Just stick to the rules

In the current Corona crisis, what Compliance Managers want from their colleagues in their professional lives is even more important for all of our everyday lives: please just stick to the rules! If we manage to trust those who are best able to assess the current situation, the risks and the expected developments, we will be able to avert the dangers in the best possible way. Simple rules, such as keeping your distance and washing your hands, can have a great effect if they are taken seriously and followed, as the following example shows:

In the 18th century, so-called childbed fever cost the lives of many mothers who gave birth in hospitals. In some hospitals, the mortality rate reached almost 70%. Only in the 19th century, more precisely in 1843, in an essay written by the American physician Oliver Wendell Holmes Senior Jr. was it first pointed out that lack of hygiene in hospitals was the cause of the problem. Simply put, the doctors who had previously treated other patients or even examined corpses did not wash their hands before giving birth. Holmes, like his Austro-Hungarian colleague Ignaz Semmelweis, who made the same discovery a few years later, was met with much hostility by his professional colleagues for his views. For a long time the doctors were unable to take responsibility and realize that they themselves were the culprits. It was only when this insight became widespread and the necessary hygienic measures, including hand washing, were taken that the number of deaths from childbed fever could be significantly reduced.

What we can learn from this is described by Simon Sinek in one of his lectures: Sometimes we ourselves are the problem and must take responsibility.

Or to put it another way: Just follow the rules, wash your hands and keep your distance!