If there is one truism from the practices of law which translates to the practice of compliance, it is that your imagination only limits you. Marc Havener, founder, and CEO of Resonate Pictures, Inc., created a series of video shorts for a consulting company on compliance and ethics. Rather than the traditional legal approach of telling employees about the corporate policy on compliance, they wanted to tell a story about compliance through the art of movie-based storytelling that wove messaging into characters to tell a story.
I have urged compliance practitioners to bring more storytelling into their compliance messaging. If you put the employee in the shoes of the person they’re watching, they will remember it because they will see how it applies to their lives. Havener noted that the training experience would last “exponentially longer than if you just go over a written policy or show a PowerPoint.” He called it “expanding your classroom.” The next time they see George Clooney, they’re going to remember the training, the next time they watch that movie that you showed a clip from, they’re going to be reminded of the training, and so it becomes a great drift method of training.”
Three key takeaways:
- Storytelling is another form of communication.
- Movie clips in compliance training can provide useful touchstones that employees can relate to for compliance lessons.
- The Morgan Stanley declination gave credit for annual compliance reminders.
