At the Compliance Week 2010 Conference I was surprised to discover that the improv comedy group, Second City, had dived into the world of compliance and ethics awareness. They debuted three of their awareness videos during the conference keynotes. They are now available on their Real Biz Shorts website:
The big question is whether humor is appropriate for ethics and compliance?
Second City has a response in their FAQ
:
“Well we believe that this programming is too important to be delivered in a way that doesn’t connect with employees. And humor is a great tool to address tough subjects and break the ice, allowing people to dialogue about the issues they face. In the comedy business there is a saying, “things are only funny when they’re true.” Humor for humor’s sake doesn’t work in ethics and compliance, but humor as a way to get to truth is invaluable.”
Tom Yorton, the CEO of Second City Communications, stated four things that comedy pros can teach compliance professionals in an article in the May issue of Compliance Week: Winning Your Audience.
- Humor Gets to the Truth
- Dialogues Beat Monologues
- Foster Open Communication
- Say It, and Say It Again
Check out the videos if you’re feeling down at your compliance job and need a chuckle. If this sounds interesting, they also offer a free demo with four other high-quality videos.
Now if I could just be funnier…..