TURNING COMPLIANCE INTO CULTURE
A practical approach to conduct and compliance culture change
Make conduct risk visible: identify root causes, prioritise the right changes with What-If analysis, and track results.
When policies are clear, but behaviour still goes off-track
Most organisations have codes of conduct, compliance training, reporting channels and controls.
Issues still arise because conduct is shaped by day-to-day conditions: incentives, targets, leadership signals, workload, supervision quality, and whether people feel safe to speak up. The PYXIS Platform helps you identify the drivers and root causes of conduct risk, prioritise what to change using What-If analysis, and track leading indicators over time.
Strong policies exist, but exceptions and workarounds become routine
Training completion is high, but decisions drift under pressure
Speak-up channels exist, but reporting is low or delayed
Board updates focus on incidents and investigations, not what drives risk
Blame culture keeps people from speaking up
Why conduct and compliance programmes stall
If you’re investing heavily but issues keep repeating, you’ll usually see one or more of these patterns:
This is where culture becomes practical
It’s the set of organisational conditions that shape how people think about, prioritise and act on conduct and compliance risk — especially when no one is watching!
When these drivers point in different directions, risk rises — even in organisations with strong controls. It includes, and connects things like:
Leadership behaviour • Incentives and targets • Policy clarity • Supervision quality • Work pressure • Speak-up confidence • Investigation fairness • Third-party practices
See the map
Map conduct risk across people, policies and operating practices. Identify hotspots where risk is building.
Target change
Identify root causes and use What-If analysis to prioritise fixes that shift behaviour.
Prove impact
Track leading indicators and KPIs so leaders and boards can see improvement early.
How the PYXIS platform Works
Targets quietly override standards
People feel pressure to hit numbers at any cost.
Speak-up channels exist, but trust is low
People fear retaliation, blame, or being labelled difficult.
Policies become noise
Too many rules reduce clarity and practical judgement.
Exceptions become normal
Workarounds feel accepted when deadlines are tight.
Standards vary by leader
“What’s acceptable” changes team to team.
Third-party risk stays outside governance
Supplier behaviour isn’t visible until something goes wrong.
What we typically find
Even in mature compliance programmes, risk often comes from the system people work in. Common patterns include:
Speak-up reporting rate and time-to-report
Early signals before issues escalate or repeat.
Case themes and recurrence drivers
Whether the same root causes keep showing up.
Policy friction and exception patterns
Where rules are bypassed to get work done.
Leadership reinforcement signals
How often leaders set the tone in real forums.
Investigation fairness and closure quality
Whether outcomes build trust and learning.
Third-party conduct indicators
Oversight gaps, handoffs, and supplier compliance trends.
What you can measure
PYXIS helps you move beyond lagging incident metrics by tracking leading indicators that show whether conduct risk is rising or falling:
Conduct risk
PYXIS helps you understand what’s driving conduct risk and where change will have the biggest impact.
How PYXIS compares
Most organisations use a mix of approaches. PYXIS doesn’t replace them — it helps you understand what’s driving conduct risk and where change will have the biggest impact.
Good for:
Building baseline awareness and consistent messaging. Useful for onboarding, refreshers, and policy sign-off.
Often misses:
Measures completion, not decision conditions. It rarely explains why people rationalise exceptions or stay silent.
What PYXIS adds:
Identifies root causes across people, policies and operating practices. Prioritises changes that reduce risk at source and improve leading indicators.
Good for:
Clarifying rules and putting guardrails around higher-risk decisions. Useful for minimum standards and accountability.
Often misses:
Controls can increase friction and create workarounds. They don’t show where exceptions are becoming normalised.
What PYXIS adds:
Maps hotspots where policy design and pressure collide. Helps leaders simplify, clarify, and remove drivers of repeated exceptions.
Good for:
Detecting issues, validating controls, and responding to incidents. Useful for assurance and governance.
Often misses:
Often focuses on what happened, not why it keeps happening. Learning can be lost if underlying drivers aren’t addressed.
What PYXIS adds:
Connects themes to systemic drivers and root causes. Supports prioritised prevention, not just detection and response.
Good for:
Aligning leaders and kick-starting change. Helpful for surfacing issues through interviews and facilitated sessions.
Often misses:
Momentum can fade once the programme ends. Without measurement, it’s hard to prioritise actions or prove impact.
What PYXIS adds:
Ongoing insight into conduct drivers across the organisation. Uses What-If analysis and dashboards to sustain progress over time.
FAQs
Improving conduct and compliance culture with PYXIS
It’s the conditions that shape decisions and behaviours: incentives, leadership signals, policy clarity, supervision, speak-up confidence, and how issues are handled.
No. Surveys can describe perceptions. PYXIS focuses on drivers and root causes, prioritisation, and measurable change over time.
Because investigations often address symptoms. The underlying drivers — pressure, friction, unclear ownership — remain in place.
Because early reporting prevents escalation. Low reporting is often a leading indicator of rising conduct risk.
It helps leaders prioritise. You can model which interventions will reduce risk fastest and where effort will be wasted.
Yes. By linking leading indicators and cultural drivers to risk exposure, boards can govern proactively, not just react to incidents.
No. The work can be confidential. The value is clarity for internal decisions and governance.
No. PYXIS helps you get more value from them by addressing the conditions that undermine them.
Leading indicators typically move earlier than major incidents, giving leaders faster feedback and control.
Any organisation where pressure, incentives, third-party activity, or complex operations shape conduct risk — especially regulated environments.