THE OTHER SIDE | BY stu lehr, crcm
Compliance’s Future Professional
Behaviors (The other CFPB)
BACK FROM THE FUTURE! Who knew? It happened at the ABA’s Regulatory Compliance Conference, which always provides some great insights and a sense for where issues and trends are headed. But one session in particular this past June in Orlando looked far, far ahead. It was titled, “Compliance Leadership: What Do You Need
in this New Era to be Successful.”
The panelists talked a lot about the importance of “soft
skills” (which sound far preferable to “hard skills” that
are obviously much more work). The speakers
focused on communication,
presentation, persuasion, nego-
tiation—and lots of other “…
ions.” One panelist (the inimi-
table Mike Maher) summed
it up well. He said that we still
need to do the “R’s” which are
Rules, Research, and Regulato-
ry programs, but now we also
need to be skilled in the “P’s,”
which are People, Process, Psy-
chology, Principles, Paranoia,
and even be Poly-amorous (we
have many regulators to love).
In a stunning move at the
conclusion of the session—
Compliance Manager from
the Future! I was not in the
audience at the time, but it
was widely reported that other
than having an octopus-like
head and Star Trek-like shirt,
this time traveler looked a lot like me. (I’ve attached a picture
that was captured of this guy. Frankly, I don’t see any resemblance, but you can come to your own conclusion.)
Luckily, since the sessions are recorded, I was able to listen
to his message and transcribe what he said. Here it is—quite
literally, a peek into the future.
I’m an evolutionary adaptation to support the additional
talent-receptacles, or ‘tanticles’ needed by Compliance
Managers of the future. It is part of what we call the
‘Octopi Movement.’
You have been hearing about
these attributes in this session
today. One of these was
‘Communicate with Clarity.’ In
future-world we use a technique
from our advanced social
networking, which is known
as ‘Facelook.’ It is beyond
technology, where you actually
look the other person in the face
when you communicate with
them. It is one of our greatest
achievements.
I must return to the future now. I
have tickets to Cher’s Final Final
Final Final Farewell Tour. I can’t
wait to hear her sing ‘Gypsies,
Tramps, and Vulcans’ as well as
her first big hit, ‘I Got You DAAP.”
I then heard a strange whirring
sound on the session recording as
if he was being beamed back up,
but am pretty sure I still caught
his final words … “Manage forth
to a Fair and Reasonable future!” ■
“Greetings from the future, and our Supreme Leader—Cher.
Yes, she’s still around.
[Then singing—or what sounded like an attempt to sing like
Cher] ‘If I Could Turn Back Time … If I Could Find a Way …’
Actually, Cher did find a way to turn back time and that
is how I am able to be with you today. As you may have
noticed from my visage, I’m a descendant of Octomom.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
STU LEHR, CRCM, is an Industry Principal for Finacle, at Infosys Technologies Limited. For the 20-plus years prior to this he developed and lead compliance programs for a number of banks and an online payments provider. In addition, he has served on the
ABA Compliance Executive Committee, the ABA Regulatory
Compliance Conference Planning Committee, and still serves on the
faculty for the ABA Compliance Schools. He earned the 2002 ABA
Distinguished Service Award and is a Certified Regulatory
Compliance Manager (CRCM) through the ABA Institute of Certified
Bankers. Reach him at
stu.lehr@gmail.com.
