In his classic tome, "The History of the Decline and Fall 
of the Roman Empire," Edward Gibbon famously theorized why the Romans, who ruled the Ancient World for close to 1,000 years, fell to such a depth that in the early Middle Ages not only was Rome repeatedly sacked, but was done so without a fight and with the great city’s once proud citizens reduced to cannibalism and to the killing of infants as their parents did not wish to bring children into a world of such suffering and so devoid of hope.
Gibbon considers, and then rejects, causes like the weight of empire, the rise of Christianity and the development of new military technologies by rivals, and instead settles as the main cause on how the citizens of Rome slowly but surely lost their “virtue” defined by Gibbon as such:
“derived from a strong sense of their own interest in the preservation and prosperity of the free government of which they were members. Such a sentiment, which had rendered the legions of the Roman Republic almost invincible, made but a very feeble impression on the mercenary servants of a despotic prince.”
Now leaving aside the foreboding comparisons to our current political age, it can be well argued that cultivating virtue should be a high goal and touchstone of any organization of ambition.
Virtue, where all of the stakeholders of a company - employees, contractors, customers, shareholders - find solid alignment between their personal interests, goals, and aspirations, and those of the organization of a whole.
Virtue, where those stakeholders have full faith and belief that if the organization prospers, then they too as individuals will prosper - spiritually, professionally, and financially.
How do we cultivate virtue like this? And more poignantly, how do we know when it is slipping away?
Well, let’s look at three classic symptoms of “declining virtue” organizational environments - high employee turnover, brand diminution / pricing pressure, and lack of innovation, and what to do about them.
High Employee Turnover. The ultimate sentiment that one no longer sees alignment with the interests of an organization is to decide that one no longer wishes to work there. Almost by definition, organizations plagued with high employee turnover have declining virtue.
What To Do About It: Address the cause of turnover at its source - in recruiting, on-boarding, position expectations, cultural and managerial norms and styles, opportunities for advancements, etc.
Recognize that more than growth itself, the footing of leadership toauthentically attempt growth is one of the best ways to “walk the talk” of virtue and earn organizational respect.
Brand Diminution/Pricing Pressure. Do customers see an organization's offerings as interchangeable with those of competitors? Is pricing pressure such that business is only won in low bid environments?
Commoditization like this is a classic symptom of declining virtue, and because of its awful impact on cash flow, perhaps more than any other factor can quickly threaten the very survival of an organization.
What To Do About It: Start with Why. Find/rediscover answers as to what the purpose - beyond paying the bills, making payroll, living to fight another day, etc. - is of our business. Because as was famously said, if we have enough whys, we will figure out the hows.
And almost always the best way to quickly identify that purpose and inject it back into an organization is through undertaking a formal strategic planning process (and ideally, one led by an outside facilitator).
Lack of Innovation. Is one's organization selling the same stuff in mostly the same way as it was five years ago? Is there an inability to start and sustain new initiatives because management is “just out of juice?”
“Heaviness” like this, is a sure sign of organization - threatening decay.
What To Do About It: Outsource it. Accept that as organizations age, their ability to effectively innovate naturally diminishes.
Big companies like Johnson & Johnson and Cisco accept this and don't even attempt to internally innovate and instead do so through acquisitions of entrepreneurial teams and technologies and through hiring consultants to drive key change initiatives.
While internal leadership of course must rate innovation as a high priority, in modern business its actual day-to-day implementation can be bought.
The Romans were great, and then they fell. And too many businesses, once they start to decline, never recover.
But history is also full of companies that rose, fell, and then rose again to even greater heights.
Let's be like them.