Comments on: Principles vs rules

By: eicolab: creative strategies for business innovation

eicolab: creative strategies for business innovation — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 22:45:54 +0000

[...] The recent terrorist attacks in the UK made me think of my post on principles vs rules. [...]

By: Zern

Zern — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 04:01:03 +0000

Principles can be defined as tightly or as loosely as you want. And I would contend that they can cross cultural boundaries.

Think the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Example of a principal: We will act respectfully towards each other and clients. Thus in the Beijing office, “acting respectfully” may actually manifest differently than in the London office. And that is ok. The principle allows individuals to act to the best of their abilities and appropriate to their immediate social context.

Had this been a rule: We will always maintain constant eye contact and shake hands firmly; the point of the rule (ie be respectful) will be opaque to those in the Beijing office and the whole thing will backfire.

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Andrew, would you be able to share your three principles? It sounds really great that they work for your organisation!

By: Andrew Boyd

Andrew Boyd — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 21:03:03 +0000

Zern,

the company I work for – SMS Management and Technology – has three core principles. Everything we do derives from those three – and they work well. If it doesn’t fit these three principles, then it isn’t us and so it isn’t done.

To address Chenge’s point – we’ve offices in Singapore and London as well as throughout Australia. Last I heard we had nearly 1,000 employees and were still Australia’s largest publicly listed management services company. Principles can work if you work them.

Cheers, Andrew

By: Chenge

Chenge — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 06:56:19 +0000

Core principles are usually based on cultural and society values and norms. And this may be all good to follow principles only if a company is only one office where there is a good communication climate. How would a company that is based in a number of countries be able to follow the same core principles when each country may have different business environments or values and norms?

By: Zern

Zern — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 05:15:00 +0000

I would think that if everyone in an organisation gets the core principles, there would be no need for rules. Imagine the savings on time spent policing rules and doling our punitive actions.

Perhaps there are two sorts of people – those who prefer to work under “loose” core principles whereby they can be innovative and self-directed when meeting each goal; and those who prefer to be told exactly what to do when so there is no need to think or question too much…

By: Chenge

Chenge — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 01:28:52 +0000

Who said a business needs to be either completely based on principles or rules? This is a silly topic because businesses should be run both based on principles and rules. Any business that thinks it needs to choose one or the other should not really be in business.