Improv, Psychological Safety, Compliance & Speak Up Culture: Part 3 “Attitude of Gratitude”

May 29, 2026

This is part 3 of a 6-part series of Creativity & Compliance, where Tom & Ronnie explore the connections between improv comedy and improving compliance, psychological safety and speak up culture. Today's episode, "Attitude of Gratitude"

Hosts

Tom Fox

Ronnie Feldmen

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About This Episode

Improv, Psychological Safety, Compliance & Speak Up Culture
Part-3, “Attitude of Gratitude”

This is part 3 of a 6-part series of Creativity & Compliance, where Tom & Ronnie explore the connections between improv comedy and improving compliance, psychological safety and speak up culture. Today’s episode, “Attitude of Gratitude”

Improvisation is a spontaneous, collaborative art form where performers take suggestions from the audience and create characters, dialogues, scenes and stories spontaneously, off the top of their heads, without a script.

Psychological safety can be defined as the belief that you won’t be punished for speaking up with ideas, questions, mistakes or concerns. Creating psychological safety in your organizations is arguably the most important challenge that an ethics & compliance program faces.

So what do these two things have to do with each other? Strange as it may sound, quite a bit. The philosophies and techniques behind creating an environment where comedic creativity can thrive and creating an environment where employees feel safe to speak up to challenge business decisions and report concerns are similar. There is a lot that ethics and compliance professionals can learn from this connection. You can get a few A-Has from the Ha-Has.

“ATTITUDE OF GRATITUDE”
Improvisers practice something called “an attitude of gratitude.” When making things up on stage without a script, an improviser is actively listening so we can absorb everything and we need to be grateful for that information, no matter what it is. We accept whatever our scene partners throw out to us, even if what they say is surprising, frustrating, contradicting, tedious and unfunny. This doesn’t mean we agree with their choice. We often do not. But it is critical that they do feel safe enough to share. An “attitude of gratitude” is reinforcing psychological safety and teaching your partners that you are a safe place to share information.

As an ethics & compliance professional, it’s your job to be well-versed in the rules and regulations. It can be frustrating to hear the same question over and over again. But we need to teach the person speaking-up or coming to you with questions or requesting information, that it’s okay for them to approach you. You want this to happen. You need to be grateful that they do and encourage this behavior so others will as well. People won’t go to the office of “NO.” This requires an “attitude of gratitude.” You are building trust.
 

So how do we apply this concept to E&C in our organizations? Listen to the podcast as we unpack two philosophies and techniques.

  • Postpone Judgment
  • A Philosophy of Thank You
  • Institutionalizing Organizational Gratitude

If you’re not into listening and would prefer reading, you can download our Whitepaper: Improv, Compliance, Psychological Safety & Speak Up Culture

Ronnie Feldman is the CEO & Creative Director at Learnings & Entertainments, a learning content provider made up of comedians and entertainers with a focus on corporate risk. We make compliance cool at www.LearningsEntertainments.com

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