View From The Edge | CrossFit CEO Greg Glassman’s George Floyd scandal is a lesson in corporate compliance and how not to set a tone from the top

The tone from the top is the foundation by which all other members of an organisation can base their behaviour, and CrossFit’s tone is rotten

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CrossFit founder and CEO Greg Glassman (right) has set a tone from the top that can trickle down and infect other aspect of the company’s willingness to comply with ethical standards. Photo: Handout

Published: 1:09pm, 9 Jun 2020Updated: 1:08pm, 9 Jun 2020

CrossFit CEO Greg Glassman’s “not racist” tweet about George Floyd and the coronavirus, and CrossFit’s subsequent lack of action, is a parable of a corporate compliance and ethics screw-up of massive proportions. It is proof that a damaged corporate culture has real costs.

Over the weekend, Glassman responded to a tweet by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) about the link between public health and racism by writing “It’s FLOYD-19”, referring to the man who was killed by a white police officer, and the Covid-19 pandemic.

He then went onto to explain: “Your failed model quarantined us and now you’re going to model a solution to racism? George Floyd’s brutal murder sparked riots nationally. Quarantine alone is ‘accompanied in every age and under all political regimes by an undercurrent of suspicion, distrust, and riots.’ Thanks!”

Inevitably, it did not go down well and within hours the best athletes in the sport were threatening to boycott the CrossFit Games unless there was a change in leadership. One of the organisation’s biggest sponsors, Reebok, cut ties completely. Where this intersects with corporate compliance and ethics is culture.

The compliance officer in any organisation struggles with the label of being a “no man”. Usually, the compliance department is made up of lawyers, but often the role is informally taken on by another manager, and their main purpose is to tell other staff when they are skirting with the law.

But if you visit any compliance conference, most talks are about how to get buy-in from senior management to create an ethical culture and accountability, so other employees want to – rather than being forced to – comply with legal and ethical practices. They call it “tone from the top” and it is less tangible than simply being law-abiding.