Today's compliance landscape is more crowded—and more complex—than ever. As the pace of regulatory change accelerates, companies need to find effective paths forward. As I detailed in a Law360 article from earlier this year, change management tools can help. Here are three areas to consider as you begin to think about your compliance plans (and budget) for 2026.
- Diagnose Before You Act: Rushing to launch "solutions" for perceived compliance programs can backfire. From wasted resources to missed opportunities, rushing can result in programs that do not have sufficient buy in, or are simply not actionable. It may be painful, but taking the time to fully diagnose the problem and the business rationale can have big payoffs. That may mean mapping out compliance priorities, reviewing the compliance needs unique to your organization, or exploring multiple approaches before settling on the path forward.
- Align With Your Company's Core Values: Those who research organizational change have found time and time again that initiatives that are grounded in an organization's mission and values is more likely to take root. Making sure the compliance program resonates with stakeholders means that it is more likely to be successful.
- Listen and Adapt: A program built only by the compliance or legal team can lose the buy-in that you need to make change happen. Organizational change practitioners know that to accomplish change, you need to involve the right stakeholders in the development of the program. This includes getting and incorporating feedback. This will foster trust, surface real-world concerns, and result in workable and supported compliance programs.
Putting It Into Practice: The next post in this series will include three more tips and ideas drawn from change management research.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
