Schlagwort-Archive: Rules

Rules rule rules that rule rules

In times of increasing bureaucratization it becomes more difficult to oversee the innumerable rules that must be followed. Since the employees act autonomously and each detail cannot be regulated from the top, they need a clear set of rules. In order to provide the best possible directions, the enterprises use for example COSO and COBIT as a guideline, i.e. standards for implementing the Governance. The trend to a constantly growing number at standards is foreseeable. Let’s remember the different standards in Project Management. Do we have to adjust ourselves to the fact that in the future rules rule rules that rule rules?

Schlangebeisstschwanz

A common denominator in the rules is the fact that they follow certain rules. The following aspects define the quality of the Governance.

  • Transparency
    In this case the decisions, the decision path and the principles of leadership should be made accessible to the employees. They should always be able to understand, for what reasons the top management deploys certain rules. At the same time they should understand the point of control for their own influence.
  • Economy
    In order to create a reasonable handling of scarce means, the procedures should be designed accordingly. These definitions prevent an uncontrolled growth of rules and procedures. Beyond that, they reduce the expenditure for the introduction of guidelines and enable over time an improved use.
  • Participation
    The employees are motivated by personal sharing and participation in the designing of the enterprise. They receive with the regulations the right and the obligation to participate in the decision making and the implementations. For this reason clear points of control for the participation of the employees are inserted in the procedures.
  • Competencies
    Through clear assignments of authority and responsibility defined tasks prevent Muda and friction losses. All areas are considered as well as the overlap of authorities and mutual obstructions are prevented. The employees know through the transferred rights and obligations, what they have to do – and what not.
  • Rule of law
    Through the bindingness to the rules for all, without exception, the individual is reinforced. In order to get a functioning interaction, it must be guaranteed that that all are equally treated. For this purpose it needs in case of conflicts a clear procedure as well as an independent board of arbitration that can be called by everybody.
  • Justice
    Through an adequate and demandable reconciliation of interests, the justice offers a general framework that goes beyond the detailed rules. The values of the enterprise need a common, fundamental understanding about what is right and what not. A respective understanding avoids a variety of detailed regulations.

In order to guarantee that the Governance is adapted to the respective conditions, a clear control model is required for the enterprises. Thus, COSO offers a framework for the financial reporting and Cobit for the IT. The Governance can be introduced correctly at the right place with these frameworks.

Bottom line: The build-up of a control system, the Governance, is an effective means, for steering enterprises or departments. Standards facilitate reliably the implementation. It is however important to resist the regulation craze. More is not necessarily better. Rules rule rules that rule the rules is the end of effective rule sets.

A picture is worth a thousand (sometimes wrong) words

Over time we developed the conviction ‘Seeing is believing’. This means that one believes in the existence or truth of something, which one saw with the own eyes. Some are already convinced, when they learn about the seeing through second-hand. Images are an effective way to convey a message. There are rock paintings that already used the figurative representation thirty thousand years ago. As time went by the representations became more and more realistic. Today, we can participate in current developments even through moving pictures with original soundtrack and in real time. The picture is taken as proof. Many forget that the two-dimensional medium of a picture distorts reality with its perspective, frame and the moment of the taking. The consequence is that a picture says more than thousand words – sometimes even wrong ones.

Bildsagtmehralstausendworte

In the course of the Ukraine crisis the above photographs were taken in a meeting between Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Barack Obama. Different photographs of the meeting appeared subsequently in several newspapers. We still trust the journalists as the last bastion of objectivity. The ethos of journalists, to always spread objective truths, should actually lead to reliable news. Let’s forget the special cases of the controlled, non-military war correspondents (so called embedded journalists) and the quasi-state-run press, since they are obviously propaganda. The associated attempt of the historical manipulation already began with Caesar, continued with Charlemagne and the dictatorships of the twentieth century, until today.

Let’s focus on respectable journalism that spreads news to the best knowledge and belief. In order to define a limit, there are some non-binding rules.

  • On the one hand news should be confirmed by at least two independent sources
  • On the other hand balance should be ensured by the fact that both sides of a conflict should be reported.

You find further aspects here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journalism_ethics_and_standards.

A picture cannot fulfill the two rules.

  • On the one hand a picture is naturally from one source, the camera.
  • On the other hand the picture represents just ONE cutout of the reality that represents only the fraction of a second.

For these reasons a picture is always one-sided and unbalanced.

If we now look at the scribbles, we see four pictures of the same meeting, which were taken within a few minutes. Each picture creates another impression. What are the reasons to select a picture for publication? By looking at the procedure, from taking a picture to publishing, we encounter many filters.

  1. Taking the picture
    Photographers are the first filter. They decide the point of view, the cutout and the moment of the capture. Usually they photograph several photos within a short period. Subsequently, they select the photographs that fulfill the technical requirements – the requested sharpness and brightness of the picture. Additionally, they select images with regular gestures and facial expressions. Eventually the picture shown above end up in the agencies or media,.
  2. Distribution
    An agency is a broker for pictures and news, e.g. Reuters, DPA, ITAR TASS. They buy photos and offer them together with the agency message. The agency is acknowledged as an official source for the media. If two agencies provide the same message, the first rule is fulfilled. This makes the news item to reliable news. The selection criteria for the images are thereby hard to comprehend. In any case the picture selection reduces the message to one defined point of view.
  3. Publication
    The media editors (print, on-line, TV) had their own reporters in former times. That way, they could distinguish themselves from other media providers. Nowadays you hardly find salaried photo reporters. The photos are mostly bought directly from the freelance photographer or an agency. The advantage of an agency is the bundling of the picture with the press release. For cost reasons only the pictures are bought that are eventually published. The editor determines the ‘proof’ for the article by selecting the images.

Eventually the observer decides on its impression. Now look at the sketches above and consider, which picture you would buy!

About the mentioned meeting, on February 9th 2015, different pictures were used in different publications. What impression do the individual pictures create? On the left above? On the bottom left? On the top right? On the bottom right? And what was the real atmosphere of the meeting? Who might know.
In any case, people decided with the selection of the image which impression should generated among the viewers. A picture is worth a thousand words that do not necessarily correspond to the truth.

Bottom line: The times of ‘seeing is believing’ are probably over. Each event has any number of pictures that do not clearly express the real happening. Even blurred mobile phone photographs are used today, in order to convey a message to the public that cannot be guaranteed by the two rules. There is no other choice than dealing critically with these ‘proofs’ and to always consider the possibility that the message is wrong – whether we are deliberately manipulated or not.

P.S.: Do you remember the posed politician photo of the Charlie Hebdo demonstration?