In this episode of Creativity and Compliance, Ronnie and Tom talk about training in ethics and compliance. They get into the impacts the environment has on training, the forgetting curve, and the science that backs these ideas up. Tom gets us going by asking - is compliance training overrated?
Impact of the Social Environment Ronnie believes that effective ethics and compliance training is a critical part of a company, but even more so, he believes that the environment has a huge impact on behavior in the workplace. He explains how companies tend to focus so much on training that they often don't emphasize enough all the ways that the environment has an impact on why people do the things they do or act the way they do.
The Forgetting Curve It has been shown in several studies that people forget things over time, and that roughly 90% of corporate learnings are lost within the first month of training. Ronnie believes that if it’s creative training, it might last longer in employees’ memories, but it still needs to be reiterated over time. People need reminding more than they need instructions. He adds that companies could benefit more time by giving little reminders to their employees to keep that learning alive throughout the year. Ronnie explains that as humans, we tend to overestimate our internal stimulus but often forget that external stimulus has a huge impact on us. We tend to be influenced by our peers around us and how they think about us.
The Stanley Milgram Experiment Ronnie gives us a perfect example of peer pressure, using the Stanley Milgram Experiment, a study in the 60's, where a person is asked to quiz another who they cannot see in another room. Whenever the interviewee has the ‘wrong’ answer, the interviewer has to press a button and, when pressed, another subject neither one of them can see, screams in pain. What the interviewee doesn't know is that the person screaming in pain is actually in on the act. Despite the protestations and sounds of pain from the ‘subjects’, most interviewers were convinced by the experiment operators to continue asking questions, pressing the buttons and causing pain. 
And that shows up in the workplace. Even if employees have a feeling something is wrong, if no one is pointing it out, or if their boss just says ‘this is the policy’, many people go along with it although internally it doesn’t sit right with them. This is why just training on the rules isn’t enough, companies need to get across the idea the if something feels wrong, speaking up about it isn’t just okay - it’s the best thing to do.
A Little Humor Goes a Long Way Ronnie ends by reminding us that the point is not to de-emphasize the importance of training, but rather emphasize all these other points to add value to said-training. The key to adding more value is to communicate more freely, creatively and frequently. For example, you can talk about challenging issues using fun videos or quizzes to get people more comfortable -the age-old strategy of breaking the ice with humor.
about this topic in Ronnie's Corporate Compliance Insights article: Why Compliance Training is Overrated.
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Ronnie Feldman
Learnings & Entertainments 

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