SIMPLIFY Compliance. For Humans.

Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler. (Einstein's Principle of Simplicity)

Good Decisions

The purpose of my function (Ethics, Risk and Compliance), as I see it, is to enable and support the people in my organization to confidently make Good #Decisions.

1. Good decisions are based on our values, our understanding of ethics, in support of our (noble) purpose. (E - #Ethics)
2. Good decisions mean taking the right amount* of the right risks, to help the company achieve its strategic objectives. (R - #Risk)*Note: This is not equal to minimization of all risks, far from it.
3. Good decisions mean following the rules and the law, because doing otherwise would violate (1) and (2) above, could cause harm to others and damage the company’s reputation and simply not be sustainable, because sooner or later anything will come out into the light and hit the news - and digital news is instantaneous, global and forever). (C - #Compliance)

SIMPLIFY framework

I am currently working on a framework , which I call #SIMPLIFY. The acronym stands for the elements of the framework, which are my eight principles of simplification.

• S - Stakeholder perspective; being ?stingy“ with the time and effort we require from people (-> see Humans below)
• I - integrated into their work processes, built in, not bolted on
• M - measurable (impact, amount of simplification, quantifying risk instead of producing Colorful Risk Analysis Presentations ??????)
• P - pragmatic
• L - language of the business
• I - innovative by using new approaches from other disciplines (Behavioral Science, Cultural insight) as well as by use of technology
• F - focused on the right risks
• Y - … (well, that’s a surprise, but please leave a comment with your guess what ?Y“ could stand for)

The above 8 principles can also serve as a checklist for systematically reconsidering everything we do in Ethics & Compliance, from policies and procedures, the advice we give, training, controls and monitoring, decisions support tools, meetings and committees, to management reports…

For Humans - It's about people

We serve the people of the organization. We're not simplifying for the sole benefit of ourselves.

That’s why I’ve added ?For Humans“ to give purpose and direction to SIMPLIFY.

Note: HUMANS is not my invention: I’d like to call my use of it here a hommage to Christian Hunt‘s work. If you haven’t got a copy of his book ?Humanising Rules“, put it on your ?? wishlist now. Christian explains the whole idea much better than I ever could.

In "SIMPLIFY Compliance. For Humans", Humans stands for the mindset of always taking the perspective of the people impacted by our work, and remembering they are human beings; so we should not have superhuman expectations from them and remember to be humane in what we ask of them.

• H - Anything we do needs to be perceived as Helpful. If it isn't, google for "reactance".
• U - First we need to understand our stakeholders, then make sure they in turn understand what we want from them.
• M - What we ask of them has to be Manageable;
• A - … and feel Acceptable to them and others impacted by it;
• N - … and be something Normal, not outlandish;
• S - … and finally Salient, i.e. relevant and noticeable.

My #SIMPLIFY framework offers sufficient material for a series of subsequent acticles here on LinkedIn or on my blog, ... maybe even a book…

So stay tuned.