Evaluating rules for company cultures
by Miki SaxonA CEO commented to me that he tries to run his company based on the Golden Rule. He was surprised when I responded that that wasn’t always a good idea and wanted to know why I thought that.
Since Carl Sagan had helped shape my attitude in his The Rules of the Game, I sent him the PDF to read.
The rules were garnered through living and they’re the best enticement I can think of to get you to read the essay. (all eight pages).
TABLE OF PROPOSED RULES TO LIVE BY
The Golden Rule Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
The Silver Rule Do not do unto others what you would not have them do unto you.
The Brazen Rule Do unto others as they do unto you.
The Iron Rule Do unto others as you like, before they do it unto you.
The Tit-for-Tat Rule Cooperate with others first, then do unto them as they do unto you.
My CEO was delighted, because the rule evaluation results—Tit-for-Tat was the big winner—made so much sense. Now he’s putting together a presentation for his company explaining it—along with copies of the essay for everyone—so the concepts can be woven into the company culture.
He thinks that his people (most are technically trained) will jump on it, since prisoner’s dilemma (game theory) was applied by another scientist in evaluating the rules. He says that will prevent them from, “holding their collective noses and chanting fuzzy, fuzzy.”
Thank you (again) Carl Sagan.
