The Envelope, Please…

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By Mariann B. Snyder, CCEP

A pair of infamous bandits resurfaced in February and stole a huge moment at the Oscars in front of 33 million people.  As Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty reunited 50 years after their award-winning turns in Bonnie and Clyde, they thought they had an easy job:

  • Glide to center stage looking fabulous
  • Wait a moment while the crowd adores us
  • Read the teleprompter and pause for laughs
  • Open the envelope
  • Read the name of the winner
  • Warmly congratulate the Oscar recipient

Simple.  What could possibly go wrong?

After 88 years of producing Academy Awards shows, you can bet the 89th Academy show had plenty of processes, controls, and safety nets to make sure everything would go smoothly, among them, the auditors who check, double-check, and probably triple-check the voting results before generating and, I suspect, thrice-checking the envelopes from which the winners are so auspiciously announced.

What they didn’t account for was human distraction, along with lack of precedent and experience.  And they created new award categories they hope never to repeat.

  • Best Failure: To the accountant who had one job:  Hand the presenters The Envelope containing the name of the winner of cinema’s biggest award.
  • Best Tag, You’re It: To Beatty for dumping the confusing card on Dunaway.
  • Best Respect for Authority: To Dunaway for just reading the most relevant data she could find on the card.

Maybe you’re thinking, “Poor Warren and Faye were just there to read the winner’s name!”  As soon as he looked at the card – if only because he has presented twice before – he knew something was wrong.  Perhaps Dunaway mistook his confusion for chivalry: “Here, you should have the honor of announcing the winner.”

They both missed the opportunity to say, “Now this is funny – we have a person’s name instead of a movie.  Can we get some help here?” or to flip the envelope and discover “BEST ACTRESS” emblazoned on it.  After a few awkward moments, the right envelope would be delivered, the real winner announced, and the post-Oscar watercooler discussion about the actual winner instead of the flub.

If we discover a failure in our compliance controls, it’s important to get to the root cause – whether it was the accountant’s starstruck tweeting, a premature sigh of relief because his job was almost over, a red envelope shortage – without forgetting to peek at the layers between here and there.  Make sure everyone understands their opportunity – and duty – to speak up.  If it doesn’t look right, or smell right, or taste right, speak up.

Let’s scrub the flub.

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3 COMMENTS

  1. Bravo! You hit on a very important point when you wrote:
    “If we discover a failure in our compliance controls, it’s important to get to the root cause…”

    However, this is where many people fail. Believe it or not, effectively finding the root cause(s) related to an event is actually much more involved than some people believe, especially since most people are self taught as in OJT in doing root cause analysis.

    Most people equate root cause analysis (RCA) to asking a series of why questions as if though that will identify the root cause. The problem is that sometimes it works…sometimes it does not…and for very good reason…but that’s a story for another day.

    If the opportunity presented itself…this is one RCA that I would enjoy sitting on and participating.

    I do a fair number of RCAs and for those who have not done what I would call a credible RCA, it is quite an eye opening experience. So my takeaway…RCAs are a valuable tool in the hands of a capable practitioner in helping find solutions.

  2. You highlight a simple and straightforward example of how a control failed likely due to the human factor- if Cullinan was distracted and star struck causing him to not do a final check of the envelope, then another control should have been employed as a back up. I read another comment mentioning the flawed design on the envelope (bright red background/small gold print) was a contributing factor to the control failure.
    Also, Warren Beatty shares culpability since he obviously saw something was amiss and could have bravely paused and said something to call attention to the error (gesturing for a stagehand or PWC rep) and avoided having Faye Dunaway incorrectly read who she assumed won? In my view, this illustrates how we can be uncomfortable or fearful to openly speak up and challenge something we know is clearly wrong – thus resulting in a larger problem due to inaction.

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