Notes from Trends '98 Conference
Orlando, Florida, October 2, 1998

Dogbert™ Goes Corporate:
"The Ethics Challenge" in Technical Communication

Working Lunch Hosted by Daniel W. Voss
Communications Department
Lockheed Martin Electronics & Missiles

• With the permission of the Lockheed Martin Corporate Ethics Office, the presenter used the company's widely acclaimed ethics game, "The Ethics Challenge", which enlivens in-house ethics training for its 140,000 employees by packaging 50 controversial ethical conflict scenarios in the workplace in the context of a surprisingly entertaining board game wherein small teams compete to find the best ethical alternatives, all to the droll accompaniment of Dogbert™ and the whole entourage of Scott Adams' immortal cartoon characters.
• "The Ethics Challenge" encourages employees to resolve ethical conflicts through a 3-step approach:
   
• Apply the company's 6 ethical "pillars," or basic values:
   
• Honesty
• Integrity
• Respect
• Trust
• Responsibility
• Citizenship
• Consider the interests and welfare of the company's 5 basic groups of stakeholders:
   
• Employees
• Customers
• Communities
• Shareholders
• Suppliers
• Determine the best course of action that takes into account relevant values and stakeholder interests.
• In other words, chart a course of ethical behavior that does the most benefit (and the least harm) to the largest number of stakeholders.
• Points are awarded for the teams' answers, ranging from 0 points for unsuitable responses to 5 points for highly appropriate choices. Teams then move their gamepieces (Dilbert™ characters, of course... what else!) along the gameboard in quest of ethics tokens--the acquisition of which, naturally, determines the winner. Competition can become quite heated, but given the nature of the training, cheating is discouraged.
• The working lunch was quite successful. We explored several of the scenarios, became involved in heated discussions, and left a number of questions unresolved. In essence, we explored the gray penumbras that encircle ethical conflicts in the workplace and emerged with a profound appreciation of how complex they can be. A good session.