David Childers from Ethicspoint writes a good article about social media and compliance programs in the SCCE journal.  He identifies all the new tools such as Twitter, blogs, wikis, LinkedIn, Facebook, etc. that can be used in compliance training.   But how?

This is the golden question that everyone is struggling with.  Training has traditionally been done in a classroom.  The teacher lectures, the students take notes, then there’s a test and grade.  Or corporate headquarters pushes out the training that everyone needs to watch, then certify completion.

But things are undoubtedly changing.  Education seems to be more about conversations and groups.  It also seems to be peer-oriented and self-directed.  That’s where the new tools come into play and will have the most impact.

These tools when used correctly can be a powerful force in creating an ethical culture.  If you can get conversations going about ethics and doing what’s right, then you’re on your way.  But it has to happen naturally.  It’s not really something that’s contrived.  It may start as a few questions.  It might start with a video.  In many ways, the compliance group just creates the tools and plants the seeds of conversations and then stands back.  In other ways, it’s about sharing the struggles of difficult situations.  It’s also about experimentation and seeing what works.

It will be very interesting to watch evolve.  I also think it will be fun to experiment with.