When conducting an investigation, everything depends on the person who is gathering the evidence. But you are a person and not a machine. Techniques and best practices are not enough to guarantee a good result. Conducting investigations requires professional courage, tenacity, and keeping focused on your objective. It also requires soft skills to ensure your efforts are accepted and integrated into your organization. Join Meric Bloch, founder of Winter Compliance and an expert investigator, consultant, author and trainer, as he outlines ten common strategies adapted to the investigator’s world. Webinar attendees will learn: -Create a sense of mission for your investigation function -Keep your professional and investigative goals realistic -Lead your internal stakeholders to accepting and valuing your role in the organization

1. 10 Leadership Strategies
for Investigators
Meric Craig Bloch, Principal, Winter Compliance LLC

2. Meric Craig Bloch
Meric Bloch is the Principal of Winter Compliance LLC, offering
specialized workplace investigation consulting services.
•Creator of the “Winter Method” for conducting workplace investigations
•Attorney and past compliance officer for two multinational companies
•Certified Compliance and Ethics Professional - Fellow, Certified Fraud
Examiner, and Professional Certified Investigator
•Author, Workplace Investigations: Techniques and Strategies for
Investigators and Compliance Officers; and The First Information Is
Almost Always Wrong
•Faculty, Society of Corporate Compliance and Ethics’ Basic Compliance
and Ethics Academy
•Conducted approximately 400 workplace investigations

3. Elements of a Workplace Investigation
• A good-faith inquiry that reaches a rational conclusion.
• Thorough debriefing of the reporter, the implicated person, and witnesses
with relevant information.
• Consideration of the relevant issues and standards implicated.
• Gathering and analysis of all relevant evidence.
• Assessment of the credibility of the investigation participants and the
strength of the evidence.
• A rational, legally defensible conclusion of whether the conduct
complained about actually occurred.

4. Do You Have an Investigations Infrastructure?
• An ethics and compliance investigations policy
• Non-retaliation, duty-to-cooperate, and talk-or-walk policies
• Quality standards for investigations management and investigators
• Hotline intake SOP, report triage steps, and escalation criteria
• Protocol for conducting investigations
• Templates for consistent investigation tasks
• Investigator training program (initial and continuing education)
• Upwards reporting to demonstrate investigation progress and trends

5. Investigations Process
The Winter Method®

6. Ten Winning Strategies
1. Be brave.
2. Study the past.
3. Create a sense of mission.
4. Keep your goals realistic.
5. Be part of the fight.
6. There is no peacetime.
7. Know your enemy.
8. Command from a forward position.
9. Bias your leaders toward victory.
10.You must not fail.

7. 1. Be a Strategic Advisor
• Goals of the strategic advisor.
• What advice does a strategic advisor give?
• What the bosses expect from a strategic advisor.
• What a strategic advisor should not do.
• How can an investigator be a strategic advisor?

8. 2. Have as Much Knowledge as You Can
• Investigations are a form of business intelligence.
• Be a reality therapist and an organizational pathologist.
• Know your organization’s policies.
• Understand your organization’s history and how its
operations work.

9. 3. Be a Verbal Visionary for Your Role
• What is a verbal visionary?
• Have a verbal vision for your role?
• How do you speak to managers about your role?
• From data to information to advice to change.
• Are you sufficiently entrepreneurial?

10. 4. Consider the Strengths and Limitations
• You can’t be a genius in every investigation.
• Hotlines and risk assessments are useful, but they
have their own limitations.
• Know your organization’s past weaknesses.
• You need to have realistic goals.

11. 5. You are Either Part of the Success or Not
• You need the organization’s leadership more than they
need you.
• Management calculates the cost of compliance, and
so should you.
• Sell your value to management.
• Know what they think of you.

12. 6. The Threats are Out There
• Fight the bias against conducting an investigation.
• Be proactive. Find something to do.
• Figure out ways to get people to make more hotline
reports.
• Fewer hotline reports are not a good thing.
• Don’t wait for the phone to ring.
• Protect your professional and personal safety.

13. 7. Understand the Management Mindset
• Business people are expected to make money.
• Fix it and move on.
• The marketplace is gray.
• Ethics and compliance is a “nice to have.”
• Rules are obstacles.
• Investigations are slow and not relevant.
• You can’t scare us anymore.

14. 8. No One Cares More Than You Do
• Learn from your investigations.
• Are people happy to see you?
• How is your role perceived?
• There is fear in your workplace.
• Your value is determined internally, not by external
benchmarks.

15. 9. Lead Your Internal Clients
• Expect to succeed.
• Find ways to win.
• There are practical business realities.
• You must sell the value of your function.

16. 10. Keep Trying, Marketing, Explaining
and Leading
• You need not always win, but you have to try.
• Try to put yourself out of business.
• Everything we believe in is true.
• Do the right thing, even if it is not always convenient.

17. Thank-you for participating
Contact Meric Bloch, Principal, Winter Compliance LLC, (973) 768
3756
mbloch@wintercompliance.com
@fraudinvestigat8r
https://www.linkedin.com/in/mericbloch
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j.gerard@i-sight.com
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