Trapped in the Rules

If you have a rule for most things – people will expect a rule for everything.

I am surprised from time to time when I tell people “do whatever you want” when asked how something should be dne to standard.  I say this because the standard does not cover the subject in question.  My perspective is that when the standard is silent, you can do whatever you want.  Understanding that you need to use common sense and do the best you can to figure out what others would do in the same situation.  When you do this, then others can understand your methods and techniques.  They make sense.

When asked if I want to make a rule, I take the perspective that you should make a rule “only if needed”.

“Only when needed” for me means that if there is not a real problem with people doing different things, then don’t worry about making a rule for it.  Making people do thing in a specific way takes more time than just doing what they want.

This does not mean that you just let users do whatever they want on everything.  You made quite a few rules in your standard.  They have to follow those.   But there must be some limit to what you create rules for.  You cannot make a rule for every last thing that will come up.

Some things need to be free flowing.  Or at least free flowing for a while until you have enough information to make a rule…

More coming on this…