By Jennifer May, Director of Compliance Advisory at Broadcat (thebroadcat.com)
Full disclosure: Sometimes I goof off a bit at work. I promise not to tell if you’re nodding your head in agreement. 😉 But sometimes that pays off! Let me explain…
I do a fair bit of writing in my job, which means I also do a LOT of research. Generally I am focused on a particular topic or scenario but am also always on the lookout for interesting or unique things. That is how the ‘goofing off’ tends to start: legitimately researching an important topic, find something curious, then fall down the rabbit hole. Fortunately, the Wonderland that is the internet never fails to provide some intriguing stuff!
Second full disclosure: “Toy Story 2” is one of my favorite movies of all time. I love the pop culture references! While the main characters are great, the true comedic genius comes from side characters that move the story along. Hamm, portrayed brilliantly by the incomparable John Ratzenberger (aka Cliff Claven from Cheers!), is my favorite of the bunch. So, when the rabbit hole leads me to a Hamm meme … BONUS!
But as a compliance professional, the ones I found hit hard. Take a close look at what these memes are sending up. Yep, that’s what employees think of compliance training. And this was just the top of a screen full of these same kinds of images, over and over again, completely calling out the training programs compliance teams put their valuable time, effort and energy into creating (sorry if one or more of these folks happen to actually be at your org…). Once you are done catching your breath at that ugly fact, take a peek at how many views and likes these got!
Now, we can take this a variety of ways – get mad; deny or ignore it; OR get to work! I choose the latter. But what’s the best way to get started? Here is a tried-and-true approach…
- Get honest feedback.
- Others’ time is valuable. Show you are serious about this request and that you respect their time by offering something to reciprocate (options could include: helping them with their next project; bringing them some chocolate; making an introduction on their behalf).
- Find people who will give it to you straight (read: no ‘yes’ people). If you have the right culture, ask your direct reports. But if there is even a hint of concern about how you might react to it, find others outside of your supervisory line.
- Lastly, but perhaps most importantly, know that it is going to be hard to hear but you need to hear it. It’s a good opportunity to practice humility.
- Validate Every. Single. Decision.
- Go through every line on every page of the training and ask, “why was this included?”. If the reason is anything other than “it’s vital to communicate this particular point”, then that might be something to modify or cut.
- Look at how it is distributed and ask, “why was it assigned to that person?”. Same thing here – if it is not vital to their role to know this particular thing, then it might be something to modify or cut.
- Consider the format and ask, “why is this [communication tool] being used?”. Think about other ways to reach this audience. Explore how they can best absorb communications (e.g. not what’s easiest for you, but what’s easiest and most impactful for them). This will help confirm whether the tool being used is the best one.
- For any other decisions that played into the development of the training, follow those same exercises for each one.
- Science the heck* out of this.
- Pick your favorite lean processing methodology, but I find PDSA is a good one.
- PLAN how to tackle the project of updating this training.
- DO
- STUDY how it worked. If there is an opportunity to pilot with a small group first, that is a great way to test before going to the full org/audience. Also, have metrics in mind and build in opportunities to gather data and receive feedback (e.g. how many Hamm memes are your employees creating now?).
- ACT on the data and feedback. Then start again to continuously improve.
Hearing that anything you have put out into the world isn’t being well received is tough. It is easy to crawl back or lash out. It is harder to step forward and work on making it better. In the end, however, putting in the work is a whole lot more rewarding and beneficial to drive your program forward toward effectiveness!
*PG-version; plus another pop culture reference!