Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Hi, everyone. You've got questions and we've got answers. Welcome to another Bella Asks episode of the Epicast.
[00:00:18] Speaker A: Here at Ethisphere, we believe there is no competition in compliance. That's why we're using this show as a platform to answer high level questions about business integrity that that have been posed to us by the members of the Business Ethics Leadership alliance, or Bela. Bella is a global ethics and compliance community that provides exclusive access to helpful data, benchmarking events and other resources to advance your ENC program. It also provides a concierge service by which members can submit questions around best practices and our internal experts will provide an answer, plus helpful resources with more information.
Many of these questions are particular to a specific company's needs, but many more of them speak to challenges or opportunities facing E and C professionals everywhere. So in this episode, we're going to answer one such question as part of our ongoing mission to make the world a better place by advancing business integrity.
Joining us once again to lend her deep knowledge and keen insight is Bella chair Erica Salmon Byrne. Erica, it is great to see you once again as always.
[00:01:19] Speaker B: Well, Bill, thank you so much for having me back. And thank you to the members of the Bella community who keep asking terrific questions. And Bill, I do have to say, knowing what question you're going to hit me with today, of the more than 350 concierge requests we have received so far this year, this one might be my favorite.
[00:01:39] Speaker A: It's a really, really cool question and I was excited to bring it on the show. It is a risk question and it reads, what is consequence modeling and how should I make it part of my ENC program?
[00:01:50] Speaker B: Yeah. So for those of you out there listening to Bill and I and thinking to yourself, consequence modeling, excuse me, I don't fault you for that reaction at all because I had that reaction when this question first came in. And the reason I like this question so much is this tells me that this is a Bella member who is taking our advice, which Bill and I give on this show regularly. We which is to learn from other disciplines. At the end of the day, ethics and compliance does have a significant element of risk mitigation involved in its. In its remit. And consequence modeling is something that we see commonly used in the safety context. And it's basically a mathematical modeling of what might happen in the event of a particular malfunction.
Something going wrong, something catching on fire, something exploding. Right. So think of it as a way of testing what might happen in a disaster and doing so well in advance of the disaster. And so the concept of consequence modeling is something we should be using all the time in the work we do. You can also think of this as kind of a corollary to Daniel Kahneman's idea of a pre mortem, you know, so, so you get a bunch of smart people in a room, you sit down and you ask yourself, all right, we're six months in the future. This thing we're about to do has turned out to be just a failure of epic proportions.
What went wrong and why? That's basically consequence modeling without the math. So it's this idea that you can take something that is happening in the business and you can think about, what do I know about the likelihood of something going wrong? What do I know about the potential impact of that thing?
And how can I think about where those ripple effects might be felt in such a way that it gets a little bit predictive to me? So kudos to the Bella member who asked this question. Who's thinking strategically about what other potential risk mitigating functions might have to teach us about how to do it effectively inside our businesses. And I hope all of you out there that aren't currently thinking about using consequence modeling say to yourself, huh, I wonder how I could do something like that, right? Maybe without the math, but maybe with the math inside of my own organization.
[00:04:03] Speaker A: Yeah, I couldn't agree with you more, Erica. Having spent no small portion of my career in the risk management space, I know just, you know, how much of a kindred function it and ENC really, really is. So just answering this question is a great example to go knock on risk management's door and introduce yourself and to talk to them. Because the way they model out risk is really something that grabs the attention of senior stakeholders in a way that sometimes encourages leaders have trouble doing so. I think there's a lot to be learned there.
[00:04:30] Speaker B: Absolutely. And Bill to that list, you know, depending on the kind of organization you're in, if you are in an organization with a strong quality function, go knock on their door. If you're in an organization with a strong safety function, go knock on their door and ask them, ask them, how do you think about predictive analytics? How do you think about figuring out where your weak points might be? Because at the end of the day, that's really what consequence modeling is. What's the likelihood something's going to happen? What's the potential impact of that thing happening? And then how do I strengthen the potential control that would keep all of us from having to deal with that particular issue.
[00:05:02] Speaker A: Well, Erica, thank you so much for weighing in on this question from the Bella community. I know that our members really appreciate it, but more importantly, it's just terrific to share your knowledge with the wider ethics profession. So once again, thank you so much for your time.
[00:05:12] Speaker B: Oh Bill, thank you so much for having me back on. Thank you to the Bella members who keep on asking questions and particularly thank you to the folks out there who are really thinking creatively about what other discipline we can bring into the work that we do on a day to day basis.
[00:05:27] Speaker A: To learn more about Bella, visit ethisphere.com bella to request guest access to the member resource hub and to speak with the Bella Engagement Director. If you have a question that you would like answered on this program, contact the Bella Concierge Service and we'll get to work on it for you right away.
This has been another Bella Asks episode of the Ethicast. Thank you so much for joining us. We hope you've enjoyed the show. If you haven't already, please like and subscribe on YouTube, Apple Podcasts and Spotify and be sure to tell a colleague about us as well. Every like comment and share really helps the program.
That's all for now, but until next time, remember, strong ethics is good business.
