Imagine the unimaginable

What I’ve learned through the challenges of 2020 has been … 


Have an annual creative, (fun) brainstorming session with key players in the company to imagine the unimaginable that could happen. This may be the case already if you also have a Disaster Recovery Plan. Partner with the DR folks to discuss possible future risks – Financially, markets, operations, record-keeping, Flu, Ebola, Meteors, Martial Law, Man-eating Aliens, Fire-Breathing Rainbow Unicorns from another dimension… well, maybe just the first few things I mentioned. 😉

Everyone might feel a little “crazy” while doing the exercise, but now we know, for example, risk assessments that we tried to do in the past that received at best a “Yeah, right” will now be held in higher regard. Make it an all-hands-on-deck exercise and you'll have better buy-in. Have lots of coffee and doughnuts at the table.

So, strike while the iron is hot, and get your policies and procedures in order, enforced, and tested. The best thing that can come out of these exercises is, well, nothing. Nothing happening. Here's to business as usual.

David Flint

 


More Compliance Officer Day Stories of 2020. Want to share your story? Start here.

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