🗓️ Idiom: Follow the Herd (v)
💬 Meaning
- Doing what everyone else is doing without independent thought
- Adopting the same approach as others, often to avoid standing out or taking risks
🧠 Example Sentences
- Many companies are just following the herd when it comes to compliance, copying others without understanding the rules.
- Instead of developing a tailored compliance program, the firm simply followed the herd.
- Regulators are now pushing back against businesses that follow the herd without proper internal controls.
🏛️ Origin
This idiom comes from animal behavior, especially in herd animals like sheep or cattle, which follow the group without thinking. In business and regulation, it refers to blindly copying others rather than making informed, strategic decisions.
📝 Practice Exercises
1. Fill in the blank:
Our compliance strategy shouldn’t be about __________; we need to understand the risks ourselves.
Answer
following the herd
2. Choose the correct meaning of “following the herd”:
A) Creating your own procedures
B) Ignoring others’ behavior
C) Copying others without thinking for yourself
Answer
C) Copying others without thinking for yourself
3. Change the sentence using “following the herd”:
“The company adopted the same compliance approach as others without doing its own analysis.”
Answer
The company was just following the herd with its compliance approach.
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