Hi Reader,

This is one of the thorniest dilemmas you can face in the workplace — and in life, including with family, friends and everyone else.

What do you do when you know someone else has broken the rules?

For most of our lives, we’ve heard, “Don’t be a snitch.”

In most of the movies we’ve seen, the “snitches” don’t fare so well when their comrades discover their double-dealing.

What do they do at West Point?

This is part of our continuing discussion about conduct and behavior inside organizations. On Monday, we looked at what happens when someone else’s conduct becomes your problem.

Today, we turn to the stricter Cadet Honor Code and its implications for establishing guidelines for acceptable behavior and conduct.

Some of you may be familiar with the famed but controversial West Point Cadet Honor Code:

Few of us would doubt the wisdom of “will not lie, cheat or steal”, the core of many of the values we learned as children.

One of the other things we learned as children, though, was, “don’t be a tattletale.”

Be loyal to your friends – don’t snitch on them – and don’t go running to mommy when you observe a small infraction of the rules.

It doesn’t help that we’ve seen countless movies since then where a snitch ends up on the wrong side of the grass.

But What About the Part …

You should begin to see how this relates to the subject of “conduct unbecoming,” which we discussed in When Does Someone Else's Conduct Become Your Problem?​

It’s a mighty high standard of conduct expected from military officers and gentlemen — or anyone.

In some ways, “conduct unbecoming” is an easier standard to meet because it focuses on conduct that you can control … your own!

It’s an even higher expectation that you will refuse to tolerate such behavior in others.

What does this mean exactly?

Does it mean we’re obligated to report every single infraction we observe, regardless of the consequences to others or ourselves?

How does that square with our childhood belief that “telling on our friends” is the worst of all sins?

There Are Few Excuses for Stealing …

Stealing is a recognizable offense, and bears few excuses or apologies.

But, what do we do if we “heard” that Johnny stole our friend’s bicycle?

• Is it enough to report it, even though there’s absolutely no corroboration of the story?
• What if we’re pretty sure it was Johnny because we know he’s grabbed other kids’ bikes in the past?
• Do we report it then?
• What if Susie says she thought she saw Johnny with the bike? Is that enough?
• How much do we “tolerate” before it’s time to cough up our story?

Cheating & Lying Get a Little Trickier …

While reporting thievery can get a bit messy, what about instances of cheating and lying (which is the area where the occasional West Point cadet scandals have occurred over its more than 200-year history)?

I imagine all of us have witnessed a fellow student cheating on an exam, whether he had an answer written on his hand, or she had tucked a small piece of notepaper somewhere and glanced at it occasionally.

I also imagine that most of the time, we didn’t report it, figuring it was his loss not ours, and it wasn’t our place to report him.

Likewise we’ve probably sat still while a friend of ours told a lie, comforting ourselves with the notion that he wasn’t really lying, just “stretching the truth” slightly, or telling a “white lie” … just an insignificant “fib” … or maybe leaving out part of the story because no one asked.

Most likely, we figure it’s “none of our business” - “he’s lying, not me” - so why should I stir things up?

The Cheating Scandal That Changed West Point

In 2020, the U.S. Military Academy at West Point confronted its largest cheating scandal in more than 40 years.

It found that dozens of cadets had cheated on an exam while studying remotely during the pandemic.

One result was West Point’s decision to end its “Willful Admission Process.”

That policy was intended to protect a cadet from expulsion if he or she admitted to wrongdoing.

It was put in place in 2015 to encourage self-reporting among cadets without fear of expulsion so they would be more likely to confront peers about honor violations.

Zero Tolerance to a Second Chance … and Back Again

Here’s the key question:

But West Point ultimately concluded that the experiment wasn’t working as intended.

An Academy review found that it wasn’t increasing self-reporting or decreasing the toleration of honor violations — precisely the behavior those last five words of the Honor Code were intended to address.

West Point ended the Willful Admission Process. Going forward, separation would once again be a potential punishment for any Honor Code violation.

That brought the Academy back toward the stricter standard it had tried to soften — and raises a question every organization eventually has to answer.
​​
Should someone who violates a Code of Conduct be given a second chance … or is Zero Tolerance the right standard, accepting no infractions at all?

Some argue that the Honor Code, perhaps like the Code of Conduct in your organization, is all about character and there is no room for error or forgiveness.

Others think that organizations should embrace an approach to “development” and that giving a second chance to the remorseful is preferred over allowing one mistake to end a career.

Can You Accept the High Standard that Rejects a Double Standard?

The notion of the West Point credo is to avoid the double standard of justice, where the rules apply to one person and not the other.

It is an effort to establish a very high standard of ethical behavior that accepts no less from others than is demanded from us.

In spirit, it reflects the kind of values we’re proud to uphold in ourselves and expect from others. But it still plucks at that childhood dilemma about being a tattletale.

What does your organization expect?

Where do these issues fall in the pantheon of values and behaviors that your organization demands?

What do you expect of others when they observe inappropriate or unethical behavior?

Should it be tolerated?

Do you simply hope they will take action or have you made your expectations clear to everyone?

Perhaps this is a good time to consider your standpoint on such issues.

You can be sure someone is watching.

Question:“Is there Zero Tolerance in your organization … or do your teammates get a Second Chance?”

How would you answer that? Let me know by replying to this newsletter. I’d be interested to hear where you draw the line.