How we started

In 1997 a group of 26 employees from different levels in all of the Council’s Services attended a day-long workshop to talk about what kind of behaviours they would like to see promoted within our organisation.

Participants were discouraged from dwelling on anecdote and rumour. Instead they were asked to base their discussions on what they considered to be the good and bad behaviours they had experienced since they had been working with Stirling Council.

The list of bad behaviours extended to a virtual A-Z of how not to act in the workplace. Experiences were not specific to any single Service or to any single tier of the organisation - they were seen as being pandemic. Employees gave examples of bullying, intimidation, fear, poor delegation, abuse of authority and verbal abuse.

On the positive side, participants were also able to share experiences of model behaviours from colleagues who were seen to be professional, encouraging and supportive.

The task was therefore to come up with a set of 'preferred behaviours' that everyone might sign up to. In discussion, the group identified the rights that we all might expect to reasonably demand of each other. The group also recognised there was a flip side to the coin - responsibilities. It determined that to demand good behaviour we must practice what we preach. For example, if you demand the right to know what’s going on you have a responsibility to be open and honest and share information.