When Rules Attack: The Death of Common Sense

Most Americans, and I'm sure those in other countries as well, have seen their share of unnecessary bureaucracy. This not only permeates our government, but our organizations as well.

How many organizations add rule after rule in order to combat uncertainty, without realizing that they're also digging their feet so deep in the mud that they cannot walk?

I've long contended that principles work better than rules, with very few exceptions. A book I'm reading, The Death of Common Sense, by Philip K. Howard, makes this case quite effectively.

The back cover of the book states:

- Why did the New York City Building Code crush Mother Teresa's plans to build a shelter for the homeless?

- Why do your tax dollars pay for policing elementary school art displays?

- How did a handicap-access law deny public bathrooms for thousands of able-bodied people?

How much collateral damage has been caused in your organization as a result of overzealous compliance departments or rulemakers?

A paragraph in the book puts it quite nicely:

Principles are like trees in open fields. We can know where we are and where to go. But the path we take is our own. What good is law today? We fight off rules like branches hitting us in the face, losing any sense of where we are supposed to be going and bleeding from illogical dictates that serve no one's purpose... The sunlight of common sense shines high above us whenever principles control: What is right and reasonable, not the parsing of legal language, dominates this discussion.

"Discussion" is the operative word. If we used common sense, and engaged in meaningful discussion---looking at things on a case-by-case basis---we could do away with much bureaucracy and reduce "one size fits all" thinking.

Certainly, there are times when rules or standards are needed. These boundaries should be defined and agreed-upon. But for every rule, we should be asking: Is there a guideline or principle that would work better, and enable people to use common sense?

Food for thought.