Rethinking ethics and compliance: Design Thinking at UCB

How does a compliance team develop creative solutions in a highly regulated industry? The UCB team started with the Design Thinking challenge “Develop a guideline that colleagues can follow in difficult situations!”

When faced with an ethical dilemma, colleagues need support to help them make the right decisions.

In 2017, UCB's Ethics & Compliance team started working with Design Thinking for the first time. The goal was to create a guideline that would guide colleagues in difficult situations. However, the first version of the guideline was not well received, recalls Karen Eryou, Head of Team International Markets in the Ethics & Compliance department. Although the team had previously sought feedback from colleagues, the executive committee asked, “We understand the concept, but how do we engage our employees? How do we get them on board?”

To position the team more as consultants, Karen Eryou and two colleagues decided to tackle the challenge in a Design Thinking workshop. Selina Mayer, Program Lead at the HPI d-school, led the four-day workshop, which was part of a one-year innovation program at UCB designed to promote new approaches.

We need to create a culture in which not knowing is acceptable.

Before the workshop, the team was convinced they had done 90% of the work. However, they quickly realized that they needed to redefine the problem. “As an ethics and compliance specialist, I can explain how to recognize a dilemma,” says Karen Eryou. In discussions with UCB employees, however, it became clear that this skill could not be taken for granted in all colleagues.

So, the problem was not just how to deal with a dilemma. The challenge was also how to recognize it as such. This was a key insight, especially in a global company where the definition of a dilemma differs depending on the cultural context and individual experience.

Through Design Thinking interviews and prototyping, the team realized what their colleagues needed in difficult moments. It turned out that written decision trees or algorithms were of little help. Employees wanted to discuss real cases and have instant access to information. Most important, however, was the ability to talk to a real person.

Prototyping in a globally distributed team was challenging. Karen Eryou emphasizes: “Getting people to develop creative ideas over Skype was difficult. But it worked!” Another important insight was that the usual instructive approach was not effective. “We had to show employees in a motivating way that we are collectively smarter when we can openly say, ‘I don't know,’” explains Eryou. This means putting ego aside and fostering empathy – a change that also requires adjusting corporate culture.