Ethical Intervention

We are all human. Every now and then, we may have a bad day. Personal stress, lack of sleep, family pressures, and financial troubles can wear our patience thin.

Therefore, you will likely face situations where a colleague is heading in a direction or, perhaps, taking an action that they will regret or that will get them in trouble.

In such circumstances, you should execute an Ethical Intervention.

As a contact professional, when you see inappropriate behavior by a colleague, you need to take action.

There are three types of Ethical Interventions:

1.   Pre-Incident Prevention — This begins with what people expect of you based on your past behavior and is applied as a verbal intervention implemented before the point of no return.

For example, if you witness a situation where a colleague is heading in the wrong direction, you could say something to them like:

“It’s Showtime.” — “Knock it off.” — “I’m going to write this up exactly how I see it.”

2.   Direct-Contact Override — stepping in to take over the interaction, using the appropriate level of override for the situation.

Level 1: Verbal — e.g., "Micah, let me ask a few questions here while you take that call.”

Level 2: Positioning — getting between your colleague and the subject and, if necessary, moving your colleague out of the way

Level 3: Physical — physically removing your colleague from the scene

3.   Delayed Post-Incident Remedies — if an incident occurs, doing the right thing following the incident (e.g., apologize where appropriate, debrief incident to improve future performance, notify supervisor, write up the incident).

As a contact professional, your job is to keep everyone safe: verbally if you can, physically if you must. If you ignore a colleague’s inappropriate actions, you are condoning them.