The Network GRC Blog

Is Funny the Same Thing as Engaging?

January 20 2012

James Barrett, Senior Manager, Marketing Communications, The Network

Engaging Ethics Training Ethics training is boring… or most people think it is. That’s the way ethics training is usually perceived. Of course, some organizations have gone to the opposite extreme, using frivolity and even satire. They see the value of humor in training, and here they are correct. Laughter makes you feel good, and you retain the memory of those things that made you laugh. But if the training is all about humor, without some meaningful content, is the training all that valuable?

A series of video-based ethics training modules are getting a lot of press right now. In those clips, humorous pseudo business types find themselves in odd and compromising situations. We laugh, but does it actually “click” with us? Do we really see ourselves in that situation, or do we see something that borders on slapstick?

Yes, the videos make it to YouTube and are tweeted about and “liked” around the world. But still, do they have any real meaning? Can we relate to them, to our workplace? Sure, maybe a little, but often the similarity becomes mockery. We think it’s funny, but we find ourselves laughing at the other guy, the one in the video, and not seeing ourselves as actors in the play. We actually distance ourselves from the content, like watching a horror film and knowing that it’s fake blood.

Ethics training does not have to be boring, but it should retain a certain level of seriousness and respect for the topic. Humor in training can be engaging, and it can be memorable, but it can also turn into all play and no work.

Last month Compliance Week ran an article entitled “Taking the Snooze Factor Out of Corporate Ethics Training.” I especially liked the article’s quote from David Farrell, chief compliance officer of Yahoo. “The bottom line,” Farrell said, “is that you try to find a way to reach the employees on their level and things they’re receptive to. You hope they come out of it and say, ‘that was really worthwhile.’” When you’re looking at options for ethics training, remember that word: worthwhile.

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RELATED LINKS:
BLOG: Overcoming the Illustration Stigma, Sept. 17, 2011
Turning Work Into Play: Gamifying Your Comms, Strategic Communication Management, Sept. 15, 2011
Is gaming a hot new trend in employee communications?, Ragan Communications, March 1, 2011
Training Tip 8: The Humor Paradox, IEC Journal (Interagency Ethics Council: Standards of Conduct for Federal Employees), Feb. 21, 2011
Cisco Transmits Ethics to a ‘Wired’ World, Ethikos, Nov./Dec. 2008