Compliance & Ethics Professional - Society of Corporate ...

Q & AFeaturefiberglass fibers, and we process our ownasphalt and ground limestone.My professional background is as botha trial defense and corporate tax lawyer.Complex regulatory and statutory constructionwas part of that career. Understandingthat there need to be clearly defined black-andwhiteboundaries, but recognizing that thereare shades of gray, is important in being successfulin attaining compliance. Our “betweenthe hash marks” compliance metaphor reflectsthe need for clearly defined boundaries inorder for employees without legal training tosucceed at real world compliance, as we wantto stay in the center“As a lawyer, I had beenprogrammed to avoid allrisk possible. In the worldof business, risk is part ofthe daily challenge andI had to learn to acceptsome risk of failure.”of the field where thelights are bright andthe rules are mostclear, and away fromthe sidelines wherethe visibility is not asgood and the opportunityfor bias on thepart of regulatory refereesis more likely tofind us out of bounds.Taking on the top job at TAMKO was avery real change in responsibility and necessitatedan adjustment in my risk tolerance. Asa lawyer, I had been programmed to avoid allrisk possible. In the world of business, risk ispart of the daily challenge and I had to learnto accept some risk of failure. And as “theclient” instead of the lawyer, I had to learn tolive with some risk. Compliance is one aspectof risk that must be managed.AW: TAMKO believes in a free marketeconomy, continuous improvement, Six Sigma,and follows the Deming principles. How dothese principles mesh with compliance?DCH: If you look at compliance from thetotal quality management perspective—we’llcall it a Deming or Six Sigma perspective(because Six Sigma is an extrapolation ofDeming with enhanced tools and people withhigh-level skill sets)—you will understandthat all processes are subject to variation fromat least five different sources, including people,and that it is critical as to what that variationis, how wide it is, and where it comes from.Then you have to learn how to figure out howto minimize the variation.So in the context of compliance, we alsofocus on people and our processes. For example,in the environmental compliance, variationcan come from machines from normal wearand tear, from breakdown, from defects inthe machines themselves, or in the manner inwhich they are operated,installed, or maintained.As such, environmentalcontrol equipment can failor even just quit workingas the result of a poweroutage. We try to avoidthose failures by understandingour processthat affect environmentalequipment and try to addbackstops to our processesto avoid failures. When those failures happen,environmental noncompliance can be avoideddespite equipment failure. If the environmentalcontrols fail, production automatically shutsdown, which maintains compliance. As wehave come to map out and understand our processesbetter, we can now see the possibility ofimplementing failsafe controls.It’s the same thing in terms of personalcompliance: Understanding the existence ofvariation in human behavior led us to rethinkhow we manage issues, like avoidance ofsexual harassment. We now see training asproviding bright–line boundaries as to whatbehavior is not acceptable. Knowing thatpeople are variable, we accept that trainingalone is not sufficient, because there are toomany opportunities for miscommunicationsCompliance & Ethics Professional March/April 2012+1 952 933 4977 or 888 277 4977 | www.corporatecompliance.org 15