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

We have been bludgeoned with bad news over the last few months. I’m betting you know all about it. You probably have the bruises to prove it. I felt compelled to contemplate the obvious after I heard an interesting news story yesterday. The owner of a local music shop was interviewed on the air. He said that his business had dropped off severely over the last few months -- until the US Airways plane landed safely in the Hudson and President Obama took office. This field sociologist, this observer of real life, attributed a subsequent, sustained uptick in his business to nothing other than people’s reaction to hearing good news after so much bad. They felt normal and positive enough to start spending money. Imagine that.

And then it hit me. His music shop experience is a microcosm for our country in general and for corporate America specifically. We in the ethics field talk constantly about the importance of open communication, respect for others, non-retaliation, consequences of non-compliance and on and on. But what about the power of positive news? I believe we have a role here. What would our workplaces be like if we, in the ethics office, used some of our communication time and tools to talk about the good things our companies have done and are doing – and link it to ethics? Chances are that you don’t know all the good things that are going on in your organization. What if you did some research and told some of those stories?

A good ethics and compliance communications plan is very similar to a good marketing campaign. It taps the minds and hearts of the audience through repetition. Case in point – didn’t you enjoy the ongoing Budweiser horse commercials during the SuperBowl? I bet you just smiled. The flood of negative national news is itself a marketing campaign – one that has wrapped the minds and hearts of our citizens with fear and paralysis. And we are sitting here feeling worse and worse.

I’m not so naïve to think that positive and uplifting messages from the ethics office will cure our economy, but what if those messages nudge your employees, just a little, away from the doom and gloom. The reason the SuperBowl commercials work is because they contain the unexpected and that’s what sticks with people. Now apply that to your communications. Do your employees expect your ethics messages to be all about “Don’t Do This or That”? Try something unexpected – say something positive. Who knows. The GNP may actually go up.