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  • Ethics & Compliance

Making compliance learning that people actually want to take

Compliance learning fails because we choose to present fundamentally interesting human problems, such as ethics, risk, and privacy, in ways that treat adult professionals like children.

It is an open secret in the corporate world that nobody likes compliance training. It is the broccoli of the corporate calendar, mandated by regulators, enforced by HR, and clicked through as rapidly as humanly possible by the workforce.
But the problem isn’t the subject matter. The problem is the architectural execution.

Are we treating professionals like children?

Too often, compliance learning defaults to a pedagogical approach that belongs in a primary school. We use cartoons to explain anti-bribery laws. We use simplistic, binary “Correct/Incorrect” quizzes to assess complex ethical dilemmas. We lock navigation to ensure they “read every word,” communicating a fundamental lack of trust.

When you treat your workforce like children, you get compliance, not commitment. You get a tick in a box, but you do not build a culture of integrity.

How do we design for nuance?

To create compliance learning that people actually respect, we must design for nuance. Ethical failures in the real world rarely look like a cartoon villain offering a bag of cash. They look like subtle pressures to meet quarterly targets, ambiguous supplier relationships, and the slow normalisation of deviance.

Your learning design must reflect this reality.

  1. Embrace the grey: Present scenarios where every option has a downside. Force learners to weigh competing priorities, just as they do in their jobs.
  2. Raise the aesthetic: If the training looks cheap, the message feels cheap. A premium, editorial art direction signals that the business takes this subject seriously.
  3. Trust the learner: Remove the locked navigation. Let them explore. If your scenarios are engaging enough, you won’t need to force them to pay attention.

When we take compliance as seriously as we take the brand, we stop managing risk through rules, and start managing it through culture.

Jason Baker, Founder, Snowfish Learning

Published: 12 October 2023

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