Attorney Jonathan Drimmer was reviewing a 30-page vendor onboarding policy during a plane trip when he glanced at the emergency landing instructions. Somehow the airline managed to tell passengers how to save their lives in one page with pictures. The difference in the number of pages was eye-opening and made him question whether organizations need reams of policies and procedures to achieve their goals and shape behavior.

“Regulators are not reviewing policies and procedures for how long they are. They want to know if they’re effective and understood and if people are looking at them,” said Drimmer, with the law firm Paul Hastings LLP in Washington, D.C. Taking a page from the book of organization expert Marie Kondo, Drimmer suggested “decluttering” policies and procedures and ensuring they’re consistent with your “policy framework.” That’s one of the ways that organizations can apply behavioral science to the elements of a compliance program, Drimmer said at a webinar sponsored by the Health Care Compliance Association July 7.