Spreading Visions: Enrollment, Commitment, and Compliance

SPREADING VISIONS: ENROLLMENT, COMMITMENT, AND COMPLIANCE

Few subjects are closer to the heart of contemporary managers than commitment. Prodded by studies showing that most American workers acknowledge low levels of commitment and by tales of foreign competitors’ committed work forces, managers have turned to “management by commitment,” “high commitment work systems,” and other approaches. Yet, real commitment is still rare in today’s organizations. It is our experience that, 90 percent of the time, what passes for commitment is compliance.

Today, it is common to hear managers talk of getting people to “buy into” the vision. For many, I fear, this suggests a sales process, where I sell and you buy. Yet, there is a world of difference between “selling” and “enrolling.” “Selling” generally means getting someone to do something that she might not do if she were in full possession of all the facts. “Enrolling,” by contrast, literally means “placing one’s name on the roll.” Enrollment implies free choice, while “being sold” often does not.

“Enrollment is the process,” in Kiefer’s words, “of becoming part of something by choice.” You’re “committed” when you are not only enrolled but feel fully responsible for making the vision happen. I can be thoroughly enrolled in your vision. I can genuinely want it to occur. Yet, it is still your vision. I will take actions as need arises, but I do not spend my waking hours looking for what to do next.

For example, people are often enrolled in social causes out of genuine desire, for example, to see particular inequities righted. Once a year they might make a donation to help in a fund-raising campaign. But when they are committed, the “cause” can count on them. They will do whatever it takes to make the vision real. The vision is pulling them to action. Some use the term “being source” to describe the unique energy that committed people bring toward creating a vision.

In most contemporary organizations, relatively few people are enrolled—and even fewer committed. The great majority are in a state of “compliance.” “Compliant” followers go along with a vision. They do what is expected of them. They support the vision, to some degree. But, they are not truly enrolled or committed.

Compliance is often confused with enrollment and commitment. In part, this occurs because compliance has prevailed for so long in most organizations, we don’t know how to recognize real commitment. It is also because there are several levels of compliance, some of which lead to behavior that looks a great deal like enrollment and commitment.