Finding Champions for Compliance with Kristin Greenhaw (Ep. 21)

Liisa Thomas: Welcome to Compliance Chronicles, where we learn from professionals shaping the world of compliance. I'm your host, Lisa Thomas, Outside Privacy and Compliance Council, an adjunct professor at Northwestern Law School, and a lifelong learner of organizational change. From personal journeys to hard-earned lessons, these are the chronicles that inspire and guide. Let's dive in. Welcome to another episode of Compliance Chronicles, where I'm delighted to be joined by my friend Kristen Greenhaw. So Kristen, I'm gonna turn it over to you to just briefly introduce yourself

Kristin Greenhaw: Now. So currently I am the chief legal officer for Griffin Media. We have two stations here in Oklahoma City, the CBS affiliate, KWTV and KSBI, My Network. And then we have two stations in Tulsa, KOTV, also a CBS affiliate, and KQCW. I started off in private practice long ago, and then very quickly moved in-house where I belong. I like being in-house. I like having the opportunity to get in front of problems before they become problems and counsel business teams. So in-house is just an intuitive fit for me. I started off at ATT, then had an opportunity to move into the food industry. It was at Sonic Drive-Ins, and then Sonic was acquired by Inspire Brands. So that was that was the first part of my my privacy journey when I was at Sonic, we had a data breach that led me directly to Lisa Thomas and her amazing team. And that's where I got to learn a lot more about the field of cybersecurity and privacy.

Liisa Thomas: tell us a little bit more about what you do and your day to day today.

Kristin Greenhaw: Well, I am a legal team of one with a one legal assistant and I work for not only the media company, we have a investment company and we have a family office So I do it all. And while privacy is still part of the work that I do, it is just one piece of a very big puzzle at this point.

Liisa Thomas: thinking about all those different pieces of the puzzle, you have handled privacy, you've handled cybersecurity, you've dealt with the family office side, the media side, are there some common themes you have faced over your career.

Kristin Greenhaw: I think one I would identify with privacy and really with all compliance is that it's not screaming in your face in the same way that other legal issues are, like when you've gotten sued, And so it gets less attention and less funds behind privacy compliance. and that's a challenge because it's important and it certainly can lead to things like litigation. but getting people to think ahead of time about problems that could develop down the line I'd say that's been one of my top challenges it's extra hard in an evolving landscape like privacy regulation, because when you're trying to get the business focused on the law, what helps is if you have a lot of big scary lawsuits or consequences to point to that have already happened. But when the law is evolving, you can't always convince them of the scary thing around the corner because it hasn't happened yet.

Liisa Thomas: Other themes or challenges that you have faced over the course of your career?

Kristin Greenhaw: I think oftentimes a business initiative is not handled by one person, one team. There's aspects of it going on in lots of different departments. And you have to have the buy-in and understanding by all the groups And making sure that your advice is being understood and digested by all those teams can be a real hurdle. And you're often put in the position of having to say no. that is not a good idea. Again, without the benefit of really shining consequences out there in the world to give them as why they can't do that. So that can be tough. and I'd say while that can be challenging, getting involved at the start is crucial. You have to be embedded in your business teams in a way that they talk to you when the when the dreams are just percolating. Because what you don't want to have happen is the product is fully finished and headed out the door and you're going, whoa, whoa, whoa. you know, you have not considered privacy compliance and everything you've done here won't work and has to be rebuilt. That does not make you any friends on the business team. you've got to figure out how to effectively start interfacing with your business teams at the early part of their process before they've already spent a lot of time and resources and energy developing something that you have to say no to so that your considerations get heard and incorporated along the way.

Liisa Thomas: So let's actually turn to these kinds of lessons. So lessons learned, one of them that you just pointed out is you need to get involved early. Let's keep going there. How do you get involved and how do you get on the good side of the business teams? Because I know you, Kristen, and you're really good at that. So how did you do it?

Kristin Greenhaw: I set up meetings with each department head pretty soon after I started here and just really talk to them, about, what it is they do, where it is that they saw that I could be helpful, and then understanding what are your team meetings like? What is your project cadence like? what meetings would it make sense for me to attend what kind of trainings do you think could be useful? coming from a place of asking those questions instead of having an agenda and, shoving it on everyone, has been really effective for me at a variety of different companies. You have to be seen as as not the no person, but the no but person. Or have you thought about this? putting some time into not only understanding people, what they care about, where they view the gaps, where they think they could use some help. And then also getting to know them, getting to build a personal relationship with them, getting them to really feel comfortable that like you are accessible, they can pick up the phone and call you with the dumbest question, and you're never gonna make them feel uncomfortable. that has been really successful for me in getting embedded in a way that I can be effective on the front side of problems instead of Just the dream killer as it's headed out the door. I think you have to find your champions, especially when you have a big expensive project. it may not be hard to find champions on the legal team, but you need to find your champions on the business team. There'll be people out there that will get it, will understand why the work you do is important and why they should care about it. And you need to identify them and use them. A lot of times they're IT tech cybersecurity people. they get it. you need some people on different teams supporting and championing the importance of the work that you're doing to get it done and to get the money for it.

Liisa Thomas: there's this organizational change theory which is to say, let's find the stakeholders who can really get things done. those are people who are highly interested in what you're trying to accomplish and also have high clout or high power, Do you find that's true that looking for the stakeholders in the high clout, high interest are the stakeholders that you should focus on? Or do you think it's helpful to focus on a whole different variety of stakeholders?

Kristin Greenhaw: it's great to have cheerleaders, but you need somebody that has some clout, some decision-making ability on your side. And so I think that's right. I think you need to find your leadership team, individuals that get what you do and can speak up for you when the big decisions are being made. they can get dollars assigned to your projects, which is what you ultimately need, not just people that think what you do is really cool.

Liisa Thomas: Parting advice that you could give to someone who is just starting out in their career, or someone who is a fellow general counsel, chief legal officer, or legal department of one that is looking for a little bit of inspiration and encouragement,

Kristin Greenhaw: first of all, don't be afraid to ask for resources. if you're a legal department of one, you can't do it all yourself. You're gonna need help. you're gonna need a lot of tools, you're gonna need help from outside experts. don't be afraid to be comfortable that you can't do it all. And the second thing I would say is you really need good experts. You really need for privacy compliance and cybersecurity, a Lisa to help you through this. we're in a day and age where everyone thinks that AI can answer the question. And AI cannot answer the question you need an expert to help you work through these really complicated and layered problems. So find your experts. and listen to them. And don't get discouraged. It can be overwhelming, it can be hard sometimes, being a legal department of one, but it can also be really fun. You get to deal with different exciting challenges every day. what more could you ask for? if you ever need to talk to someone else in the legal department of one, I'm here for you. Reach out on LinkedIn.

Liisa Thomas: There we go. So we're never gonna have a dull day. We are not going to get discouraged. And if we do, we're gonna reach out. So Kristen, thank you.

Kristin Greenhaw: Thank you for having me, Lisa.

Liisa Thomas: I hope you enjoyed this episode of Compliance Chronicles, where we get guidance and inspiration from the personal journeys of leaders in the profession. If you did, I'd love it if you'd consider subscribing or leaving a rating or review. It helps others discover the show.