This week I am celebrating the intersection of Shakespeare and compliance with a week-long podcast series on the Bard & Compliance. Most people remember the St. Crispin’s Day speech in Henry V as one of the greatest speeches in all of Shakespeare. However many people do not focus on what led to that speech which was that Henry went out among his troops, disguised as a commoner to ask they what they thought and to hear what they had to say about the upcoming battle with the French. One of the most important things that Henry learns is that his men, while willing to do their duty, believe they will all die the next day in battle, most particularly because of the overwhelming size differential in the two armies. Henry takes this information and incorporates those fears, together with English patriotism, into the rousing speech he gave before he led his men to victory. It was an early use of social media.
How can you get your head around the structure of a social media program for your company? In an article in the MIT Sloan Management Review, entitled “Finding the Right Role for Social Media in Innovation”, Deborah Roberts and Frank Pillar laid potential remedies as a useful tool to help CCOs design an internal company wide social media campaign.
The most important thing to remember is that communication in social media is two-way; both inbound and outbound. It can help to bring your employee base together in an efficient manner to create an environment conducive to compliance for your organization. It also has the benefit of continued engagement. It is more than putting on training or even a week set of initiatives, you can continue the conversation and enthusiasm about compliance going forward.
The authors broke this down further into three parts that emphasize (1) the need to listen to and learn from user-generated content; (2) the need to engage and facilitate dialogue with employee innovators; and (3) to find an audience of early adopters to create excitement and collect feedback. No doubt inspired by some fond childhood memories, the authors monikered these three concepts as (a) Explore, (b) Create and (c) Communicate.
CCOs and compliance practitioners need to develop a dedicated compliance strategy around social media, in the context of your corporate objectives. Just as Henry V gave one of the most rousing speeches in all of Shakespeare, basing it on the input he received from his men, you can take the input from your employee base and create a compliance experience that your employees will embrace.