At companies across the globe, the layers of compliance mechanisms are growing. At first blush this seems to make sense: Perhaps the most obviously straightforward method of preventing unethical or damaging behavior is increasing the number of rules designed to curtail it. However, one of the more unsettling and unintended consequences of a singular focus on ethics-as-compliance is a checkbox mentality that gives the illusion of reducing risk without really doing so. Moreover, unless an organization is careful, a compliance-focused approach to eliminating unethical behavior can stunt a company’s efforts to innovate and to take intelligent risks.