Simple rules

Before the sudden death of its star, John Ritter, "Eight Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter" was one of the highest rated shows on network television.  The rules referred to in the name of the show -- based on W. Bruce Cameron's best selling book -- are as follows:

1.Use your hands on my daughter and you'll lose them after.

2.You make her cry, I make you cry.

3.Safe sex is a myth. Anything you try will be hazardous to your health.

4.Bring her home late, there's no next date.

5.If you pull into my driveway and honk, you better be dropping off a package because you're sure not picking anything up.

6.No complaining while you're waiting for her. If you're bored, change my oil.

7.If your pants hang off your hips, I'll gladly secure them with my staple gun.

8.Dates must be in crowded public places. You want romance? Read a book.

Likewise, working relationships -- in a global company or a small office sharing one refrigerator -- are built on rules, and the simpler the better.

In a column written, tongue in cheek, 15 years ago, and reprinted in the Financial Times yesterday, Scottish economist John Kay tells a cautionary tale of heavy-handed promulgation of rules. It involves an imaginary, recently-privatized company  desiring to adapt to private-sector employee dress standards.The new code called for male employees to wear " smart suits, shirts with collars, and ties", Kay writes:

But soon someone came to the office in a red suit. When criticised, he pointed to the terms of the dress code. The suit was undeniably smart: but it was the smartness of the nightclub rather than the boardroom. So the dress code had to specify colour. Red was out, grey was in. But what of blue? Some blues were clearly acceptable. The chairman’s favourite suit, in fact, was a fetching shade of navy. But bright blues could not be admitted. So how bright was bright?

An so on...
 
The bottom line is that it makes sense to invest more in selecting the right people and less in writing rule books.