A few days ago a CEO mentioned 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, click the link!).

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.

I’m helping him put together a presentation explaining it—along with copies of the essay for everyone in the company—so the concepts can be woven into the company culture.

He thinks that his people, most are technically trained, will jump on it, since, in addition to it being from Sagan, prisoner’s dilemma (game theory) was applied by another scientist in evaluating the rules.

He says that that will prevent his techies from, “holding their collective noses and chanting fuzzy, fuzzy.”

Amazing what’s out there when you look for it.

Thank you (again) Carl Sagan.

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A recent discussion on LinkedInBloggers (check it out) started around a WSJ Online article about disconnecting from people in an online network and migrated to online behavior. Paul Chaney sent a link to an article he’d written that’s a good guide on what to do and not do.

So, what does all this have to do with leadership, establishing better communications with those around you and living a productive, happy life?

It turns out that the actions and MAP (mindset, attitude, philosophy™) needed to create great online networks is the same that’s been needed for all positive human interactions since cavemen tried grunting instead of always using their clubs.

Long before Christianity every major religion had some version of the Golden Rule; Dale Carnegie detailed the actions needed to put it into practice in the business world.

In fact, the only things that keep changing are the words used to describe the MAP and resulting actions.

So the question really is, if this stuff has been around forever why is it still being explained, advocated, recommended, written about and taught?

Why isn’t it just being done?

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