Mad as Heck!

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5211138492014-snell-roy-speaking-headshot-200by Roy Snell
roy.snell@corporatecompliance.org

“I’m as mad as hell and I’m not going to take this anymore!”

The longer I work in the compliance profession, the stranger the analogies, metaphors and ideas that pop into my head. So many things I see make me think of the compliance profession. The other day the movie Network came up in a discussion. There is a famous line from that movie, “I’m as mad as hell and I’m not going to take this anymore!” The guy who said the line… was mad at everything you can imagine. He encouraged everyone to stand up, go to their window, open it, stick their head out and scream “I’m as mad as hell and I’m not going to take this anymore!” It seems to me that is what’s going on right now, with regard to the ethical and regulatory environment. Compliance officers get mad on occasion about the slow progress. Some people get mad about the regulations. Society is clearly upset about some of the misdeeds by a few bad people. Leadership occasionally gets mad after some employee does something unethical or against the law that causes extreme pain for the organization.

Wouldn’t that be a humorous attention getting, “Tone at the top video,” from some CEO? Have the CEO stick his head out of a window from the top floor of a tall building on a quiet night and scream, “I’m as mad as hell and I’m not going to take this anymore!” I am not sure there is a CEO out there that would do it. But if they did, I am thinking it would be a pretty effective way of getting beyond the constant and often dull hum of the usual compliance and ethics message. If you can find one to do the video let me know. I would love to watch it. I bet there is someone out there who could pull this off. The real benefit to our profession would be to encourage people to think outside the box. Our profession will be more successful if we can be one of the strongest and most important messages in the organization.

1 COMMENT

  1. An excellent piece and to the point. Given the new feeds of late, from money laundering, sanctions busting and foreign corruption, it certainly seems like the current compliance and enforcement models, while absolutely essential, are still not taking hold at the field level, so if there was a time to “think outside the box,” wouldn’t that be now?

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