Feb 26, 2010
2 comments
In Defence of Compliance
Seth Godin’s post from today trash talks compliance, in favor of teaching initiative and intelligent problem solving. Surprising to many, I’d like to speak up in defence of compliance.
There is incredible value in compliance.
It is valuable for a person to be able to follow a plan and consistently perform.
It is valuable for an organization to have people who can follow plans and perform consistently.
To grow, an organization needs to be able do what it does, consistently. It needs to be able to teach and train people to be part of doing it. That’s the value of process and project management.
- A process or plan is developed, then executed.
- The work product is evaluated and;
- The plan is evaluated and improved.
The goal of management, as a field of study, is to get people with different skill sets to work together to produce remarkable results. Compliance helps managers accomplish this goal, measure results and rework.
Be consistent, evaluate results and rework.
Seth often talks about consistency and plugging away at building a brand or product. Rare are the overnight successes and instant home runs. A much more sure path to success is to focus on base hits. Be consistent, evaluate results and rework. You can’t do that if people don’t follow the plan.
