Same Team, Different Game
Not every compliance officer is cut out to be an integrity officer, and I say that with deep respect for both roles. Compliance is essential. It protects organizations, ensures that legal obligations are met, and maintains everything with structure and accountability. But integrity requires something different. It’s not about following the framework—it’s about questioning what […]
Integrity Can’t Grow in Sand
There’s a growing movement to evolve compliance programs beyond rule-following and more towards a values-based, ethics-driven model grounded in integrity. It’s the right direction. But in my experience, too many of these efforts are launched before the culture is ready to support them. You can’t embed integrity where values haven’t taken root. You can’t implement […]
Absent from the Conversation, Present in the Consequence
“Sometimes the most powerful presence is the one that’s never left the room—it just hasn’t been invited”— Desiree Ramirez. There’s a kind of exclusion that doesn’t come from disagreement—it comes from invisibility. I wasn’t left off the invite. I wasn’t forgotten. I wasn’t thought of at all. No one meant harm. There was no calculated […]
The Evolution of the Chief Integrity Officer
The Chief Compliance Officer (CCO) role has historically centered on ensuring that organizations follow laws, regulations, and policies. A compliance program focuses on adherence to rules to avoid punitive consequences. However, as organizations realized that proper ethical behavior could not be sustained through compliance alone, a natural evolution gave rise to the Chief Integrity Officer […]