Why is policies and procedures important?

I once was caught not following procedure. I has to type an essay explaing why it is important:

Why Following Lab Procedure is Important Let's say a group of scientists are working on a VERY important project. Millions have been poured into the department, and many are dependent that the project be successful. Being this important, naturally the procedure is discussed clearly and it is made sure everyone understands. All goes according to plan until near the end one of the scientists thinks he notices a flaw in the plan. He tries to fix it by editing a single parameter in one of the data logs. The entire project goes awry. Although it may be true that the scientist did fix something and something else caused the project to go down, because the lone scientist deviated from the plan, he must take the blame. He could have had the change authorized, fixed it, and be safe from blame for the failure of the project.

If you do not follow procedure, no matter what you are doing, you can mess things up. Even if it comes to pouring one cup water into a bowl, should you fail to do so there can be unseen, dire consequences. Let's say there is a diver. Diving is his hobby; he's done it many times already. On one such dive, maybe he forgets to check the pressure in his oxygen tank, or something else that may not always seem important. Maybe on the boat ride to the dive spot, the tank was ruptured and he just jumped right in without an oxygen tank. He is in danger of, at least, losing his dive ticket and at most, drowning.

Not following procedure can result in others having to take the blame for your own actions. Suppose at a lab, a scientist takes on an intern to do some of the more time-consuming work because said scientist is needed in more important areas. By doing so, the scientist assumes the responsibility of the intern's actions, good or bad. The intern gets into routine of setting up and cleaning up the lab, but on one such occasion, he feels he might have forgotten to unplug a microscope or correctly fasten a box of corrosive material. No matter how small the chance is, he might have done exactly that. Instead of double checking, he thinks eh, I've done this a million times already. I probably unplugged that microscope or fastened that box. So off goes intern. You can see where this goes, can't you.