Rules only work with the rational. (From Machine Are the Part)

From Machines Are the Easy Part; People Are the Hard Part. 
Illustrations by Brady Johnson

44. Rules only work with the rational.

• Reasonable rules work with reasonable people.
• Petty rules breed resentment.
• Even the best rules only work with rational people.

I’ve never worked with or in a group of any size that has a 100% rationality rate. 

I don’t know what you do about that. But knowing it, I hope, makes you feel better.

44. Three rules of policy writing.

• Never write a policy unless it is absolutely unavoidable. 
• Never write a policy from scratch that you can borrow from someone else. 
• Never write a policy that does not describe how it benefits the students in your school.

45. The Law of Effective Supervision.

Only hire people who don’t need to be supervised.

I am the world’s worst supervisor. If I can’t:

• give a person a task, a timeline, and adequate resources; 
• turn them loose; 
• and expect good results, 

I really don’t want them working for me.

I’ve been good at hiring such folks. One question I always ask during job interviews is: “Can you describe a major project you’ve undertaken of which you are proud?”

It doesn’t much matter if the project described is building a new outhouse or teaching one’s parakeet to sing the Star Spangled Banner. But if the interviewee can’t come up with something, that person doesn’t get hired.

Maybe this attitude comes from not liking to be supervised.

46. The Doughnut SystemTM. 

Just because one does not supervise employees, doesn’t mean that one should not be evaluating them. Our printer Greg helped me formulate the Doughnut Employee Evaluation System. 

Here is how it works:

• Let if be known that the best way teachers and administrators can express their appreciation for work above and beyond the call of duty by an employee of your department is to bring that employee a box of pastries.
• The above pastries are shared with others in the department, custodians, and visitors.
• The boss keeps track of how many such boxes are given in any employee’s name. The more doughnuts, the better the evaluation.

As supervisor, take credit for one doughnut from each box since you had the intelligence to hire such outstanding individuals.

Comments

[Kenn Gorman]

Donuts for the win!