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2 Reasons Why We Have Rules – #2: Trust

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The shoe laces on my shoes just broke.  I bought the shoes two months ago, so they should have been fine.  When I finally found the time, I went into Kohl’s where I bought them and was looking around for shoe laces, thinking they might give me an extra pair.  I asked an associate and they said they don’t carry laces.  But they would just trade shoes – no questions asked.  I was amazed.  So, I found another pair and exchanged them.  Easy.

Kohl’s trusted me that I, as a consumer would make the right decision and not abuse the system.  Guess where I am going back next time.  A similar circumstance happened at Costco.  I will go back to these two stores forever because of the trust they place in their customer.  And because of their trust they will have this family of 10 visiting their store.

Why do we make rules? In this video I talk about consistency.  But very often it is because we lack trust.  Take a look at any person or organization and often you can tell how much they trust the people they serve by the number of rules they make.  A jail has MANY rules – and probably for a good reason.  But what about our workplaces?  Do they need to be filled with so many rules?

I often hear people complaining about the rules, trying to find ways around them and, in general, being less productive – the very opposite of why the rule was made in the first place.

What would happen if we trusted more? Would we get burned or would we realize that there are hidden benefits to trust?  I bet on the latter.

 

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Why do we make rules?  When I talk about rules I mean laws, company policies or procedures, sports rules, chore charts for our kids or anything like it.First, you have to have a goal.  Unless you have a goal there are no need for rules.  You can do whatever you want and get whatever result you get!  Just ask the Cheshire Cat.

But let’s assume we do have a goal – we make rules based off of two factors: trust and consistency.  This video, is about Trust.

(TRUST) Why do we put up railings on balconies?  It’s because we don’t trust that someone won’t accidentally look too far over the edge.

Every day we make trust judgements.  And it’s only natural to have few rules for those we trust, and more rules for those we don’t.  While it’s important we make these judgements, sometimes we can get a little carried away.

I saw an email recently where a company reminded its knowledge worker employees that they were not allowed to come in to work late, leave early nor take unplanned time off unless it was previously approved by a manager.  If they didn’t follow the rules, they may face company discipline, up to and including dismissal.

There is a big contradiction in life here – For 12 years up through high school we were reprimanded if we were late or left early or didn’t show up for class.  Then in college we were told we are an adult and could do whatever we wanted to.  But now that we are in the work force, we go back to grade school rules.  Why is that?

Guidelines like these are important if they are working a shift and production depended upon them.  I get that.  But most people are knowledge workers now.  The models are really very different.

But it isn’t just an 8-5 work time issue.  It’s also applies to sick and vacation time, internet policies, lunch breaks, social media restrictions and a host of other company policies.

I once worked at a company which gave everyone three weeks of vacation, but we were the only ones who would keep track of it.  And we could come in when we wanted to and leave when we wanted to.  If we wanted to watch a movie in the middle of the day, go for it.  As long as the work gets done and we worked hard – that’s what matters.

Although we never turned in our daily hours, sick or vacation days, I didn’t know anyone who took advantage it.  Simply put, they didn’t abuse the system.  In fact, I haven’t worked with a group who worked harder.

On the other hand, with all the restrictions in some companies, I hear employees often wasting time trying to find ways to get around or stretch the rules or complaining about them.  In the end, this makes them less productive – the very opposite of what all those rules are trying to accomplish.

Without the right level of trust from employers, employees often hold back and don’t give their all.  But, it goes the other way, too.  Employees need to give a healthy level of trust their employers.  There must be a good balance between the two.

Wisely letting go is actually liberating.  If you make too many rules with your kids, for example, you wind up spending all your time as an enforcer rather than actually enjoying them.

My philosophy?  Stop wasting time and making rules that, in the end, really don’t matter.  This allows you to give your attention to the things that are most important.  Trust your employees, focus on what will make you successful and let the small stuff take care of itself.

Will they make mistakes.  Sure, just like you do, I do, we all do.  In fact we need to give them that latitude and be OK with it.  What they do next will show their trustworthiness.

And if they’re not trustworthy, they need to leave.  But that also means you need to trust.  It initially might be a scary thing to do, but I bet you’ll find that on many levels, the payback is huge.

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I once heard a story of a newlywed couple going to marriage counseling. He complained that she didn’t trust him with the other women in the office.  After a little probing the councilor discovered this was his second marriage, she used to be his secretary and she had good reason to not trust him.  Ouch.

2 Reasons Why We Have Rules – #1:Consistency

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[yframe url=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MdIIr2ADrs’]

My wife says I have multiple personalities.  In this one area, I might agree.

I am very “by the book”.  And yet, at the same time I could care less about the book.  At NASA, a civil servant was assigned to me to keep me out of trouble because I was stirring up the pot (it is actually part of my role, but that’s another story).  But at home, we have a number of rules we all (not only the kids) need to follow.

This dichotomy started me thinking about rules.  Why do we have rules?  And the rules I refer to can be in any form – laws, company policy, rules at home, etc.  After whittling it down, I came up with two reasons we have rules: Consistency and Trust.

There are some things we MUST have consistent.  Eating is one of them.  It is a principle that must be followed, or we die.  How, where, when and what we eat – that is another matter.  So in this regard, we are all “by the book” on eating for our nourishment, yet there are many books to follow to tailor it to our specific circumstances.

When creating a process at work, very often our main motivation is for consistency.  If it is a rudimentary function that doesn’t take a lot of brain power, it works well.  But if it even takes slight problem solving or judgement, strict processes start to fall apart.  All it takes sometimes is one variable to change and our perfect process goes from efficient to ineffective.  From there we have an internal struggle between what we SHOULD do and what process/policy says we OUGHT to do – between doing what is best or doing what the policy/procedure says.

We have all been there – which do we follow?  Our natural minds pull us toward adapting, yet the corporate side of us tells us to conform.

This video explains some more of these opposites.

 

 

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Why do we make rules?  When I talk about rules I mean laws, company policies or procedures, sports rules, chore charts for our kids or anything like it. 

First, you have to have a goal.  Unless you have a goal there are no need for rules.  You can do whatever you want and get whatever result you get!  Just ask the Cheshire Cat.

But let’s assume we do have a goal – we make rules based off of two factors: trust and consistency.  This video, is about consistency.

(CONSISTENCY) Think of a button.  We design it to consistently perform a function and achieve the same result.  So, within the mechanics of a button we build the rules by which this button operates.  And it works like a charm – until it breaks.

The great thing about consistency is that it’s constant.  We can consistently rely on it.

But as we all know, the only constant… is change.

Change is the point where consistency should end, or at least be reevaluated.  But instead, our primal desire to keep the consistency grows stronger.

Imagine you have a process that works perfectly.  In time, however, one factor changes.  It could be a new person joins the team, a change in cost savings, new technology, new goal or the culture of your company changes slightly.

Suddenly, the process doesn’t work as well as it did before.  Instead of trying to accommodate the change, we try to force the same process because we know it works.

Now add up a number of changes like this over time, and what happens? All to quickly, the perfect process is getting in the way of actually doing the right thing.

And we have all seen bad processes.

Rules, processes and policy, by their very nature, are meant to be consistent in an ever changing world.  They are not meant to change.  Do you see the problem here?

Let me be clear here – Consistency is not a bad thing.  In fact it is often very needed.  When launching the Shuttle, NASA MUST be consistent in their checks to ensure safety.

The trick is to identify what can change, and what should not.  True principles don’t change.  How we put them in to practice, does.

For example, taking an occasional break from hard work is a good principle to follow.  How and where and when you take that break, that’s a practice that can change.
Mental exercise: Next time you follow a rule ask yourself if you’re following it because of consistency.  If you do that consistently, you will constantly find discrepancies.  And maybe you can become a constant source of positive change.

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And unless you want to ruin your car’s engine, it’s a good idea to consistently checking the oil.

I unfortunately know that one from experience.

It’s Time To Try Social Technologies – Video

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This is a video I have promised to do for some time.  It is in response to those who won’t even consider social technologies with their organizations – now or in the future.  I have heard about all of the excuses – and for the most part I don’t buy any of them.  They range from “Our culture won’t support it” to “It is a waste of my time” to “We have better things to focus on.”

It’s like saying, “This new thing called the phone is nifty and all, but we don’t need it.”  You don’t know it yet – but yes you do.  And eventually it will come.  The question is, when will you allow it?

Most don’t dive in because of two factors: Fear of the Unknown and Fear of Change.  Now, honestly, it is FEAR?  They may not label it that, but I believe so.  Social Technologies for this group are unknown and they usually don’t want to know anything about it because of their incorrect preconceived ideas – they actively resist it.  They also think that everything at their company is working well enough.

So did Blockbuster and Borders.

(Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a picture of parachute pants without stealing a photo.  Oh well.)

[yframe url=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DR1dtpvZFdA’]

 

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Do you remember parachute pants?  They were cool for about a month and then they suddenly weren’t cool anymore. 

Bell bottoms were in style for longer, then they were ugly.  Now, renamed as “flair” they are cool again.

But some things never lose their usefulness and don’t go out of style.  Like toilets. And door handles.  And, unfortunately, fruit cake.

And ever since we started using it, social technologies within organizations – no matter what we have called it – has has only proven to be more and more useful.

For those who haven’t taken it seriously yet – it’s time.

For many people, just the name “social networking” scares the bejeebers out of them.  Why?  I have found two main reasons: fear of the unknown and fear of change.

Fear of the Unknown –  There are so many factors with this one.  But the way to overcome it is to try it out and prove your theories right or wrong.  You just have to jump in.  Or you could continue to do nothing about it.  But with as big as it’s getting, I wouldn’t recommend that approach.

Fear of Change –  Now, believe me, I get it. Changing the way you work is not an easy thing to do.  You’re comfortable with what you do and how you do it.  Much like everyone was comfortable 1903 with the way they travel, even after the wright brothers made some crazy flying contraption.

Only hearing about why you might want to use social networking in your company will only sink so far into your brain.

It isn’t until you actually try it out.  That is when the AH HA moment comes, and it all starts clicking.

Kind of like my son who would never think of kissing a girl.  But I guarantee the AH HA moment WILL come.  I just hope it doesn’t come too quickly. But I hope it comes quickly for you.  Well, not the kissing part, the social networking part.

So the only way to figure it out is give it a good sustained try.  Don’t just quit after a week of lame attempts.  Find someone who knows and understands all this social stuff and ask them what you might start with.  Then, let the clicking begin.

MY SON: Why would I ever kiss a girl?
ME: Oh, that’ll come.

When I Grow Up – Work Version

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“When I grow up…”  This was a common phrase when we were young and we dreamed what growing up would be like.  A big house, fancy car, 2.1 children, charting our own destiny, rising to the top, wheeling & dealing and getting the upper hand.

Yet I don’t think we ever dreamed it would be like this.  Yet, unfortunately, too often it is.

[yframe url=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olSIMc4j5Sg’]

 

This was recently shown in a meeting of a large global company.  They laughed at the first few statements, then it became really quite.  The message hit a little too close to home.  THAT’S when you know it worked.

Although we may not have put it all together like this in the past, we have all lived many of these – if not all.  We know the pain first hand.  So what are we going to do about it?  What are YOU going to do about it?

Hopefully you aren’t stuck in the rut the video shows.  Hopefully you have broken free and are well on your way to working differently.