What do pro-cycling and business ethics have in common?

In this conversation with Andrijana Bergant, the President of EICE, she introduces me as a pioneer in adopting a culture and value-based approach towards ethics and compliance. That’s a charge I can’t escape! I share my passion for pro cycling, drawing parallels between the sport’s emphasis on teamwork and overcoming unethical practices, to the principles of ethics and compliance in the business realm.

In the discussion we dive into a project where I recently assisted a UK-based hospitality company in assessing and refining its organizational culture and values. This endeavour underscores the importance of genuinely understanding and articulating the core values that drive an organization, laying a foundation for an ethical culture.

Our discussion also touches on the critical aspect of proactive ethical decision-making and crisis prevention. I advocate for the necessity of practicing ethical decision-making through structured models, emphasizing the creation of a conducive environment for open discussions. This approach, I believe, equips individuals with the essential skills to ethically navigate through crises.

As we discuss the upcoming conference session I will lead, the focus shifts to the importance of grounding ethics and compliance initiatives in meaningful and inspiring messages. This, paired with the practice of ethical decision-making, forms the crux of nurturing an ethical culture, especially in challenging times.

This conversation with Andrijana was a stimulating exchange of ideas, and I look forward to further exploring these topics at the upcoming conference.

My keynote is the first day of the 8th Annual Bled Compliance and Ethics Conference, taking place at IEDC – Bled School of management, on 26. October. The session is titled: 

Your organization needs an effective ethical culture: What is it and how do you nurture ethical culture in challenging times?

Check out the updated conference schedule!

If you haven’t registered to the region’s favourite and well curated international compliance event, there are just a few seats left.  

You do not want to miss this event to re-connect, re-charge and celebrate with fellow colleagues an important mission we all share in our business compliance and ethics leadership roles! Let’s exchange ideas and energy and lift each-other up to grow into an impactful and transformative professionals and leaders, we need to be in this challenging times. 

Register for Bled Compliance and Ethics Conference 2023.

8th Bled Compliance and Ethics Conference

One of the region’s most recognised conferences in compliance is back to the beautiful Alpine Lake Bled, Slovenia! This is going to be the 8th Bled Compliance and Ethics conference, which is known to inspire, connect and touch on emerging topics. It covers current developments in the field of business compliance, ethics, risk and governance, subject matters relevant in Europe and internationally.  

Your organization needs an effective ethical culture: What is it and how do you nurture it in challenging times?

Join me to explore this topic at the opening session >> REGISTER NOW.

Behavioural biases & heuristics

Two worthwhile questions – and a set of tools to answer them with from the Center for Advanced Hindsigt at Duke University:

  1. Do you know all the behavioral biases and heuristics?
  2. Do you know the studies that they were founded on?

Test yourself with the below flashcards that include over 50 behavioural heuristics.

Flashcard set 1: Download this set first. Learn, memorise and start applying to your business or your personal life!

Flashcard set 2: Download this set to test yourself and continue to improve your mastery.

Find both on the Resources page from the Center of Advanced Hindsight

How to spot if you have issues like Revolut

The problems with the culture at Revolut are not new, as the title of this February 2019 Wired article suggests: Revolut insiders reveal the human cost of a fintech unicorn’s wild rise.

And now, four years later, management is “calling in the psychologists” to deal with these costs. Prevention is always better than cure; so what can you do to ensure that your employees and your business are not paying the price of a toxic culture? And, how can you consciously develop a healthy culture, one that supports the achievement of your strategy and the development of your people?

Both prevention and cure start with diagnosis

Accurate diagnosis requires listening to the patient. A Barrett Cultural Values Assessment (CVA) is an ideal tool for this purpose as it is easy to administer in any size company and it provides insights that are otherwise difficult to obtain and easy to understand.

How useful would it be to know what:

  • values are important to your employees,
  • values and behaviours they are actually experiencing, and
  • is blocking and undermining your organisation’s success?

Best of all, a CVA begins the cure by accessing your employees’ solutions to the issues present in your culture. It is the starting point for a productive dialogue that involves everyone – a necessary step in prevention and cure.

Any successful culture change requires the participation of employees, slowing building trust by involving them from the beginning in diagnosing and addressing the issues.

Cultural change will not succeed if it feels to people that it is being done to them. The expertise and support of behavioural scientists and organisational psychologists, if properly deployed, will be invaluable. However, first begin by making sense of your culture. This is the foundation upon which all other interventions may succeed.

Judging from the current statement on Revolut’s website, they have got the message.

We believe that any success at Revolut comes from two things: our people and our culture. We believe that brilliant people operating in a great culture will produce the best outcome.

From revolut.com/our-culture/

For their sake, and the sake of their employees, I hope they mean what they say now. The change must come from within. You can make a difference in your culture, which will make a difference in your results if you draw on tools, frameworks and experience of those who have been there before you. Don’t ignore the warning signs in your own organisation. Don’t be Revolut.

Reach out if you would like to be confident that the culture of your organisation is driving success and fulfilment for all your stakeholders.

3 reasons to attend the 19th Annual UK Anti Money Laundering & Financial Crime Seminar

1) A true cross-industry event bringing together leading stakeholders to look at the latest strategies and solutions and their future development…

Held hybrid 24 – 25 April 2023 – Hosted by Herbert Smith Freehills, City of London

2) Key updates and answers from relevant high-level experts in a one-day session – including from…

  • Alex Brenig-Jones, Head of Financial Crime Insights, NatWest Group
  • Carol Smit, Executive Secretary, JMLSG (the Joint Money Laundering Steering Group)
  • Kurt Rowe, Group Head of Financial Crime & UK & Head of Data Protection, Intact
  • Lynsey Lauer, DP & Lead of the UK Economic Crime Plan, Home Office
  • Maria Hannan, DP & Lead of the Economic Crime & Corporate Finances Bill, Home Office
  • Paul Laffan, Head of Financial Crimes Compliance EMEA, State Street

And many more…

3) And lots of new topics for 2023, including…

  • The FCA’s financial crime priorities 2023 – a commitment to a more proactive approach
  • Companies House on building the integrity of the Public Register – a progress update
  • Addressing the greatest challenges in 2023 – the new drivers & how to flex your compliance programme while balancing effectiveness with efficiency
  • The evolving role of RegTech & data analytics in financial crime prevention
  • Shining a bright light on RBA, CDD, perpetual KYC, KYCC, UBOs and 3rd parties – navigating the current geopolitical risks, increasing regulatory demands & data privacy rules
  • Information sharing post-UK Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Bill
  • Proliferation financing risks & compliance – meeting rising standards
  • ESG– what are the implications for your financial crime compliance?

Learn more and book on the AMLP event site

Cover image courtesy of AMLP

Pre-order: Humanizing Rules – Bringing Behavioural Science to Ethics and Compliance

Longtime friend of AretéWork and occasional webinar co-host Christian Hunt is topical with an exciting new book – which is now available for pre-order from Amazon, Bookshop.org – as well as directly from the publisher, Wiley.

Amongst other things you’ll find an overview of the…

  • Right Tools For The Job
  • The Traditional Toolkit

As well as an introduction to Behavioural Science – and a deep dive into some of the drivers:

  1. Our Experience and Knowledge
  2. Other People
  3. Context

A volume to look forward to…

Post Cover Photo by 🇸🇮 Janko Ferlič on Unsplash

Fresh OECD Public Integrity Indicators

New evidence on how well countries manage corruption risks has been released on the OECD Public Integrity Indicators portal. The “Accountability of policy making” indicators cover both regulations and practice on lobbying, conflict of interest, political finance, access to information, open government, open data, and public consultation. Makes for super-interesting reading – and #EthicalBusinessPractice & #EthicalBusinessRegulation relies on solid accountability in policy making.

oecd-public-integrity-indicators.org/

Join #IACC2022 online

One of the key events in the anti-corruption calendar this year – and attended by the good people from Basel Institute, Accountability Lab – and many more.

In the words of IACC:

5 global plenaries. 60+ workshops. 140 nationalities.

This year’s IACC will be held under the theme: Uprooting Corruption, Defending Democratic Values.

Years of insufficient action against corruption by governments have led us to a critical juncture: while we continue to grapple with the vast and unprecedented consequences of the pandemic, kleptocratic regimes are endangering the global order. Corruption fuels these threats, hinders responses and endangers every person’s right to live in peace and security.

This makes our global movement against corruption more important than ever. Together, we can build on our achievements and accelerate our momentum in the fight for the future we want.

Learn more and register to attend online