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Great Women in Compliance

Great Women in Compliance: Raising the Bar on Compliance Training

What makes compliance training actually work in 2026? It has come a long way from the days when simply having a training program was considered enough. In this episode, Lisa talks with Kirsten Liston, CEO and Founder of Rethink Compliance, to discuss how expectations for compliance training have evolved over the past two decades and what organizations should be thinking about today. Kirsten discusses her experience in the compliance learning space and shares insights from her recent white paper, “Raising the Bar: A New Standard for Compliance Training.” She reflects on the best ways to create training that is engaging, relevant, and capable of driving real impact in organizations of any size.

Kirsten and Lisa discuss the growing focus on engagement and effectiveness, the challenges of reaching global audiences while maintaining consistency, and the importance of helping employees understand why ethics and compliance matter rather than focusing on the rules. They look ahead to the role AI plays now and will play in the future of compliance learning and why, even as technology advances, human-centered communication remains essential. This conversation offers both a look back at how the field has changed and practical insights for compliance professionals seeking to ensure their training programs continue evolving to meet their unique organizational needs.

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Great Women in Compliance

Kirsten Liston on Training that Resonates

Welcome to the Great Women in Compliance Podcast, co-hosted by Lisa Fine and Mary Shirley. In this week’s episode of Great Women in Compliance, Mary Shirley sits down with Kirsten Liston to talk about some of the old school ways of Compliance training and more modern approaches that will help better get your message across. Kirsten’s a pretty darn good authority on effective Compliance training – she’s just released a book on the very subject called “Creating Great Compliance Training in a Digital World”. Some of the highlights include:
Compliance programs used to be evaluated simply by having certain fundamentals in place.  Policies? Check. Training? Check.  Hotline for reporting? Check.   Compliance has now evolved to where regulators are asking questions about whether the aforementioned cornerstones of your compliance program are any good. Are they effective?  Do they help employees do their jobs in a more ethical way? Do employees understand what is required of them?  Do they retain education and messaging?  Are they receiving it often enough?  The considerations nowadays go far beyond the mere existence of controls.
We bust the following myths:
Legalese driven language is the only way to go.  Let’s make materials that appear to have been written by lawyers, for lawyers.  After all, Compliance is a serious topic.
In order to be sufficiently comprehensive and really teach the learner everything they need to know; Compliance training should be at least an hour long to view or read.
Annual training needs to cover every single risk area under the sun, every year, otherwise we’re leaving ourselves open to scrutiny from regulators.
We round out the episode to consider whether being “too nice” is an impediment to successKirsten Liston