Ep.31: The Nine Circles of Corporate Hell

Ep.31: The Nine Circles of Corporate Hell

What really drives corporate scandals?  In this episode, Zach and Hui sit down with Professor Guido Palazzo, co-author of The Dark Pattern, to explore how organizational environments shape behavior in ways that go far beyond individual intent or values. Drawing on cases like Wells Fargo, Theranos, and Boeing, Guido explains why misconduct is rarely about intent alone—and instead emerges from a powerful mix of pressure, incentives, culture, and context that can override judgment and values. They walk through the nine elements of the “dark pattern,” a set of recurring conditions that show up across major corporate scandals. Along the way, they also challenge the limits of “do the right thing” messaging and explore what it actually takes to build cultures where people can navigate ambiguity, speak up, and make better decisions. The result is a deeper understanding of how context shapes behavior in powerful and predictable ways.

Ep.30: Meetings Don’t Have to Suck!?

We all complain about meetings—in fact, they just might be one of the biggest unmanaged investments in your organization. Is there a better way? In this episode, Zach and Hui sit down with Dr. Steven Rogelberg, one of the world’s leading experts on the science of meetings, to unpack why meetings so often fail—and what leaders get wrong about fixing them. From the surprising truth about agendas to the staggering scale and cost of meetings, this conversation reframes meetings as a critical (and under-managed) business investment. Dr. Rogelberg shares practical, research-backed tools you can start using immediately: structuring agendas as questions, shrinking meeting times, rethinking who really needs to attend, and shifting from dominating conversations to facilitating them. The result? Meetings that are shorter, more engaging, and worth the time. If you’ve ever felt trapped in a calendar full of ineffective meetings, this episode offers a clear—and refreshingly doable—better way.

Ep.29: Putting Compliance on Trial?

In this episode of The Better Way, Zach shares reflections from an unusual professional crossover: serving on a criminal jury in a high‑stakes, multi‑week trial. What he experienced in the courtroom and the jury room—confusion caused by complexity, the absence of a coherent story, opaque instructions written in legalese, and the emotional weight of being questioned—sparked a series of insights that directly mirror some of compliance’s biggest challenges. From training that ignores people’s time, to investigations that underestimate the stress of being interviewed, the jury experience became a case study in how easily good intentions can be undermined by poor design. Zach and Hui explore what this experience teaches compliance professionals about prioritizing clarity over volume, outcomes over outputs, and listening over simply encouraging people to speak up. They also examine the uncomfortable question of evidence: could compliance leaders credibly testify to a “reasonable degree of compliance certainty,” that their programs actually work? The conversation ultimately reinforces a core truth—compliance, like justice, is not just about rules; it’s about people, behavior, and designing systems that work in the real world.

Ep.28: An Illusion of Certainty: DOJ’s Corp. Enforcement Policy

When the DOJ sneezes, the compliance community has a habit of mad dashing to the emergency room. And that’s pretty much what happened when the Department of Justice rolled out its “new” Corporate Enforcement Policy last month. And so, in this episode of The Better Way?, Zach and Hui—somewhat reluctantly—provide a high-level overview of the policy itself, before digging into a recent Law360 article Hui wrote in response. Together, they separate what’s truly new from what’s largely recycled and explain why the policy’s promises of clarity and certainty are far more complicated than the headlines suggest. Hui argues that the policy rests on an assumption that no longer holds: a stable, predictable enforcement environment. She points to shifting prosecutorial priorities, declining capacity, increased politicization, and a changing bargaining landscape. Instead of treating disclosure as the default “right” answer, Hui calls for rigorous critical thinking: weighing the strength of the evidence, the likelihood of detection, and the real‑world consequences of each option. Along the way, the conversation reframes the compliance program not as a shield against prosecution, but as a tool for detecting signals and enabling better decisions. The takeaway: slow down, look past the hype and headlines, and ground compliance decisions in context, evidence, and thoughtful analysis—not fear.

Ep.27: Compliance and Legal are Different . . . Right?

In this episode, Zach and Hui trace how corporate compliance evolved from early antitrust enforcement to today’s legal‑dominated structures, showing how scandals, regulation, and enforcement—not a desire to “do the right thing”—shaped the function’s modern form. They also unpack why compliance so often reports into legal and why reporting lines rarely reflect the true power dynamics inside companies.  The conversation then explores what compliance should be when it’s not treated as an extension of legal: a proactive, behavior‑focused, data‑driven discipline centered on culture, risk, and prevention. Zach and Hui highlight the skill sets compliance really requires and the limitations created by lawyer‑only leadership pipelines. Finally, they end with practical guidance for compliance professionals who encounter a limiting, overlying legalistic approach to the discipline.