Some people have spent the pandemic learning to play the guitar. Or learning a new language. Or baking bread. Or posting on TikTok. I’ve spent the pandemic writing a couple of articles with my spouse. (And we are still together! Not just for the dogs either.)

The second of the two articles is now out in the October issue of CEP Magazine. (And if you’re curious, you can read the first here.) In my 15+ years in the ethics and compliance space, I’ve spent a lot of time with data: finding data, gathering data, trying to understand what the data is saying.

Preview of Suzan's article in CEP Magazine

This summer, a new service we are offering at Rethink Compliance — the Drive AnalyticsTM solution — sparked a conversation in our home, which then led to some serious investigation into alternatives to the tools ethics and compliance professionals use currently to try to measure ethical culture.

Compliance programs are constantly changing. All this change requires a change management model of analysis.

I’d heard from clients and colleagues in the industry who weren’t getting useful insights from their program analytics. They felt locked into dashboards that offered endless data, but the data didn’t feel relevant to their programs. The tools were inflexible to customization and change, so they offered little value.

Compliance programs are constantly changing. All this change requires a change management model of analysis. Meet: the Knoster Model for Managing Complex Change.

The Knoster Model is a model of analysis from the education field. In the CEP Magazine article, we outline strategies for how to use the model to measure ethical culture. We also share some other practical advice, including:

  • Look in house for ethical culture measurement data and information first.
  • Leverage the talents of others in your organization who have the skills to help with measurement and analysis.
  • Combine elements from the DOJ guidance with a change management model. Since culture is constantly changing, why not use a model that helps manage complex change?
  • Use the Knoster Model with in-house data and information to measure ethical culture.
  • Remeasure, remeasure, remeasure.

The data that’s useful to your company is likely very different from what’s useful to the next company, and the data that’s useful to you now is different from the data that will be useful six months or a year from now. Effectively measuring culture requires flexibility. You have to take your program’s specific goals, industry, and maturity into account so you can ask the right questions at the right time. And you have to be able to change what you’re measuring as the program and your goals change. (Pssst, our Drive AnalyticsTM service can help you do just that!)

To learn more about the Knoster Model and how you can apply it to your program, check out the article in this month’s CEP magazine here.