‘𝘐 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘨𝘰𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘯 𝘢𝘸𝘢𝘺 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘪𝘵 𝘵𝘰𝘰, 𝘪𝘧 𝘪𝘵 𝘸𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘯'𝘵 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘮𝘦𝘥𝘥𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘬𝘪𝘥𝘴’ Compliance lessons from 𝗦𝗰𝗼𝗼𝗯𝘆 𝗗𝗼𝗼.

We design a policy, process, system or training programme and assume it should work. When it doesn’t, the people using it are blamed for failing to follow the process, ignoring the training or just not doing what they were told.

But perhaps the protocol they failed to follow wasn’t quite as brilliant as its designers thought. 

Compliance interventions aren’t automatically good simply because their purpose is to reduce risk or ensure rules are followed. They can confuse people, irritate them, make their jobs harder or create so much friction that they look for ways around them. Push people too hard and they might even resist, because they feel they’ve been pushed too far. 

Whisper it, but we can actually make things worse. Not every training course helps people learn useful information and not every control mitigates risk.

That doesn’t excuse people from responsibility or mean they should be free to do whatever they like. It just means that we have responsibilities too.

When something isn’t working as designed, we should ask why. And we should be open to the possibility that the problem isn’t those pesky employees; it might be us.