Documenting and FAQs

Ethics and compliance officers often share with me their struggle to communicate about the E&C program. “How many different ways can I tell them about our code of conduct, our policies and our training?”, they ask.

Two ways are often overlooked:

  • Documenting: Let’s say you are in the process of revising an existing policy. Share that with your employees. Tell them you are launching the revision process and why. Later, tell them how you partnered with HR to get feedback on the first draft. Once approved, share the questions that leadership asked before approving the policy. You can do that with any project you are working on. Documenting gives you a chance to stay in front of your employees, to tell a story (that’s how people truly learn), and to add transparency to your work (transparency promotes trust).
  • FAQs: If you don’t have a big project to document, then consider writing FAQs. You can easily write FAQs about your code, about each of your policies, about your training, investigations, controls, etc. All you have to do is collect the questions you get from employees and organize them. Once you have 3 or more on a given topic, you can publish the FAQ.

Of course, you can also document your creation of FAQs!

Don’t ignore lies

There is a lot of disinformation out there.

Good journalists are fighting it. Some social media outlets are fighting it. The new administration is fighting it.

What about your CEO? Other corporate leaders? Your supervisor? You? We all have a responsibility to curb disinformation and shine a light on truth. Find a daily opportunity to set the record straight. It can be during a private conversation, during a staff meeting, or in a company newsletter article.

Some conspiracy theories are cute. Don’t believe that the Earth is round? Fine. We didn’t land on the moon? Sure.

But other theories are downright dangerous. They have lead to wars, to holocausts, to civil unrest. They were powerful because the government and the press adopted them. Then businesses decided that it wasn’t their job to interfere; their job was to make money.

Let’s hope we know better now.

If you see a lie, speak up.

A for Apple

I’m an Apple fanboy. There are more Apple devices in my house than matching wine glasses.

I’m also passionate about ethics and compliance. I’ve been an E&C professional for over 15 years.

So when I learned of Apple’s new public-facing E&C site, I had to have a look. Here is what I found:

  • A clean, well-organized website.
  • A code of conduct and many policies available to the public.
  • The code and policies are written in plain English. The anti-corruption policy, for example, explains facilitating payments in terms that my 13-year old would easily understand.
  • An overview of the training, with special attention to manager responsibilities.
  • A focus on dealing with third parties.
  • Tools to report anonymously and a commitment not to retaliate.

Of course, a website is not the whole story. A well written code, clear policies and a helpline didn’t stop the worse corporate scandals we experienced in this century. Apple itself is not without blemish. But putting your efforts out there for the world to see is always a step in the right direction. What Apple did with this new site is a good model for anyone to follow.

Idea machine

Let’s continue with yesterday’s topic of ideas.

James Altucher promotes the practice of coming up with 10 ideas every day. You can read his ultimate guide here.

Imagine coming up with 10 ideas every day for your ethics and compliance program. That’s a few thousand ideas every year.

If only one in ten is a good idea, that is still a few hundred good ideas every year. If only one in ten is successful in your company, that’s a few dozen successes each year. Two to three times a month, you knock it out of the park!

Here are some prompts:

  • 10 sections of the Code of Conduct to update with examples
  • 10 policies to simplify
  • 10 topics to add to the new employee training
  • 10 “Did you know?” short posts to publish on Yammer
  • 10 companies to benchmark with
  • 10 E&C professionals to invite to the next Ethics Day
  • 10 features to include in an E&C app for employees
  • 10 ways to partner with HR
  • 10 industry events to present at
  • 10 vendors to invite in for a demo

That’s a 100 ideas right there, in only two weeks.

Ten of those ideas might be good. One might succeed.

Every. Two. Weeks.

I came across this concept of “idea machine” this morning when reading the James Altucher chapter in Tim Ferriss’ book titled Tools of Titans. I created my first list of 10 ideas this morning. Writing this post was one of the 10 ideas.

Idea pyramid

Perhaps you are familiar with Heinrich’s Law and the safety pyramid:

Conceived in 1931, the idea linked near-misses to serious injuries, demonstrating that you can reduce serious injuries by addressing the risk of small accidents. It revolutionized how people think about safety.

There is a similar pyramid for ideas. The number at the base varies for each person but my pyramid looks like this:

In other words, I need about 10 bad ideas before I have a really good one.

Do your employees feel safe to have bad ideas?

For employers, both pyramids argue in favor of safety — one physical, the other psychological.

Beware the balloons

Some industries are more deserving of regulations than others.

Among those are industries related to shelter. When it comes to the shelter we provide for our family, some business practices should not be allowed.

I worked in the mortgage industry in the late 1990s. I saw borrowers sign up for balloon mortgages to buy homes they could not afford. Many of them barely spoke English and had little education. It was safe to assume that many would default on — and be surprised by — the $50,000 balloon payment that was due 10 years later. The 2008 mortgage crisis didn’t really come as a shock to me.

The current power crisis in Texas highlights a similar problem. Homeowners have been lured into “low-cost” electricity contracts where the price of the electricity is not fixed but tied to the demand. People who paid $250 in January for an entire month of electricity were paying $1,000 a day last week when demand peaked. Many admit that they didn’t fully understand the contract they signed. Like the balloon mortgagees, they were distracted by the low cost of entry.

In an ideal world, a sales person would say “Listen. We have this electricity contract that is really attractive at first. But it forces you to save a ton of money on the side, for when you’ll have to make a huge, unexpected payment. Most people can’t save that much and they regret their decision. So, quite frankly, I strongly recommend you don’t buy this product.” In fact, in a really ideal world, companies would decide to offer these products only to sophisticated customers with large liquidities, not to the average Joe.

Until we live in that world, regulations are in order.

Awesome giants

I suspect that every large organization has a few awesome giants.

For me, awesome giants are the executives respected by all for their intelligence, for their gravitas, and for their ability to cut through the noise. No problem is too large for them. They see the way out and they show you the path — not the easy one but the necessary one. They demand of you more than you think yourself capable of and set you up for success. They do not lead with fear, but their awesomeness can be intimidating.

One such giant, now retired from my company, is Paul Beach. Paul just launched his own blog to share his thoughts on government, politics, public policy, corporate compliance and ethics. I am so pleased to be once again in a position to receive, from afar, Paul’s wisdom. I will look forward to each new post.

Limited resources

It’s OK for me to decide not to pack a warm sweater because it doesn’t fit in my carry-on luggage. I just need to be willing to buy one at my destination if it gets too cold.

It’s OK for Texas to decide not to link its power grid to neighboring states because it doesn’t want to be subject to federal jurisdiction. It just needs to have a plan for the occasional snow storm.

No one has unlimited resources. If you look at your company’s risk assessment, you’ve probably decided not to address certain risks right now. That’s fine, but you need to have a plan for when the risk shows up sooner than expected.