Adam Balfour on Corporate Compliance & Ethics Week at Bridgestone Americas [Podcast]




Compliance Perspectives show

Summary: <a href="https://www.complianceandethics.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/turteltaub-adam-200x200-150x1501.jpg"></a>Posted by Adan Turteltaub<br> <br> There are a lot of things you can do to make your organization’s celebration of <a href="https://www.corporatecompliance.org/about-scce/corporate-compliance-ethics-week">Corporate Compliance &amp; Ethics Week</a> a success. But sometimes, less is more.  Adam Balfour, vice president and general counsel for corporate compliance and Latin America, Bridgestone America's, explains in this podcast that they realized that it would be better to evolve their celebration from a lot of different activities to just a few and to make them bigger.<br> <br> So what are they doing?<br> <br> For the last few years they have bestowed a series of Leading With Integrity awards. These go to managers who have been nominated by employees for their exemplary leadership when it comes to compliance and ethics issues. All 50,000 of the organization's employees can nominate any leader, manager or supervisor that they think deserves the prize.<br> <br> The nominations are evaluated by a cross functional panel which is good for bringing in and engaging other leaders in the organization. Then five or six winners are selected each year, and they are announced during a leadership panel with about 1100 employees on the call.<br> <br> For the winners the greatest impact comes from the recognition and knowing that the CEO knows your name and for a very positive reason.<br> <br> This program has also helped the compliance team gain exposure to people they didn't realize were embodying the organization's commitment to compliance.<br> <br> Another event that they do, or more accurately two events, are leadership panels wherein employees are invited to join in and listen as leaders discuss compliance and ethics issues. It sets a clear tone at the top for the organization and illustrates ethical decision making.<br> <br> Each year, for a little bit of fun, the compliance team puts together an event using ethics issues found in popular TV shows and movies. This helps teach compliance in a more relatable way and leverages good adult learning theory.<br> <br> Finally, the compliance organization offers a Compliance Battle Royale every year.  It's a big production with a bracket of 16 teams competing against each other over a period of four days.  There is daily elimination, and it gets very competitive.<br> <br> Got any good ideas of your own to share? If so add them to the comments below. And be sure to listen to this podcast.