On your way into work tomorrow morning, assuming you drive, go 5 mph OVER the speed limit, and see how many people pass you.

Your quality policy as a vehicle operator is to keep from wrecking your own or someone else’s car. Your standard operating procedures are the local driving laws, and your measurement of effectiveness is the number of dents in your car and/or your insurance rates, which are a function of how safe you are as a driver.

According to the US Department of Transportation survey of driving attitudes, at least 75% of drivers speed at least some of the time, thus violating their SOP.

Seat Belt Laws and Expectations

Compare this to the 90 percent of drivers who apparently conform to the seat belt laws. These are basically the same people. Why is there a difference? I would suggest that it is because of expectations. Drivers expect to be pulled over for not wearing their seat belt, because of the multi-billion dollar educational program paid for by the auto industry and insurance companies. There is no such training program for “not speeding”. The expectation is that you will speed, but wear your seat belt while doing so.

Non-Compliance on the Job

So in a world where substantial numbers of people basically skirt around a set of laws that were enacted for their own good, it is pretty common to see violators in places other than driving. Since nothing happens in isolation, it is pretty reasonable to expect these same people to exhibit the same behavior in the workplace. This psychology of non-compliance is one of the things I am really interested in, having spent a long time in Quality Systems. In fact, even I myself occasionally don’t follow a rule or two. What is it about human behavior that makes a fraction of the population do something other than what is in their work instruction?

Reasons for Speeding

Here are the reasons for speeding according to the same survey:

I used to find it hard to believe on a given day that 31 percent of the population has an “emergency” or some kind of illness, but I understand more about human nature and I now believe that this may be accurate.

I am actually more inclined to believe Harris and Graves, a couple of lawyers, who answered the same question:

  1. Familiarity
  2. Not enough time
  3. Thrill seeking
  4. Road Rage
  5. Pure Habit
  6. Overconfidence

Keep in mind that this is based on a survey in the US. In other enlightened nations, where attitudes toward rule-following may be different, there may be different results. That is because the expectations are completely different from an enforcement standpoint.

The Bottom Line

I wonder if there is something in the human spirit that makes people be tempted to violate their standard operating procedure, even though it is for their own good, and even though they are putting the lives of themselves and others in danger.

I have an even better example that I will give you later on.

In the meantime, I would love some feedback on this question: Is it human nature for people to violate their Standard Operating Procedure if it suits them?

Feel free to comment.

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