You can learn a lot about your rules from speeding in a Chicago school zone.
According to the official City of Chicago website:
- The speed limit for school zones is 20 MPH.
- An automated speed camera will mail you a $35 ticket if you drive 26 MPH in a school zone.
Wait? What?
Is the speed limit 20 MPH or 26 MPH?
The answer is “Yes.”
Paper Rules vs. Concrete Rules
A Paper Rule is what the policy manual says the rule is, for example:
- 30-minute time limit
- No loud talking
- Clean up after yourself
A Concrete Rule is what actually gets enforced, for example:
- You can usually go an hour over the 30-minute time limit before staff says anything.
- You can usually be loud for 10-15 minutes before staff says anything.
- Small messes are ignored. Large messes are not.
And of course, the Concrete Rule might change based on who you are:
- The local Bank President has no time-limit, but homeless folks do.
- Teenagers can’t be loud, but the book club can.
- Small messes are usually ignored except for Jennifer’s. Jennifer is rude, so staff enforce rules against her strictly.
And of course, the Concrete Rule might change based on who is working:
- Mike thinks the time limits are dumb, so he never enforces them.
- The weekend staff are all part-timers so the volume rule is not enforced (or any others, actually).
- Janice can’t stand messes, so she enforces the “no mess” rule super strictly on her shifts.
What’s my point?
I’ll be honest: This is a new concept that I’m still exploring.
I don’t have it all worked out yet.
Here are my current thoughts:
- The concrete rules matter more than the paper rules. In fact, I’m not sure the paper rules—by themselves—matter at all. This is especially true for certain populations, like teenagers.
- Inconsistent concrete rules create problems. People will feel the rules are enforced unfairly or even with prejudice. They might be right.
- If you don’t enforce paper rules and then suddenly start to, you have literally changed the rules. You need to warn people.
Now, rigidly sticking to the paper rules in every situation regardless of the circumstances can also create problems. Sometimes the paper rule did not envision the circumstances you find yourself in.
Have a fantastic week!
Peace,
Ryan
p.s. Here’s a video of a baby laughing hysterically every time his dad rips a piece of paper (it has absolutely nothing to do with today’s newsletter, but it cheers me up when I’m having a bad day): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RP4abiHdQpc