Who Needs Rules Anyway?

"Who Needs Rules Anyway?"

My Job Here is Done™ Transcript (for general use only, machine-generated, and it may not be accurate). 

[00:00:01.090] - Dave -- Meep. Meep.

[00:00:02.180] - Kelli -- What?

[00:00:03.950] - Dave -- Meep! Meep!

[00:00:04.880] - Kelli -- What are you doing?

[00:00:08.030] - Dave -- Preparing to record a podcast.

[00:00:10.570] - Kelli -- By making stupid sounds?

[00:00:12.560] - Kelli -- Oh, sorry. I have to practice what we preach in our empathy episode ... Dave, you're making sounds I don't understand. Are you okay?

[00:00:21.950] - Dave -- Yeah, I'm just fine, but thanks for your concern.

[00:00:27.170] - Kelli -- We agreed to some rules we'd follow to help keep this podcast consistent and predictable. Why are we going off in some crazy direction with your beep beep sounds?

[00:00:36.900] - Dave -- AU CONTRAIRE!

[00:00:38.070] - Kelli -- Oh, here we go now with the French.

[00:00:40.550] - Dave -- Hey, I'm following the rules, and that's what I'd like to talk about today.

[00:00:44.320] - Kelli -- Okay, I like that. But what's the beep thing about?

[00:00:48.000] - Dave -- It's all about following the rules.

[00:00:50.250] - Kelli -- What rules?

[00:00:51.500] - Dave -- Meep. Meep.

[00:00:52.310] - Kelli -- (laughs) Oh, for the love of ...

[00:00:54.050] – INTRO - Hi, I'm Dave, and I've been starting and running businesses all my life. And I'm Kelli, working for the man like a dog for decades. And you are YOU! The driven career professional clawing your way up the ladder of success. Maybe running your own business? The next 20 minutes or so is just for you. Welcome to My job here is done.

[00:01:18.110] - Kelli -- Welcome, and thanks a lot for taking a break to give us about 20 minutes of your time, I'm Kelli, and I'm a little confused ...

[00:01:25.670] - Dave -- And I'm meep meep...

[00:01:27.130] - Kelli -- Dave!

[00:01:28.430] - Dave -- (laughing) and we talk about career success and entrepreneurial business growth on this podcast. Please subscribe or follow us on your favorite app. We don't want you to miss any new episodes.

[00:01:38.660] - Kelli -- And you can interact with Dave and me personally at our website My Job Here Is Done DOT com, and on social media at myjobpodcast.

[00:01:47.090] - Dave -- Why do we need so many sets of rules in our lives? Why can't we just do the right thing and apply common sense, and it'll just all work out?

[00:01:57.180] - Kelli -- Sadly, no, it won't just all work out.

[00:01:59.960] - Dave -- Why?

[00:02:00.800] - Kelli -- Because rules in society are needed to control the natural chaos of human existence. If left to our own devices, absent any rules or laws, each of us would act impulsively, unpredictably, and, well, chaotically.

[00:02:16.940] - Dave -- Well, let's go back to our early childhood and recall one of the first rules that we learned in school that we've used actually throughout our entire lives in various ways. And in most cases, that is. And this rule proves Kelly's point on the natural tendency for humans to act in a chaotic manner. The rule is the raise your hand rule.

[00:02:41.030] - Kelli -- Back in the early school days, we were taught that if you wanted to speak, you should hold your thought, raise your hand, and wait till the teacher recognized you.

[00:02:49.590] - Kelli -- Imagine the chaos of a few dozen kids all shouting out thoughts at the same time.

[00:02:54.070] - Dave -- This is a soft rule. In other words, if somebody breaks this rule, they'll normally just get kind of a reminder from the teacher not to do it again, but there's no real penalty, per se.

[00:03:04.010] - Dave -- Then there are hard rules or codified rules that may actually be laws. These hard rules have more dire consequences if they're broken, like driving a car on the wrong side of the road. You just can't do that safely. No one is expecting it from you. And if you do it, you can be arrested and fined and possibly have your driving privileges revoked.

[00:03:23.770] - Kelli -- Here's another example of the need for rules at work, and we've talked about a bunch of these here on the podcast, the Rule of Nondiscrimination.

[00:03:32.150] - Dave -- That rule sounds so basic and so natural to me that I wonder why we needed to codify that in the first place?

[00:03:38.540] - Kelli -- You know why. You have a different view about that than perhaps someone else does. And that, in and of itself, is why we need the rules.

[00:03:47.060] - Kelli -- But there's also a problem with rules. Rules are more and more often viewed as personal restrictions, unfair, oppressive, and breakable.

[00:03:55.210] - Dave -- Hey, is this a society problem or a societal problem of today that wasn't present in past generations? Not really. If we go back about 3900 years ago when Kelli's great great grandfather Hammurabi roamed the land ...

[00:04:09.980] - Kelli -- All right... Really, Dave?

[00:04:11.150] - Dave -- Well, we've all heard the saying "an  eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth." But did you know that that was actually a rule and part of one of the very early examples of law?

[00:04:22.930] - Dave -- When Kelli told me this, I was floored.

[00:04:24.990] - Kelli -- We have a link in the show notes for you to learn more from the website ushistory.org. An Eye for an Eye and a Tooth for a Tooth is a paraphrase of Hammurabi's code, which was a collection of 282 laws inscribed on an upright stone pillar in the ancient city of Susa, which is in modern-day Iran.

[00:04:45.030] - Dave -- Kelli's grandpa Hammurabi, which ... What are you laughing about?

[00:04:49.800] - Kelli -- You know my real grandpa is going to be pissed, right?

[00:04:53.810] - Dave -- Well, anyway, Hammurabi ruled the Babylonian Empire in the latter part of 1700 BCE. And I actually had to look this up.

[00:05:02.120] - Dave -- BCE stands for Before Christian Era and is loosely related to the more common date range BC - Before Christ.

[00:05:09.640] - Dave -- This is an interesting side note, and although Hammurabi was concerned with keeping order in his kingdom, this was not the only reason he was compelled to make his list of laws.

[00:05:21.610] - Dave -- When he began ruling the city of Babylon, he only had control of 50 square miles or so of territory. And like all good entrepreneurs (laughing), as he conquered other territories and the empire grew, he saw the need to unify the various groups he controlled.

[00:05:37.310] - Kelli -- I'm not sure that associating a good entrepreneur of today with Hammurabi is a good idea, but Hammurabi keenly understood that to achieve this goal, he needed one universal set of laws for all the diverse peoples that he conquered.

[00:05:53.520] - Dave -- Well, we'll give you an example just to show that rules and laws go way back.

[00:05:57.380] - Dave -- And the theory of rule and law is based on control. Control used for good and control used for bad ...

[00:06:04.580] - Kelli -- But control nonetheless.

[00:06:06.360] - Kelli -- And in business, control over processes, procedures, the way we act towards others and how we get work done is essential for success.

[00:06:15.000] - Dave -- Meep. Meep.

[00:06:16.090] - Kelli -- What are you doing?

[00:06:18.230] - Dave -- Well, first of all, believe it or not, I'm following a few rules.

[00:06:21.860] - Kelli -- I'm afraid to ask.

[00:06:23.660] - Dave -- One of those rules is a rule called copyright.

[00:06:26.790] - Kelli -- Go on.

[00:06:27.910] - Dave -- So as not to violate that rule, I am mimicking the sound of what is actually a very recognizable aural onomatopoeia.

[00:06:38.270] - Kelli -- Hey Siri! What's an onomatopoeia?

[00:06:40.970] - Voice of Commuter Siri – "Onomatopoeia is the process of creating a word that phonetically imitates, resembles or suggests the sound that it describes."

[00:06:50.210] - Dave -- Meep! Meep!

[00:06:50.630] - Kelli -- ahh... Beep Beep from the Road Runner cartoon!

[00:06:52.820] - Dave -- Actually, it's "meep meep." And I'm not playing the exact sound that the Road Runner made on the cartoon specifically because I don't have permission to use it under copyright laws.

[00:07:02.930] - Kelli -- We all know that sounds so well, brings back memories. But why are you bringing this up?

[00:07:08.410] - Dave -- Because it will illustrate a point on the need for rules. And there's a fascinating story behind meep meep.

[00:07:14.960] - Kelli -- Oh, boy! Do we find out that the coyote finally catches the Road Runner?

[00:07:19.530] - Dave -- Well, sorry to say, but actually, the coyote is not allowed to catch the Road Runner. It's a rule!

[00:07:25.340] - Kelli -- Are you kidding me? I've been watching that cartoon forever. And there's a rule that the coyote can't catch the Road Runner.

[00:07:32.450] - Kelli -- Where is this rule written?

[00:07:33.960] - Dave -- Well, patience, please. First, some of our listeners in other countries may not have ever heard of Wile E. Coyote and the Roadrunner.

[00:07:43.290] - Dave -- They're a duo of cartoon characters from the Looney Tunes series of animated cartoons. First appearing back in 1949 and is still on TV today.

[00:07:52.660] - Kelli -- Thank goodness.

[00:07:53.850] - Dave -- Google it to see some of their great adventures.

[00:07:57.180] - Kelli -- You're going to spoil everything I thought was true about these guys, aren't you?

[00:08:00.930] - Dave -- Well maybe.

[00:08:01.560] - Dave -- In his book, Chuck Amock, the Life and Times of an Animated Cartoonist, author Chuck Jones claims that he and the artists behind the Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote cartoons adhered to some basic and strict rules.

[00:08:17.100] - Dave -- They knew they needed to keep the franchise consistent and predictably unpredictable to keep viewers coming back for more. So if you look at the reasoning behind these rules for this cartoon, you, as a leader in business, can see how these rules greatly helped to make this cartoon a business success.

[00:08:36.210] - Kelli -- This is fascinating to me. What are the rules?

[00:08:39.250] - Dave -- Well, rule number one is the Road Runner cannot harm the coyote except by going meep meep!

[00:08:46.700] - Kelli -- Right. I never saw the Road Runner hurt the coyote directly.

[00:08:50.700] - Dave -- Yeah. Rule number two: No outside force can harm the coyote. Only his own ineptitude or the failure of an Acme product can do that.

[00:09:03.840] - Dave -- Here's some others. No dialogue ever. Except "Meep Meep" from the Road Runner and yowling in pain for the coyote.

[00:09:12.550] - Kelli -- Let me see that list...

[00:09:15.050] - Kelli -- There's a rule that the Road Runner must stay on the road for no other reason than that he's a Road Runner!

[00:09:21.970] - Dave -- Right.

[00:09:22.760] - Kelli -- Okay. And another rule is that all action must be confined to the natural environment of the two characters, the Southwest American Desert.

[00:09:31.410] - Dave -- Yes.

[00:09:31.950] - Dave -- And all tools, weapons or mechanical conveniences must be obtained from the Acme Corporation whenever possible.

[00:09:41.520] - Kelli -- Make gravity the coyote's greatest enemy!

[00:09:44.890] - Dave -- And the coyote is always more humiliated than harmed by his failures, and the audience's sympathy must remain with the coyote. It's a rule.

[00:09:54.680] - Kelli -- Oh, here it is, the last rule. The coyote is not allowed to catch or eat the Road Runner.

[00:10:01.890] - Dave -- No. And that makes it enduring and never-ending. So if you were looking forward to that, I'm sorry.

[00:10:08.270] - Kelli -- So those can only be looked at as good rules, rules that make sense in the context of the goal.

[00:10:14.970] - Kelli -- There are a lot of rules that seem like they don't make sense in business, and lots of people feel like the rules restrict them and suppress their ability to do their jobs.

[00:10:24.680] - Dave -- Yeah, unfortunately, that's true, but we don't think the problem is the rules themselves. It's the reason for the rules that often are not exposed or are unclear, and that causes people to naturally challenge them.

[00:10:37.420] - Kelli -- When you make rules in business for your employees to follow, we see two versions of presentations used.

[00:10:43.240] - Kelli -- The first is the list of rules. Presenting the rules without illustrating why the rule exists.

[00:10:49.560] - Dave -- Presenting rules to people in this fashion is the classic way. It's the step-by-step rulebook way, so to speak. Number one. number two, number three... But it's not as effective as presenting rules in a feature-benefit fashion.

[00:11:03.490] - Kelli -- Consider redoing your rules and guidelines to be more communicative. Start with a purpose statement, follow that with the rule itself, and end with a benefit statement.

[00:11:14.030] - Dave -- Here's an example of an old-style step-by-step type rule alongside a new style purpose-rule-benefit format ...

[00:11:21.730] - Dave -- Rule one: Vacation time off must be approved at least 30 days in advance.

[00:11:27.490] - Kelli -- Begs the question, why?

[00:11:29.240] - Dave -- Also kind of sounds dictatorial like, maybe your great grandpa Hammurabi would say.

[00:11:34.610] - Kelli -- (laughing) You would have liked him.

[00:11:36.040] - Kelli -- Okay, on to the alternative new style. Start with the purpose, such as, to ensure that you are able to enjoy your future vacation plans without disruption of your teammate's daily work routines.

[00:11:48.960] - Dave -- That's good!

[00:11:49.930] - Dave -- Follow it up with the rule, and it really doesn't change much, maybe rewritten a little, it's still: Vacation time off requests require at least 30 days notice.

[00:11:58.880] - Kelli -- But now we follow that by the benefit statements, such as: When you plan a vacation and follow this procedure, you will enjoy knowing that you can leave work behind without burdening your coworkers or affecting the happiness of our customers. It gives the company time to properly arrange for your absence. Plus, you will benefit from this procedure when your fellow coworkers follow it as well.

[00:12:23.200] - Dave -- Yeah, it's common sense, right?

[00:12:24.870] - Kelli -- Yeah, but not to everyone.

[00:12:27.410] - Dave -- It seems like we would all have the basic rules of business down by now, but these basics have been repeated by reminders in various fashions forever.

[00:12:38.510] - Dave -- I found this from the Chicago Telephone Company - Rules for Troubleman, posted October 28, 1911.

[00:12:47.270] - Dave -- Troubleman at that time was a telephone repairman, and for those younger people listening to us, a telephone was the thing that you picked up and you talked to somebody on. That was usually on the wall or on the desk on your house, right? And you dialed it with your finger or you punched buttons. You can google it.

[00:13:05.860] - Dave -- Remember, this was 111 years ago!

[00:13:09.510] - Kelli -- This was the Chicago Telephone Company's employees' work rules. Essentially their Employee Handbook, which was obviously created for that time period.

[00:13:18.240] - Dave -- But even so, think about these rules as you relate them to today in your business. But also look at the way they explained the rules.

[00:13:26.690] - Dave -- Even back then they used a variation of the Purpose-Rule-Benefit model we just talked about.

[00:13:32.160] - Kelli -- There are 23 of these rules. We'll give a few to whet your whistle. To see them all, look for the link in the show notes. They're hilariously accurate!

[00:13:40.950] - Dave -- Here's one of those rules from the Chicago Telephone Company:

[00:13:43.700] - Dave -- "Remember, treat everyone as you would like to be treated, and not forgetting your horse. If you want to know the horses side of it, just take off your coat and hat some zero day. Hitch yourself to the same post with your belt and stand there for about 2 hours. Hereafter you won't forget his blanket."

[00:14:09.690] - Kelli -- I had to look up the expression "zero day" and I couldn't find a thing except zero day cyberattack.

[00:14:16.400] - Dave -- Yeah, I think it was an expression for a day off or a day without any pay.

[00:14:23.370] - Kelli -- Speaking of old expressions we don't use anymore, listen to this rule:

[00:14:27.230] - Kelli -- "Put up a good front. It is not necessary to advertise any tailorshop. Neither is it necessary to go about your work looking like a coal heaver. Overalls can look as respectable as anything else, but they must at least show they are on speaking terms with the laundryman, and shoes must have a bowing acquaintance with the bootblack."

[00:14:51.240] - Dave -- That's a way to write a rule that says: Hey, dress for success!

[00:14:56.550] - Kelli -- You're right.

[00:14:57.930] - Dave -- Coal heaver?

[00:15:01.470] - Kelli -- Blackboot?

[00:15:03.030] - Kelli -- I love this one:

[00:15:04.520] - Kelli -- "Go about your business cheerfully and quietly. When you enter a residence, don't overlook the floormat. If requested to go around to the back door, don't consider yourself insulted, but try to realize that the lady of the house may not have a maid and is only trying to save work for herself. Say good morning or evening, it doesn't cost anything and it shows you started out right at home."

[00:15:31.360] - Dave -- These are real! These were real work rules and they explain what was going on and they were serious about customer care and quality work.

[00:15:41.530] - Dave -- Rule nine states:

[00:15:43.200] - Dave -- "It's not necessary to tell the lady of the house that her telephone is worn out and no good. She may think so herself. Tell her that her telephone is as good as anybody else's and back it up by making it so."

[00:15:57.360] - Kelli -- Notice again the Purpose-Rule-Benefit style that they used here.

[00:16:01.570] - Kelli -- And back in that day, nobody questioned the rules, they just followed them at work. But these leaders had the foresight to know that a little dose of reasoning will help employees understand and want to follow the guidelines and the rules.

[00:16:15.370] - Dave -- Rules in business are needed to make them effective and for them to be followed. It's all in the presentation.

[00:16:22.570] - Kelli -- Okay, one last rule from the Chicago Telephone Company. Pick your favorite.

[00:16:27.830] - Dave -- Oh, that's an easy one. It's rule 23.

[00:16:32.610] - Dave -- It says, "If you don't like your job, resign. It'll be better for you and the company."

[00:16:41.230] - Kelli -- Thanks very much for listening today. We hope you enjoyed this episode: "who needs rules anyway?"

[00:16:47.180] - Kelli -- More and more people listen each week just because of you spreading the word about our My Job Here Is Done podcast. Dave and I thank you very much for telling a friend about us.

[00:16:56.630] - Dave -- And please tell that friend they can follow us anywhere and everywhere podcasts are available using their favorite app or at our website. My job here is done DOT com.

[00:17:07.120] - Kelli -- Hey, Dave.

[00:17:08.070] - Dave -- Yeah?

[00:17:09.070] - Kelli -- Meep Meep!

[00:17:12.710] - Chuck Fresh

I'm the announcer guy, and I sound as good as the story you just listened to. My job here is done as a podcast production of 2PointOh LLC. Thank you and your awesome ears for listening. Want to get involved? Have your own special story to share? Tell us all about it, and you might get some airtime just like me. Browse over to myjobhereisdone.com yeah, squish that all together into one word and look for the My Story link. Until next time …My job Here Is Done.

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