The cultural shift that has occurred this last year around #MeToo is momentous. Women are being empowered to identify and remove from power those men who have engaged in sexual misconduct in the workplace. While these efforts are noteworthy, they are occurring downstream from the source, where there’s plenty more where Harvey Weinstein and Bill Cosby came from. How do we correct misconduct at the source, heading it off upstream before it becomes problematic and results in victims downstream? And for those men who have exhibited problematic behavior, what’s required to get them to change?

First, we must understand that before there is behavior, there is an attitude, and that attitude is what drives the behavior. So, as in any 12-Step program, people exhibiting problematic behavior must admit it; it is impossible to solve a problem that does not exist. That admission would go something like this: “I admit there is a problem not only in my behavior, but also in my attitude, and having harmed others as a result of these behaviors my life has become unmanageable.”