Compliance easier than initiative? Maybe

I was reading Seth Godin's blog. He's often quite insightful and interesting.

He states "compliance is simple to measure, test and teach". Well, maybe given the right circumstances, but then why are so many organisations having such trouble with compliance and wasn't that a big part of the whole GFC debacle.

Consider, for arguments sake, that 20% or more of your people might be initiators (the highly creative ones) and only 80% compliant. In such a world, consider the state of your products' quality assurance, your change management program or even the bedrock principles of our society: the tax and legal systems.

I don't think managing anything would be easy at all - sounds more like a state of chaos where outcomes would become totally unpredictable. This in turn would lead to more creative attempts to circumvent compliance and achieve a more favourable personal outcome - e.g., bugger the community - what's in it for me.

Initiative is what drives us forward as a necessary part of human evolution but compliance is equally (some would argue more) important in order to maintain a working balance to our existence.

Reading Seth's blog however, at least now I understand perfectly why marketing is always at odds with any of the shared services functions in a corporation. Initiative should be encouraged along with a good dose of risk assessment and we can all have some harmony.