“unshackle the hardworking majority”
There’s an obvious and reasonable objection to my push for reporters to stay out of the newsroom and phone their sources while strolling around town: Some reporters might make the calls from bed or from a barstool. This is both literally true and functionally false. Cheaters will game any system, but honest people can’t thrive while handcuffed.
I like Daniel Pink on this subject. Here he is in Drive, which I finished a few days ago:
… a web of rules that assumes good faith—as most autonomy-centered policies do—can actually encourage good behavior.
So perhaps it’s time to switch the focus of some of our workplace policies and use them to unshackle the hardworking majority rather than inhibit the less noble minority. If you think people in your organization are predisposed to rip you off, maybe the solution isn’t to build a tighter, more punitive set of rules. Maybe the answer is to hire new people.
I don’t pretend that Pink’s words settle the issue, but my hunch is that he’s right.
