Guidelines

In a previous life, I joined a company as a high-level executive and wore a suit. It was a relationship that I loved, doing a job I loved and it lasted seven years (roughly the time required to change almost every cell in our body) by which time I was ready to change career trajectory and seek a different life.

What has stayed with me from that experience however is my first day of induction (which admirably was the same for everyone irrespective of rank) where I was give a 120-page manual that detailed all the rules and regulations regarding the conduct of each employee in the company.

I confess I didn't read it. I figured if I did do something wrong I'd know soon enough but the fact that a company with an intense focus on the bottom line would spend hundreds of thousands of pounds (it was in Britain) each year printing, updating, maintaining and re-printing a rules book that thick baffled me.

Assuming the best of intentions, company rules are implemented to maintain quality, high performance, standards and also to mitigate risk. They are also there to establish control and you well know my views on that subject .

While at a personal level the ability to exercise control is of benefit to us. At a company-wide level it often is not.

So why so many rules?

One reason is trust. We use rules with those around us in order to predict their behavior in a given situation when we don't know them well enough. Another reason is uncertainty. Because no one can truly foresee every eventuality we use rules to ensure that uncertainty is mitigated by chipping away at the predictability of its edges.

A third reason is peace of mind. When rules are in place, never mind what they are, we all feel that there is an order to the universe we inhabit so things are under control (that C-word again).

Over the years I've thought a lot about all this. It would save everyone a lot of trouble and money if we did away with it all and in its place, instead, we put in one line: "Treat everyone you meet like you would like to be treated."

It's simple. It's adult. It is not hard to implement. Yet it is bold and brave at the same time.