Building a Strong Control Environment

At least one percent of any organization’s top line is lost to waste and unethical behavior.  However, leaders can create a strong control environment that does not subvert trust or disrupt regular operations.  In such environments, unnecessary losses are reduced, and symptoms of problems are identified early & handled professionally.  Ethical business improves the bottom line.

Who should attend:  Business leaders, managers, and operations personnel.   Learn how to identify what can go wrong, how to respond to indicators of unethical behavior, and how to establish a disciplined environment.  Through exercises and case studies, we will learn from mistakes organizations have made, and we will explore methods disciplined organizations used to handle problems properly and prevent recurrences.

Please scroll down to view the course outline, or click here to download the pdf outline.

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Course Objectives

Upon completion of this workshop, you will understand how to:

Overcome mindsets that prevent people from addressing problems;

Establish responsibility for detecting problems early;

Create an environment where ethical behavior is rewarded;

Identify what can go wrong in their primary process areas and industry;

Recognize common symptoms of unethical behavior and negligence;

Avoid common pitfalls in dealing with unethical behavior;

Recognize abuse of authority and the power of effective stewardship over assets;

Apply lessons from case studies to their own unique environment.

 

8 CPE

Field of Study: Accounting, Auditing

Course Level: Intermediate

Group-live

No prerequisites or advanced preparation required

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Course Outline

Elements of a Healthy Environment

Understanding how much unethical behavior is out there;

How leaders’ behaviors can derail control mechanisms;

The manager’s role in problem detection;

Evaluating your environment;

Assessing policies;

A method for working problem detection into daily activities.

 

Detecting Unethical Behaviors and Negligence

What can go wrong – problems within common business processes & your industry;

Recognizing symptoms of unethical behaviors;

Understanding how people detect and respond to problems;

Where you should expect to find problems;

Changing the culture.

 

Creating a Healthy Environment

The power of authority, influence, gifts & entertainment;

Systemic behaviors that corrupt entire organizations;

Which entity level controls are effective?

Case studies in effective (and ineffective) response to problems;

Building organizational wisdom.