Compliance Programs and Systems
- Raimund Laqua
- Jul 11, 2022
- 1 min read
Updated: May 5
What do quality, safety, security, sustainability, environmental, regulatory and ethics programs have in common?
All these programs have the same purpose.
They exist to make certain that organizational values are realized by introducing change to culture, behaviours, systems, and processes within a business.
Programs are the means by which operational governance steers. They also bridge the gap between organizational values and operational objectives.
Management programs differ from management systems (examples: ISO 27001, ISO 9001, IOS 42001, etc) in the following way:
Management systems are reactive by design to stay between the lines.
Management programs are proactive by design to stay ahead of risk.
Programs are the feed-forward processes of Operational Compliance an example of double-loop learning.
A thermostat (system loop) may help keep your room at a specified temperature.
However, it will never tell you if the room is warm enough (program loop).
The system loop regulates towards a specific target.
The program loop adjusts the target to regulate towards better outcomes.
This is one of the reasons why organizations need programs, they are essential to regulate systems.
Systems by design optimize towards the set target by removing variation in its inputs, wip, and outputs and will never on their own adapt to higher standards.
That's why you need management programs - they are the feed-forward process necessary to steer towards better outcomes.
