Too Much of a Good Thing is Never Good
Compliance on some level is a basic requirement for every business to run smoothly, safely, and successfully. From a purely business point of view, a commitment to Compliance has primarily strategic motivations: just like normal citizens, companies must comply with existing national and international laws.
For example, Finance and Healthcare are just two industries with extremely strict compliance guidelines around customer privacy, as it should be. The transportation industry must also follow strict safety laws.
And certainly the COVID pandemic brought a whole new set of compliance mandates to the forefront with many businesses being required to comply with prevention requirements to even open their doors.
The Bad Side of Compliance
The other side of compliance, however, is that it can be demeaning by nature because, left unchecked, it tends to treat employees like robots who can’t be trusted to think independently.
Employees begin to ask, What is expected of me? rather than How can I best contribute? They begin to focus on avoiding trouble by following the rules.
Leaders become bosses that enforce the rules and monitor compliance, not drivers of positive change. Allowing this dimension to dominate a workplace can be a slippery slope into the unreasonable.
Wondering what an overly compliant organization looks like? Here are some examples:
- Martha Stewart’s Living Omnimedia employees must follow strict rules when it comes to their desk space. In 2009, when the media company’s new offices were opened, they came with instructions for staff to prevent the minimalist design theme from being tarnished. This not only included using red or black ink exclusively, but also banned them from bringing any personal items to work, including novelty mugs and framed photos.
- Abercrombie and Fitch’s Look Policy Guidelines for staff at its stores became notorious in the early 2000s. The biggest rule for store associates? They had to be good-looking. Former CEO Mike Jeffries said in 2006, “Good-looking people attract other good-looking people… We don’t market to anyone other than that.” Thankfully these policies, which included referring to sales staff as “models” and requiring male staff to work shirtless, were overhauled in 2015 after Jeffries stepped down.
- Staff at major UK engineering firm Sparrows received a stern email in 2013, forbidding the use of company milk for cereal. The message stated that the milk was to be used in tea and coffee only, and anyone doing otherwise would be “dealt with.” Yikes.
When the Compliant dimension goes too far, excessive energy and thought get put into protocols to avoid mistakes. It assumes people won’t do what’s right without a set of rules.
When running amok, people functioning in the mindset of the Compliant dimension seek efficiency and cost control above all else.
You simply cannot systemize success with rules and procedures. In reality, people don’t behave the way you want them to just because of a set of rules or procedures.
No organization of any size can ever achieve 100 percent compliance to a set of values and behavior. But that doesn’t mean a lot of them don’t try.
Ditching the Quest for Perfection
The problem is that an overemphasis on the Compliant culture strives for perfect at the expense of simply getting better. And they only get worse.
Leaders begin to think employees are just part of a process and fail to consider their individual strengths. They expect competence to be uniform. As a result, leaders assume the role of “boss” instead of a partner, and hierarchy is strictly enforced.
Every time a new problem arises, a new rule or process is introduced, generally without collaborative input. Employees are expected to automatically conform to the predetermined protocols.
It’s all about measuring and reacting to what we know versus discovering what we need to know. When people are motivated only to follow the rules, never stepping outside of the box, then success becomes about simply avoiding mistakes.
I don’t know any business that has become truly successful by that measure. In fact, on the contrary—mistakes are critical for growth and success.
Wondering if you have an unhealthy balance of Compliance in your organization? You can find some questions to ask yourself here.