Regulatory Judo

Most teams treat regulatory compliance like a tax. Something you pay, grumbling, because you have to. Minimum viable compliance. Check the box, move on.

This is backwards.

Regulations are leverage. The trick is using their weight to your advantage instead of letting them pin you down.

The Judo Principle

In judo, you don’t overpower your opponent—you redirect their momentum. A larger attacker becomes easier to throw because they’re already moving.

Regulatory mandates are heavy. They’re already moving. Everyone in your organization feels their weight. Instead of bracing against that weight, redirect it.

How It Works

I spent years implementing CMS mandates in healthcare—21st Century Cures, interoperability rules, prior authorization requirements. These are massive, expensive, non-negotiable programs that touch every part of the organization.

Here’s what I learned: compliance requirements unlock resources that “good ideas” never could.

Need budget for a data platform? Good luck. Need budget for a data platform because CMS requires interoperability by January? Here’s your headcount.

Want to modernize a legacy API? That’s a “nice to have.” Want to modernize it because the current architecture can’t meet federal reporting deadlines? Suddenly it’s a priority.

The regulation provides air cover. It shifts the conversation from “should we do this?” to “how do we do this?”

The 50 Ideas Exercise

I once challenged myself to find 50 business opportunities hidden inside a single CMS mandate. Not technical requirements—business value that happened to align with compliance work.

I found 56.

Most compliance programs are icebergs. The visible part is the mandate itself. Below the waterline is infrastructure, data access, workflow changes, and integrations that enable far more than the regulation requires.

If you’re building the iceberg anyway, build it to support what you actually want—not just what’s required.

Practical Moves

1. Read the mandate before legal summarizes it.

Legal will tell you what you must do. The original text often reveals what you could do. The gaps between “must” and “could” are where opportunities hide.

2. Tie your roadmap to compliance dates.

A feature shipping “Q3” is negotiable. A feature shipping “before the January 1 federal deadline” is not. Use the immovable dates to protect your priorities.

3. Build beyond the requirement.

If you’re implementing a data feed for compliance, build the feed to support analytics, not just the audit. The incremental cost is small. The incremental value is huge.

4. Make compliance the villain, not you.

“I think we should modernize this system” invites debate. “We can’t meet the federal deadline on the current system” invites solutions. Let the regulation be the bad guy.

The Mindset Shift

Compliance isn’t a cost center. It’s a forcing function.

Every mandate is a door that leadership has to open. Once they open it, you decide how far to walk through.

Stop fighting the weight. Start redirecting it.