I apologize for my month long absence.  It’s hard for me to believe it’s already April. 

This past month, in addition to my full time job, I have been preoccupied with a massive home remodeling project (it’s given me a new appreciation for contracts) and consumed by March Madness. 

For international readers — March Madness refers to the super bowl of college basketball.  Although teams vie within their regional conference for bragging rights to be conference champs, in March the top 64 teams in the country compete for the NCAA championship.  The whittling down process sparks old college loyalties and consumes sports fans with bracketology, office betting pools (even though they’re illegal) and predictions about which teams will qualify for the ”Sweet Sixteen,” the “Final Four,” and who will ultimately prevail as champ.

Last night the Florida Gators men’s team was victorious.  Congratulations to them on last night’s win as well as winning 2 years in a row.  Tonight it’s the women’s turn.  The Tennessee Volunteers will match up against the Rugters Scarlet Knights (go Rutgers!).

Yup, following both the men’s and women’s tournaments left little time for blogging.  But that’s not to say that important issues — like compliance — weren’t top of mind.  They were.

How come a player can commit 3 fouls that half the people in the arena can see, but the player doesn’t get called on . . . until they travel?  I mean, there there are with how many people watching them, including the referees and they commit a foul.  OK, some of those fouls may be accidental and some are intentional.  When the refs are too strict you hear, “Come on, let ‘em play.” So inbetween those two extremes is room for lots of ”hard” play that gets rewarded when the ball goes through the hoop and points are scored. 

It makes me wonder why so players risk a foul and risk being ejected (fouled out) from the game after 5 fouls even though they know lots of people, including referees paid to look for fouls, are watching?  Do they look for opportunities to break the rules?  Is it OK to break the rules as long as you don’t get caught?

Hmmm, and if this “play hard” culture is embraced and idolized by the fans, how much of it is transferable to the work hard/ play hard corporate culture?  Are the company policies, industry regulations, and the law merely a roadblock to profits?  Is compliance a losing battle?

It really depends on  how you score points in your organization.  If it’s all about profits at any cost it will be impossible to build more than a superficial culture of compliance.  If, on the otherhand, your corporate score card is more balanced (to borrow a phrase from Robert Kaplan) the trade-offs will be appreciated and the points will be more evenly distributed.

How the score stacks up in the end depends on the incentive structure that is created by the organization’s leaders.  The circumstances will help shape the behaviors.  What does your company’s scorecard look like?