Do you know rules are made for the guidance of wise men and the obedience of fools?
Updated by . See history
Whenever you're doing something more than once there should be a clear procedure. We call them “standards” or “rules”. That means that there should be lots of standards.
<asideEmbed variant="info" body={<> Standards should **not** be followed blindly. They should always help the critical thinking process, but never replace it. Aim for continual improvement. </>} figureEmbed={{ preset: "default", figure: 'XXX', shouldDisplay: false }} />There are pros and cons to having standards:
✅ The pros:
- They help speed up the decision making process – getting you to the best decision faster
- They help maintain consistency
❌ The cons:
- They take time to write in a generic fashion
- Technological rules rust easily. Technologies and techniques change often, so you must be on the lookout for the new and better approaches and continually update these
- They have errors as they are written by imperfect people
- People will sometimes follow an inappropriate rule. A set of rules can never predict every path, so cases can and will appear that the standards fail to cater for
Figure: As this sign demonstrates, no rule is universal
Enhancing standards through continuous and collaborative improvement
Never ignore a potential improvement or expect someone else to work on it.
If you believe something can be improved or a standard is outdated, it's important to take action. The best approach is through a team effort, where everyone contributes small improvements regularly.
Whenever you come across a standard which needs updating or improving you have 3 options:
- Fix it yourself straight away and edit the rule (preferred)
- Fix it yourself later if it's too big. In this case, send yourself an email
- Ask someone else to fix it following the change "x" to "y"
Acknowledgements
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