Independence and compliance

I observe a continuum between independence and compliance.

At one end of the scale, the strongly compliant person is highly accommodative and adaptive to circumstances and people. In extreme forms, this may produce blind loyalty and compliance such that the person loses individual identity and the capacity to take their own decisions. Such characteristics help this person be a big contributor to group harmony, but limit their contributions to a group. They may not question bad ideas or add fresh insights.

At the other end of the scale there is the strongly independent person. This person has their own ideas about right and wrong and pursues them irrespective of others. In extreme forms it can produce such independence of action as to undermine a team and bring a fragmented disunity. This person's team strengths are to be an independent voice questioning what others take for granted and contributing fresh insights.

There is no best place to be on this continuum.  Note, however, that it will probably be a rare occasion that either extreme is appropriate. As with most continuums, it's usually a matter of a balance between the extremes. Different people, at different stages of their life and in different contexts may appropriately be on different parts of the scale. For example, a man may be somewhat compliant towards his boss in the workplace but move towards the independence end of the scale as he leads his family at home.

Where we are on the scale may be influenced by the inheritance from our genes, rearing, life experience, social context and immediate circumstances.  These factors may predispose us to a default position on the scale.  Analysis of these factors is useful for self- understanding, including awareness of what imbalance we need to be constantly watchful for. However, rather than being paralysed by a deterministic sense of why we are who we are, it is more useful to understand where we now are on the scale and where it is appropriate to be.

The following questions are a prompt to this process:

Where am I on the independence / compliance scale in this stage and situation?

What is the appropriate place to be?

What can I do to move from where I am to where I should be?