Rules vs Principles
“A remarkable culture flourishes when the leaders are committed to the selection of talent that operates and thrives working under principles instead of rules.” Dee Ann Turner
What Chick-fil-A Believes
Does your organization run by rules or by principles? It turns out that it makes a big difference. When you think of Chick-fil-A, you think of an organization that has a very strong culture and you would be right. Chick-fil-A also has a reputation for outstanding service to customers. There are a number of reasons why Chick-fil-A is so successful in hiring the right talent and keeping that talent to sell A LOT of chicken sandwiches. One of the reasons is that its culture is based on principles and not rules. As Dee Ann Turner, former Vice President of Talent at Chick-fil-A, states, “Something different happens when people are free to operate under principles taught by leaders rather than being forced to be compliant to a stack of rules."
Photo by Jackson Schaal on Unsplash
“Having too many rules greatly reduces creativity, innovation, morale, and motivation and eventually kills productivity.” Dee Ann Turner
Freedom
As I shared in How to Destroy Productivity, one of the areas that thwart an employee’s productivity is when they do not sense any autonomy. When they do not feel like they have some control of situations, then it not only demotivates the employee but also causes them to be much less productive. Running your organization on principles rather than rules allows your employees to sense more autonomy. It allows them to have the freedom to wow a customer or fix a customer’s situation without having their hands tied to a strict set of rules. Our firm’s Vision Statement shares that we provide matchless services to enhance the lives of our clients. We give our team members the freedom to go out of their way to help a client or simply enhance their life at that time. Our values are positivity, passion, innovation and teamwork. When our team members are guided by our values and in line with our vision then they are free to serve our clients and their fellow team members.
According to Dee Ann Turner, author of the book Bet On Talent, there are 5 ways that rules can damage your culture:
5 Ways Rules Damage Your Culture
- Loss of Trust - Employees feel their ability to use their judgment and reason are not trusted.
- Loss of Motivation - Employees think their Employer expects them to make the wrong choice or decision.
- Loss of Ownership - Employees feel that their Employer decides everything for them.
- Loss of Productivity - Employees worry more about not breaking rules instead of enhancing processes and procedures.
- Loss of Customers - Employees serving customers will create unnecessary conflicts to stay inside the boundaries of the rules.
Are you relying on rules to keep your team members compliant or are you providing principles to give them freedom to serve?