The ongoing saga of Activision Blizzard presents some opportunities for all of us to look at how we might improve our corporate cultures.

Bad corporate cultures create innumerable problems, including Human Resources departments with high turnover, untrained staff, and a lack of uniform and consistent processes.

Just as it takes years to build a culture, unraveling it will take time, dedication, and a razor focus from the Board of Directors that holds management accountable.

So, here’s 5 questions Board of Directors should asking about culture.

How long has it been since you traveled for work?

Until very recently, February 29, 2020, was the last time I took a flight. The burgeoning pandemic wasn’t yet known to be in London or the US.

Then, lockdown started days later, and my frequent flier miles were put on what felt like indefinite hold.

Fast forward to six weeks ago, September 18, 2021 and I was getting out of my car at the airport, for the first time since the beginning of the pandemic.

I was terrified.

Suffice to say, business travel is back. If it hasn’t reached your company yet, it probably will soon, so here are 5 ways to prepare for travelling during the pandemic.

On October 28th 2021, at the ABA's 36th National Institute on White Collar Crime, Deputy Attorney General, Lisa Monaco, announced some changes regarding how the Department of Justice will prosecute corporations.

The Monaco Memo raises the stakes, and hidden within it are some key takeaways worth of the attention of Chief Ethics and Compliance Officers…

Have you ever watched a co-worker become so ingrained in their opinion, that they end up arguing against their best interest?

When you find yourself in a hole like that, you need to stop digging.

Of course, it’s easier said than done though. Here’s what to do if you ever find yourself arguing against a good idea.

What makes a third-party program successful?

Is there some sort of magic that separates the wheat from the chaff?

Why do some programs seem to thrive while others collapse under the weight of angry businesspeople going around the compliance department?

As Tony Robbins says, “Success leaves clues.”

We’ve not only seen but set up and reviewed a huge number of third-party due diligence programs.

From starting them from scratch, updating them when they’ve gone stale, to performing wholesale evaluations with recommendations for improvement, not a day goes by when we’re not engaged in at least one client’s program.

We’ve seen the good, the bad, and the ugly.

We’ve seen programs thrive and fail and everything in between.

After all this review, patterns emerge.

We’ve found that there are 7 consistent elements that tell us early on whether a third-party program will succeed or fail. Read them all in this blog post.

Nearly every compliance officer that has brought up the idea of incentives and heard the response:

“Why should we incentivize good behavior? It’s required to work here.”

It can be demoralizing, right?

So, how do we create effective incentive plans that this response is wrong?

Let me show you!

Feeling a little unmotivated?

We’ve all been there. You have an important meeting, and you just feel down. You’re unmotivated, uncomfortable, anxious, angry, sad, or sometimes a mixture of all of four.

When those uncomfortable days intersect with important meetings or presentations, disaster can strike.

So, when you’re just not feeling it when your performance really matters, what can you do?

Spark Compliance’s facilitated training game software, Compliance Competitor, was growing so fast that I was (and still am) considering venture capital to grow it.

Spark Compliance had also been hired by a private equity firm to review compliance at its portfolio companies, and several of our new clients were private equity-owned.

So, in May, I signed up for the Private Equity course at Imperial College London’s executive education program.

It made sense!

Last week I attended my first in-person conference in two years.

The conference was the ‘Society of Corporate Compliance and Ethics’ (SCCE) in Las Vegas, and the theme was “the future of compliance.”

That promise was delivered!

Here’s what the future of compliance looks like…

I’ve been thinking a lot about the relationships in our industry and how we foster them for the long term.

But who has time for hours of networking?

We know that relationships are critical but taking the time to foster them can be hard. The answer is found in little activities that create big feelings of connection.

So, here are 10 ways that take less than a minute to supercharge your network and relationships.