Two Games about Gifts for Corporate Compliance & Ethics Week [Games]

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Games about Giftsbroadcat iconGames courtesy of Broadcat
Ricardo Pellafone (ricardo@thebroadcat.com)

You know that your employees are competitive, so you know that a game show is more engaging than a Powerpoint lecture.

But you’ve also got other stuff to do, so spending the time to put together the mechanics and questions for a new game show isn’t going to happen.

And so you end up playing Jeopardy. Again.

Well, not this time. As we head into Corporate Compliance & Ethics Week—and towards the holiday season—here are two ideas for in-person game shows that will help your employees build their judgment on gifts and entertainment.

Very Bad Gifts

VERY BAD GIFTS

Your Code of Conduct probably has a few examples under the gifts and entertainment section:  the usual stuff like golf, dinners, pens, and moon cakes.  So your employees are hopefully good there.

But that doesn’t help them when they’re considering making a gift that’s outside of the norm; they’ll need to know how to make judgment calls according to your policy.

This game helps them learn how to do just that.

You’ll need to think up a bunch of really bad, funny gifts—see below for ideas—and then have your employees figure out if they would be acceptable or not using the judgment factors laid out in your policy (reasonable, customary, appropriate, etc.).

The ridiculousness forces them to engage and actually think through their answers instead of just parroting back what the policy says.  And by having them talk through their analysis, you’ll get a chance to see where they’re getting it wrong and where you need to focus your training efforts.

How to Play

How to Play

Divide room into teams, assign a spokesperson for each team.  Put together a slide with the factors in your gifts policy (stuff like reasonable, customary, usual, etc.) and have that up on a screen during the game.  The teams will have to answer questions by addressing those factors.

Teams take turns answering questions; they get 60 seconds to chat amongst themselves before their spokesperson has to answer.  You can let the opposing team respond and critique the answer.  Much like Whose Line Is It Anyway, you basically just make up points on the spot.

If you have separate gift policies for commercial and government recipients, run the game in 2 rounds in order to address each situation.

Sample Questions

Sample Questions

One of your direct reports approaches you and says they want to give a key overseas business partner [or government official] this gift.  Do you approve or disapprove, and why—explain your answer based on the factors in our policy.

1.  A free but rare pass that lets you jump the line at a theme park—one week before the theme park is going to be demolished

2.  Fifteen minutes behind the wheel of the legendary monster truck Grave Digger; you’re not allowed to drive it, but you can move the steering wheel and shout “vroom vroom” as loud as you want

3.  A yearlong subscription to a luxury pickling service that provides you with unique pickled items that would otherwise cost around $70 a month; none of the items are actually edible

4.  A date with Tad Hamilton, meaning that Josh Duhamel re-enacts the movie Win a Date With Tad Hamilton! with you in the Kate Bosworth role; you are both required to sit silently when other characters should be speaking

5.  You get written into a popular Battlestar Galactica fan fiction project as a rakish space pirate

6.  A pallet of eight-month-old Halloween candy, which is 80% Good ‘n Plenty

7.  A boxed set of Murder, She Wrote on Laserdisc, signed by Angela Lansbury’s season 2 stunt double

8.  Free face tattoo; tattoo artist picks the design

Esteem or Extravagant

ESTEEM OR EXTRAVAGANT

Employees always want to know if “X is OK” to give, but it’s never that simple.

It’s always “what kind of X?”  “How many X are in the package?”  “Is the X gold-plated?”

This game helps them understand that by giving them a series of escalating gifts arranged around a central theme.  They need to figure out where to draw the line—are they all OK?  None of them?  Some of them?  And why?

You’ll need questions that show related gifts, arranged in escalating series of 5 items (see below for ideas).  You can make them silly, but try to avoid questions where the line is very obvious.

And think about having a trick question—for example, if you ban gift certificates as a cash equivalent, have a question where the items are all gift certificates of increasing value from increasingly fancy stores.

How to Play

How to Play

Same basic rules as above, but for this game put the questions on slides on a projection screen, and then have the factors they need to consider in their answers as a handout.  (It’ll be too hard for them to keep all five things straight without a visual reference.)

Again, if you have separate gift policies for commercial and government recipients, run the game in 2 rounds in order to address each situation.

Sample Questions

Sample Questions

One of your team members wants to give a gift to one of our overseas business partners [or a government official].  They show you a catalog with five different options.  Which options do you approve as tokens of esteem, and which ones do you reject as extravagant—and why?

1. The Lady and the Tiger

A small porcelain statute of a tiger from an airport

An old porcelain statue of a tiger from a local market

A small jade statue of a tiger

A small gold statue of a tiger

A live tiger with a jade collar

2.  Cheesy gifts

A cheese plate

A cheese plate with rare dates that are covered in 24k gold foil

A cheese plate with rare dates that are covered in 24k gold, and a cheese knife set

A cheese plate with rare dates that are covered in 24k gold, and a gold-plated cheese knife set

A cheese plate and a date with this year’s Wisconsin Cheese Queen

3.  Providing hospitality

A night at a Motel 6

A night at a Courtyard by Marriott

A night at a Westin

A night at the Ritz Carlton

A night at the Burj Al Arab, that hotel that looks like a sail in Dubai

4.  Writing implements

Bic pen with your company’s logo

Cross pen with your company’s logo

Mont Blanc pen with your company’s logo

Mont Blanc pen without your company’s logo

A box of Mont Blanc pens with your company’s logo

5.  Providing transportation

A taxi ride

A ride in a Lincoln Towncar

A ride in a stretch limousine

A rented Cadillac for a weekend

A rented Ferrari for a day