In the rush to meet compliance requirements, the defect is focusing solely on the checklist of notions that are said to demonstrate compliance. The result is simply “check-the-box compliance:”
1. Get it done.
2. Get it done now.
3. Get it on the shelf in a nice, shiny, but soon-to-be dusty binder.
When check-the-box compliance itself becomes the goal, we focus on the boxes (and on those who look for checked boxes) not on what is truly important.
Bureaucrats need checked boxes because they have neither any idea nor any appreciation for what is truly important. If they did, they wouldn’t have become bureaucrats.
Check-the-box compliance is measurement without meaning.
The deeper question, the more rewarding question, is how the compliance process can be used to advance your organization’s values, goals, and profitability. I call it operational compliance™.
