If you're responsible for monitoring compliance with organizational policy or government regulation, you sometimes tell people who have organizational power that they must stop doing what they're doing, or that they must do something differently. This can be risky or even downright dangerous. How can you manage it safely?
Even if your organization is serious about dealing with noncompliance, those not in compliance can see you as the problem. Instead of taking corrective action, they might try to curtail your authority, restrict your resources, attack you personally, or even terminate you.
To be most effective, become a tugboat captain.
Tugboats are small, powerful vessels that maneuver ships much larger than they are.
Large ships can apply tremendous forces fore-and-aft. But most large ships have relatively little ability to exert transverse forces — the very forces they need if they want to change direction.
If you monitor compliance
with policy or regulation,
become a tugboat captainTugboats aren't powerful enough to start or stop a large ship quickly, but they can control the large ship's direction. They rely on three strategies. They work with the harbor pilot on the bridge, they work in teams, and they focus on direction, not speed.
If you monitor compliance with policy or regulation, what does it mean to be a tugboat captain?
- Know your vessel
- Know that you're on a tugboat, not a large ship. You can't float the weight they do, and you can't survive the high seas like they do. You do have tremendous power for your size, and you're very maneuverable. Knowing your strengths and limitations is a key to survival.
- Know the harbor
- Know every shoal, channel, and wharf in the harbor — and every mistake other tugboat captains have made. Know just as much about the ships you maneuver. This means that you know the regulations or policies that you're responsible for monitoring, and you know the strengths and limitations of the managers who must comply.
- Work with other tugs
- Tugs usually work in teams. They rely on each other and use each other as resources. Work closely with others who monitor compliance. Share techniques and learn from each other. Coordinate action.
- Get cooperation from the bridge
- During tight maneuvers, a harbor pilot commands the ship, coordinating with tugs. Secure the cooperation of management at all levels near the level of the manager you're monitoring. Especially important: a solid and trusting relationship with your own manager.
- Focus on direction, not speed
- Tugboats aren't so good at starting or stopping large ships — instead, they try to steer them, while the ship provides fore-and-aft power. Let the manager you're monitoring provide the impetus and power for change, while you focus on the direction of the change.
Consider buying a toy tugboat for your desk. Only you and I will know what it means. Top Next Issue
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Related articles
More articles on Personal, Team, and Organizational Effectiveness:
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goals have remained elusive. Maybe you had bad luck, or you weren't in the right place at the right
time. But it's just possible that you got in your own way. Getting out of your own way can help make
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- Learning
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you a new view of history or the future? Learning something new every day is a worthy goal.
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- The McNamara Fallacy
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- Goodhart's Law and Gaming the Metrics
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See also Personal, Team, and Organizational Effectiveness and Managing Your Boss for more related articles.
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- And on May 22: Rescheduling Collaborative Work
- Rescheduling is what we do when the schedule we have now is so desperately unachievable that we must let go of it because when we look at it we can no longer decide whether to laugh or cry. The fear is that the new schedule might come to the same end. Available here and by RSS on May 22.
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