Here are customizable posters to supplement your agency’s required ethics trainings and remind employees of how and when to contact their ethics office. Note: In addition to posting these in physical workspaces, consider working with your IT department to post them on your agency’s Intranet.

The following training resources are also available in the Institute for Ethics in Government’s On-Demand Library.

• Incoming Leadership: Communication Strategies for Building a Culture of Ethics –This training’s course materials are especially helpful to review prior to, and during, a Presidential transition. During a Presidential transition, the Executive Branch sees a significant change in the leadership of its departments and agencies. This course helps ethics officials prepare for their initial Ethics Briefing, while also providing insight into how to help new leaders actively integrate into their agency’s plan to foster a culture of ethics. After viewing the presentation, ethics officials will have the necessary tools and insight to help them better communicate with incoming leadership. Specifically, the presentation covers the following: (1) the role incoming leaders play in fostering a culture of ethics; (2) how to plan touchpoints that foster a culture of ethics; and (3) how to prepare leaders to carry out persuasive messages that support a culture of ethics.
• Communication Touchpoints for All Leaders (PDF) – This job aid breaks down important actions various agency leaders can take to help employees develop (1) an awareness of the general ethics rules, including their value, and the resources available to them; (2) skills for identifying ethics issues within their immediate job responsibilities; (3) skills of assessing risk and knowing when to seek advice and counsel; and (4) decision-making that is compliant with the ethics rules. Note: It can also be found under the course materials for the “Incoming Leadership: Communication Strategies for Building a Culture of Ethics.”
• Monroe Motivated Sequence Job Aid (PDF) – Monroe’s Motivated Sequence is a five-step progressive method of persuasion that dates back to the 1930s and is the most well-known method of persuasion. It is used across nearly every industry to motivate, inspire, and persuade people to make immediate change. This job aid summarizes the method to make it easier to craft a message and teach leaders how to deliver a message with increased clarity, and it includes an example of the method used in an OGE Leadership Note. Note: It can also be found under the course materials for the “Incoming Leadership: Communication Strategies for Building a Culture of Ethics.”
• Communicating with Incoming Leadership (2021) – This training, along with its course materials, shares tools and techniques for communicating with new leaders. It specifically covers tips for crafting persuasive messages, thoughts on selecting messengers, and considerations for the timing and format of communications. 
• Speaking of Ethics Podcast: Communicating for an Ethical Culture (2021) – In this podcast, members of the Institute for Ethics in Government at OGE speak with experienced ethics officials from across the government about communications strategies and techniques for promoting an ethical culture in the federal workplace.
• Employee Ethics Training: Tools for Career SES – As ethics officials, we often associate Presidential transitions with counseling outgoing employees and preparing to train and assist incoming political appointees. However, Presidential transitions also bring new ethics challenges for career agency leaders who help their agencies through these periods. In this one-hour broadcast, the Institute for Ethics in Government shares training tools to prepare these career agency leaders for some of the challenges they will face, such as ethics issues that arise when an employee is acting in a new role and those that arise when interacting with former colleagues who are employed outside of the government. Through this broadcast, the Institute for Ethics in Government exemplifies the need for training and communications that go beyond what is required (i.e., Initial and Annual Ethics Training and Notices of Ethical Obligations) to thoroughly prepare employees and run effective ethics education programs.

Here are a few quick tips for strategic communications.

1. Plan ahead. Think about the overall ethics program requirements and your agency’s own schedule to coordinate your communications.
2. Know your audience. Employees should see themselves and their needs reflected in the content and in the delivery of your communications. Review the following worksheet as you prepare for your ethics communications: Developing and Delivering Effective Ethics Education and Communications (PDF).
3. Stay connected. Consider the current priorities of your agency and the work being performed and whether those pose any potential for ethics risks that may require targeted messaging.
4. Practice for success. Draft and practice sharing your communications with others.
5. Seek feedback. Listen to employees and observe how certain ethics communications support or do not support the fulfillment of your ethics program requirements.

If you have other quick tips that you would like to share with the ethics community, please email the Institute for Ethics in Government at trainingregistration@oge.gov.