When it comes to compliance a lack of clarity and alignment often leads to program failure.
This manifests in many ways that include discontent, negative attitudes, lack of motivation, and a lack of engagement from obligation owners along with those responsible for the work of compliance.
Ultimately, misalignment leads to obligations not being met, promises not kept, and an increase in overall compliance risk.
Alignment is a measure of compliance integrity.
Achieving and maintaining alignment is therefore an important performance objective for all compliance programs whether that is safety, security, sustainability, quality, regulatory, ethics, or other managed outcomes of the organization.
Establishing alignment based on the five principles of program success is a good place to start and will help identify areas of improvement.
Are we aligned on:
Destination: the outcomes, our goals, where we are heading?
Strategy: the plan and approach to getting to our destination?
Capabilities: the resources, budget, talent, technologies, functions, and time needed to follow the strategy?
Obstacles and Opportunities that need to be negotiated or exploited to improve the probability of success?
Measures of Success: measures of effectiveness, performance, conformance, and assurance?
Having conversations and dialog around these questions can be difficult particularly when existing answers are vague and ambiguous. You may need to clarify these first which when done in a participatory fashion will help also improve alignment as well.
Sometimes having an outsider lead the discussion can help diffuse tensions, help identify important insights, and facilitate a successful outcome. We need to always remember that it's not the plan but the planning that is most important.
These conversations should be held periodically and used to drive continual improvement towards program success. This contributes to the development of a virtuous cycle of conformance where things get better and the faster things get better over time.
And It all begins with a conversation.
Lean Compliance offers a "Plan for Success" kaizen (change for the better) engagement to help you and your team create a risk-based plan for program success:
Facilitator led workshop to develop risked-based compliance plan for your program based on the 5 principles of program success.
Engagement: 5 Sessions / 1.5 Hours Each / Teams of 4 or less
Format: Facilitated, Online (Zoom)
Outcome: Compliance Program Plan for Success
Use this engagement to help facilitate greater team and program alignment.
