by Mary Bennett, Vice President of Ethical Leadership Group, a Global Compliance company

I am a movie buff. As a compliance training professional, I love films because I think they tell us much about human behavior without the boring, preachy stuff we sometimes find in formal ethics and compliance training programs.

Over the holidays, I rented the HBO mini-series “Rome,” season one, which tells the supposedly historically accurate story of the rise and fall of the Roman Empire from the perspective of two Roman soldiers. What struck me was that the wide-spread bribery, fraud, violence and general immorality portrayed in the episodes could have taken place anywhere and anytime in human history. And the bigger the kahuna, the bigger the impact of his or her actions. But also, in the midst of cultural depravity, Rome still progressed largely on the back of its disciplined army.

So how does this tie into the ethics and compliance profession? I can think of three ways. First, it points to the timeless importance of culture. People in a society or organization will behave according to the most widely accepted common denominator – modeled by those at the top. The E&C takeaway is this: we must train and communicate with our leaders ad nauseum so they get this.

Second, human behavior is motivated by the carrot and stick. Roman soldiers got paid if they followed the rules; they got executed if they did not - elegantly simple and effective. We may not be able to adopt this approach verbatim in our E&C efforts, but there is a corollary: Reward good behavior (yes, there are a number of non-monetary ways) and discipline bad behavior. Do both consistently.

Third, human nature being what it is, good controls are a must. The Roman army minimized its risks through clear rules, repeated training, and swift reinforcement with the carrot and stick. What worked in Rome can work in your organization through your E&C efforts.

Rome eventually fell, but our organizations don’t need to – as long we remember that human behavior hasn’t changed in thousands of years. This may be a little depressing, but it’s also an exciting E&C challenge for the new year.