Cover your ears.
Listen closely. Do you hear that? Yes! That sound there! It’s the sound of complete and utter silence. You might hear such silence in the furthest reaches of outer space. Or at some of the karaoke bars we’ve performed in. Or it could be you’ve heard that silence during any number of compliance awareness sessions taking place around the world.
Now, before we start pointing fingers and accusing the people hosting these awareness sessions of being humourless nudnicks, we must remember the subject matter: compliance and ethics. With all due respect, it’s a subject that doesn’t exactly rank up there with base jumping in terms of adrenalin rushes. And yet these are matters of vital importance. Matters that, if ignored, could cost your organization millions of dollars in fines and lost revenue and serious damage to your reputation.
So how you make your team not just aware of these issues, but engage them? How do you get the conversation started? And notice we said “conversation,” not monologue, speech, or rant.
Here’s the secret: it’s a joke.
Recently, our fearless leader, we’ll call him “Jim,” spoke at the SCCE Energy & Utilities Symposium in Washington, DC. To be fair, Jim wasn’t sure what to expect. Would he be greeted with open arms? Or would he be scorned for his levity? Jim has a penchant for irreverence and has been known to point out, loudly, the “naked paintings” in museums, often to mixed results.
Jim told stories, he showed little films, he cracked wise – and he killed. They loved it! We were all shocked and stunned. Not because “Jim” isn’t funny, but because in a world that produces titles like “Sanctions & Export Compliance Across Your Business” or “Emerging and Best Practices in Utilities & Energy Company and Third Party Codes of Conduct,” we weren’t sure if the world was ready.
It seems people are ready for a little laughter with their compliance awareness programs.
“Bernie” is the titular character in “Tuesdays with Bernie,” our serialized compliance and ethics awareness program. Sit down and watch “Tuesdays with Bernie” and you might think, “This is a great little sitcom.” And we might, in turn, blanch. Because we don’t think of it as a sitcom. Nor do we think of it as a “training” program (in fact, you might notice this is the first time we’ve even used that word, “training”).
No, we think of it as a conversation starter. An ice breaker. It’s storytelling with a moral that will inspire your organization to talk about compliance and ethics issues. And since we wrap our stories in a layer of laughter, you’ll find your staff wanting to engage in the program. They may not quote your compliance policies (“I wonder if Brad is in violation of section 19, article 87, sub-section ‘D,’ paragraph 344!”), but they’ll start talking and asking the important questions (“Has anyone ever wondered if Brad uses the word ‘gratuity’ like it’s normally used?”)
We think you’ll find an aware and engaged staff is a staff ready to act on and respect the policies of your organization. And that should be good for at least a smile, shouldn’t it?