If there is one truism from the practices of law which translates to the practice of compliance it is that you are only limited by your own imagination. This holds true in the 360-degree realm of communication in compliance, as communications obviously come in many forms. Many compliance practitioners will well remember the 2012 Morgan Stanley declination. In this first declination made public, the Department of Justice (DOJ) recognized Morgan Stanley for emailing out 35 compliance reminders to Garth Peterson over seven years. Think about the power of 360-degrees of communications in the context of compliance reminders. Now imagine the power of short ethics and compliance video training clips going out over the same period of time and the effect it would have both on your employees and the regulators.
Why not tell the story of compliance through a podcast? I call it podcast storytelling and it can be a powerful tool. Each podcast series is 5-part series and constitute one story arc. The podcasts are about 10-15 minutes in length. The podcast storytellingseries can be a variety of interviews led by a noted podcast host such as the Voice of Compliance, yourself as the Chief Compliance Officer (CCO) or by anyone from your organization. It can be an interview with one or more people, or it can be a solo podcast.
Accompanying each podcast would be approximately 700 words of text. While there would be a fully integrated story line, each podcast and accompanying text is stand-alone compliance training and communications which could be used by anyone at your organization. The podcasts could be pushed out internally as well as via your organization’s social media channels. There is a full panoply of podcast sites available, such as iTunes, Spotify, IHeartRadio, Google Pods and/or Amazon.
At the end of the series, the text forms the basis of a more detailed white paper. This process would create between 11 different deliverables for your own marketing efforts, including five podcasts, five blog posts and a consolidated white paper. From each podcast, you can create multiple short audio clips or other forms of social media sharing materials with key quotes and lessons learned which you be created as podcast cover art.
A series such as this allows your organization to not only tell a story more effectively but reach a much larger audience than in any other format; live, audio-video or in-person. Yet there is another reason why you should consider this type of approach for compliance training and communications. It will provide you with the equivalent of market research and feedback. The numbers of listeners and downloads will give you a reliable source of data that you can use in other communications and trainings.
Compliance Department Branded Podcasts
Want another option? How about a fully produced branded podcast series for your internal compliance function. It could be two 25–30-minute episodes per month, with the guest selected by your compliance team. This format allows your corporate compliance function to tell the story of its greatest asset, its people, through interviews. Cannot get out of the country to travel? Still working remotely? Your branded podcasts give you a way to reach your employees as we continue to struggle through the Covid-19 variants. You can use the branded podcast to tell the story of compliance successes in your organization; you can include other departments to share their successes too. As with the podcast storytelling series, it would be done in a collaborative manner working with your comms team.
Compliance News of the Day
Want to make some short and snappy compliance communications? How about ‘Compliance News of the Day’? Have a daily curated news show of 3-4 compliance stories with a short summary of the series and how it relates to a compliance perspective to your organization. Make it fun so your employees want to check in daily. When the DOJ comes knocking and asks how often you send out compliance communications, you can point to your Compliance News of the Day as a great starting point.
As a compliance practitioner, you should strive to bring more storytelling into your compliance messaging, training and communications. If you put the employee in the shoes of the person they’re watching, they will remember it, because they will see how it applies to their lives. Such training and communication experiences will last much longer than if you drone over a written policy or show a PowerPoint. Marc Havener has called this “expanding your classroom.” Ronnie Feldman calls this bringing memorable storytelling to your compliance communications and training.
Since you are only limited by your imagination in compliance, why not use some of that to be creative in your compliance training and communications.
For more information on getting your compliance messages out to your employees, via a fully produced 5-part podcast series, branded podcast and/or daily news format, or you want to share your company’s successes on the Compliance Podcast Network give me a call or shoot me an email.
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