," to help the country's largely churchgoing population connect their faith to their work lives.

Price Waterhouse Coopers has a fine campaign running based on the idea of Courage (Fortitude) and a Chief Courage Officer (blogged here last year.) Far be it from me to feed the beast and suggest another CXO, but somebody looking after Corporate Conscience would go a long away in a lot of areas above and below the line.

More, perhaps later this evening, on CC and how it impacts customer advocacy mindsets in places like Verizon or Comcast.