Safety Net
April 1, 2026
For so long, I felt like an outsider—the lone compliance voice carrying the weight of keeping everyone on track. But then the big boss pulled me aside and said, ‘You
What does improv comedy have to do with compliance? Strange as it may sound, quite a bit. The philosophies and techniques behind creating an environment where comedic creativity can thrive and creating an environment where employees feel safe to speak up to challenge business decisions and report concerns are similar. There is a lot that ethics and compliance professionals can learn from this connection.
IMPROVISATION – A FOUNDATION:
Improvisation is a spontaneous, collaborative art form where performers take suggestions from the audience and create characters, dialogues, scenes and stories spontaneously, off the top of their heads, without a script.
Funny people who are good improvisers often get famous – Bill Murray, Chris Farrelly, Amy Poehler, Tina Fey, Stephen Colbert, Keegan-Michael Key, Jordan Peele, Steve Carell, Seth Myers to name a few. They tend to be great performers. They also tend to be flexible and adaptable, great listeners, great supporters, great collaborators, and great storytellers. They create space for alternative ideas and new possibilities, building bridges to the ideas of others, and perhaps most importantly, creating an atmosphere of unconditional support.
Professional improvisers actually practice their craft with hundreds of hours of exercises and role-plays. They’re not practicing what funny things to say. They are practicing psychological safety. When speaking about improv, Amy Poehler famously said, “It’s easier to be brave when you’re not alone.” This maps quite well to ethics, compliance and speak up culture.
PSYCHOLOGICAL SAFETY:
Psychological safety can be defined as the belief that you won’t be punished for speaking up with ideas, questions, mistakes or concerns. Creating psychological safety in your organizations is one of the most important challenges that an ethics & compliance program faces.
Influencing speak up culture in our organizations comes with many challenges. There are deep-seated cultural issues around speaking up that often make it difficult for employees to find their voice, even when they know right from wrong. Leaders are often ill-prepared to deal with employees who speak up which can have long lasting ramifications. There is a constant battle to establish trust between the rank and file and senior leadership. It’s hard to gain and maintain a sense of organizational justice. But the ethics and compliance function touches the entire organization and is well positioned to drive cultural change.
The tenets of improvisation, have broader application than just the stage. These are muscles that can be built through practice to help us all be more mindful of how we communicate so that we can create a welcoming atmosphere of trust and support. You can get a few Ahas from the Ha-Has! 
One thing that every improviser does before they go onstage is approach each other, look each other in the eye and say “I’ve got your back” and then we literally pat each other on the back. This happens at every show, all over the world. “Got Your Back” is a constant reminder that we are making a commitment to be there for each other. We can step on stage without the fear of failure. We’re part of a group that trusts each other. This psychological safety is essentially the engine that propels us to success. So how do we apply this concept to E&C in our organizations?
Aaaand Scene!
Stay tuned for lessons 2-6 in future Compliance & Ethics Ideas & Answers
Improvisers, like bartenders and therapists, tend to be great listeners. To be successful on stage, creating in the moment, in collaboration with our scene partners, an improviser needs to be a sponge. We need to pick up on all verbal and physical cues. The more perceptive we are the more we pick up our scene partners’ intentions and emotions and the more quickly we can connect to get to something interesting, meaningful or perhaps even memorable. This can’t happen if we’re in our heads trying to think of funny things to say. We focus on staying in the moment and not planning ahead. Active listening is about taking in every word, gesture and emotion so that you can absorb, understand, react and build solutions together. Listen like a thief.
Being a good listener is crucial to being a successful ethics & compliance professional. But it can be challenging. As an authority figure you want to get a head start formulating a thoughtful answer. You’ve probably heard their question and seen their mistake a thousand times before. All this makes it easy to get into your head and start preplanning what you are going to say. Or maybe you’re short on time and you missed lunch and your mind wanders to thinking about cheese fries. This is all quite common, but it leads to two big problems.
So how do we apply this concept to E&C in our organizations?
Feedback Loop – They need to know that they’ve been heard, so we need to regularly involve them and report back. Report the results of surveys. Report the number of reports, investigations and the results. Share real anonymized stories so they know what bad behavior looks like, understand the process and the consequences. If they are yelling into the abyss with no response, it undermines trust.
Aaaand Scene!
Stay tuned for improv lessons 3-6 in future Compliance & Ethics Ideas & Answers
Or you can download the Full Whitepaper from L&E Here
[1] For more on Active Listening, see https://ideasandanswers.com/harmony-in-compliance/
[2] For more on ethics ambassadors and champions, see https://ideasandanswers.com/the-champions-network-by-matt-silverman-how-to-bring-your-compliance-ethics-program-to-life-throughout-the-company/
Improvisers practices something called “an attitude of gratitude.” When making things up on stage without a script, an improviser is actively listening so we can absorb everything and we need to be grateful for that information, no matter what it is. We accept whatever our scene partners throw out to us, even if what they say is surprising, frustrating, contradicting, tedious and unfunny. This doesn’t mean we agree with their choice. We often do not. But it is critical that they do feel safe enough to share. An “attitude of gratitude” is reinforcing psychological safety and teaching your partners that you are a safe place to share information.
As an ethics & compliance professional, it’s your job to be well-versed in the rules and regulations. It can be frustrating to hear the same question over and over again. But you want to teach the person speaking-up or coming to you with questions or requesting information, that it’s okay for them to approach you. You want this to happen. You need to be grateful that they do and encourage this behavior so others will as well. People won’t go to the office of “NO.” This requires an “attitude of gratitude.” You are building trust.
So how do we apply this concept to E&C in our organizations?
People won’t go to the “office of NO.” We need to teach our colleagues that we are a safe space to go to for helpful advice and support. An attitude of gratitude will help.
Aaaand Scene!
Stay tuned for improv lessons 4-6 in future Compliance & Ethics Ideas & Answers
Yes-And is the most well-known tenet of improvisation. On stage, Yes-And means to accept, agree and add something. Improvisers all commit to follow this rule. No matter what is said or done, we drop our idea, agree and add one thing. Drop-Accept-Agree-Add. This is reciprocated and that is how a scene is built, collaboratively without a script. Think of YES-And as the main instrument that allows a group to play music together. It is both a practical methodology and a philosophical mindset that powers the vehicle to propel an idea forward.
The Consequences of No:
In improvisation, “No” stops a scene from moving forward and negating often devolves into argument. “No” is often a knee-jerk reflex. It’s a way of stopping action and maintaining control over an idea or situation or person. As a homework assignment, keep track of how many times you say or hear “No” in one day. Once your ear is tuned into it, you’ll realize how often we all use “No” and most the time it’s unnecessary and unhelpful.
In ethics and compliance, “NO” can be pretty common. In fact, there are questions where you know you cannot literally say “yes,” even for an instant. “Can I bribe a government official to get permission for the project?” “Can I call a competitor to set prices?” These are not things you can agree to. The answer is likely “No” and that’s okay. “No” has a purpose. However, “No” has consequences. “No” can lead your audience to feel anger, frustration or eventually apathy. If all they ever hear is “No” it’s likely that they will stop coming to you for advice and support. There are ways of getting to a “No” without actually using the word, that won’t frustrate your audience.
Bring a Brick:
Another improv tenet is “Bring a brick, not a cathedral.” When creating a scene together on stage, we don’t benefit from long monologues. That would be stand-up comedy or drama. We create together, by listening, agreeing to and validating what we just heard and adding one thing. Your partners than drop their agenda, agree and add one thing. Just bring a brick. What this means is that an ensemble is more effective when we all contribute.
So how do we apply this concept to E&C in our organizations?
You will come across lots of “No-Because” people and lots of “Yes-But” people. Your job is to model good behavior. They may not realize that your secret Yes-Anding is why you are a positive, helpful, supportive, affirming person. They just know that they like and trust you and will come to you for advice and support.
Aaaand Scene!
Stay tuned for improv lessons 5-6 in future Compliance & Ethics Ideas & Answers
Another improv comedy tenet is “things are funny when they are true” or as improv comedy legend Gilda Radner famously said, “Comedy is just truth…only faster.” This emphasizes that the most effective humor often stems from authentic, observable, and relatable human experiences, pain, or social commentary. This concept suggests that comedy acts as a bridge for connecting with audiences by exposing shared truths in a way that feels honest rather than just contrived invention.
So how do we apply this concept to E&C in our organizations?
It’s important to note that the “fun” in your training and communications should always be in service of your message. Fun is not the end goal. Your messaging should always be clear. The use of comedy, music, drama, storytelling, or games are all techniques that we can use to bring important learning to life in a way that it is more likely to be received. So make sure the “fun” does not obliterate the message, and make sure that the message does not put people to sleep. Training can and should be engaging and educational. Making it fun will make it more effective.
Aaaand Scene!
Stay tuned for improv lessons 6 in future Compliance & Ethics Ideas & Answers
Improv has often been described as the art of being “others-focused.” What this means is that when we dedicate ourselves to being helpful and supportive of our scene partners they are more likely to do that for us. It’s about orienting ourselves around what we can give to a situation versus what we can take. It’s also quite freeing. When you’re on stage trying hard to be funny, you more than likely won’t be. When you are on stage trying to tee up your partners for success, and they are doing the same for you, that’s when the magic happens. Teamwork makes the dream work. Together you are collaborating to create interesting, unexpected, authentic, memorable connections and that’s fun to be a part of. It’s another way to get “from me to we.”
So how do we apply this concept to E&C in our organizations?
Integrate, Embed & Spread: We can force employees to take our training and we can plead for them to seek out our advice and support . . . or we can we show up where they are. Make learning resources easy to find and circulate reminders frequently. Embed short, entertaining videos in other department trainings and other department newsletters. Play commercials for compliance at sales meetings and town halls. If you give them something short and fun, others will carry your important messages forward, put those messages in more places and play them in higher rotation. Make them look good and it will increase your visibility and exposure.
All of these improv comedy lessons build upon each other to provide a philosophical mindset as well as a set of instructions to transform your program into that welcoming, supportive, business-enabling resource that we are all striving for. It’s not about the funny. It is about
Remember that people do not speak up when they are bored, annoyed or afraid. If they know the rules but don’t trust you or the organization, they’ll bury their problems. It’s imperative that we create an environment of trust and support to increase the likelihood that employees will speak up to ask questions and report concerns. These improv comedy lessons are not just about the fun, they provide a more efficient and effective way to mitigate risk.
Aaaand Scene!
To read Improv Lesson #1 “Got Your Back” click here
To read Improv Lesson #2 “Listen Like a Thief” click here
To read Improv Lesson #3 “Attitude of Gratitude” click here
To read Improv Lesson #4 “Yes And” click here
To read Improv Lesson #5 “Truth in Comedy” click here
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