Once you’ve let your culture get out of hand, it’s unbelievably hard to fix. That’s true for businesses, nonprofits and in this case, a city. Yes, my hometown of Philadelphia, whose government culture of ethical lapses and corruption is surpassed only by Chicago, has attempted a cultural shift towards integrity. How? By appointing a Chief Integrity Officer, of course. Do I applaud? Laugh? Scream, maybe?

I did all three, although the applause was of the one-handed Zen variety. Before I launch into why this is so crazy, let’s look at the description given in a press release. “Joan Markman is the City of Philadelphia’s first Chief Integrity Officer…. She is charged with promoting  honesty, integrity, and transparency in City contracting, disposition or use of City  property, and provision of City services.  Among other things, she reviews and monitors advertising, consideration, and award of city contracts, disposition and use of city property, and provision of city services, and makes recommendations for reform of city processes where necessary to strengthen accountability and transparency.” Ms. Markham is a former prosecutor and US Attorney in fraud and public corruption cases, a background I’d consider essential for this job.  Her job description is an admission of failure in all those areas, that integrity is lacking and oversight is needed.

Apparently the city has owned up to its well-deserved reputation for generally ignoring the ethics rules and policies already on the books. Well, OK, good, admitting you have a problem is the first step towards eliminating it. However, when you try to change a culture that has been one way for so many years, decades really, prepare for resistance. Mighty resistance. Especially from those who have benefited from the way things have been for so long. When you come in and announce “we’re going to change the way things are done around here,” and plenty of people see no reason to change a system that’s doing fine for them, it’s time to get fitted for a flak vest.

Culture includes an organization’s values, norms, beliefs and behaviors, and if integrity is missing in these elements you foster corruption, and dishonesty becomes de facto policy. In a city’s case it can include graft and misuse of public funds. In a company it can mean shady sales practices and cooking the books. We could make quite a list. There’s a huge problem when the current culture rewards the current personnel and they have no interest and no incentive to cooperate with change. It’s a long, hard, slog and like most change management initiatives, the odds are tilted towards failure.

This is why it’s so essential for senior management (or a mayor) to integrate integrity from the start, to infuse all policies with this principle and hire only those that can support and demonstrate it themselves. And then be vigilant of all behaviors and hold people to full accountability, from the top on down. And I mean starting at the top, no excuse given for position. The earlier you can institutionalize this, the less need there will ever be for a Chief Integrity Officer. In reality, we should each be our own.