"When you can do neither, do what is fair and equitable"
In our everyday living, we are faced with many situations where a decision is necessary. With the different interests amongst the people who will be affected by our decision, do we do the right thing or just do things right? What is the difference? The former is a leader, the latter is a manager. I have blogged earlier about the behaviour of a group of monkeys in a cage in "Do we THINK anymore". Many people follow processes without knowing why. There are others will be find means to avoid doing what is required because they do not understand the impact.
One of my former managers told me that you want to find a person who will do a job right, get the one who will be most impacted by that task. And when there is a task to be done and no one seems to want to do it, the person who is most impacted will invariable end up doing it. Unfortunately, that seems to be the culture we see in corporations today. Everyone is trying to get the other party to do what they should do, trying to avoid doing something they should do, essentially, wanting a free lunch.
How then do we get people to own up to owning the tasks they are supposed to and to make fair and equitable decisions in those processes or tasks that they own? That's why I like golf, and the etiquette they teach in golf. While not everyone who plays golf observes the rules and etiquette that is required of them in the game (which is sad), it does not make the game any less noble.
Golf is about the only game in which the player is his/her own referee. The rules officials are there to help the player make the right interpretation of the rules. The penalty for not making the right decision is disqualification (I am sure many of you have read the disqualification of Michelle Wie in her pro debut). And golf is about the only game where a player will call a penalty on himself/herself for infringing a rule. (Ian Woonam assessed a 2 stroke penalty on himself in one British Open when his caddy told him he had 15 clubs in his back, 1 more than the allowed 14, on the second hole.)
You may have heard of players arguing about what the rules are for a situation that they are in. Unfortunately, while the R&A and USGA tried to be as complete as possible in the rules, there will be situations which are not described in the rules. When that happens, the officials will rely on past decisions.
Thus, one golf magazine had this to offer to amateur players. "Play the course as you find it and play the ball as it lies. When you can do neither, do what is fair and equitable."
Will it be a tall order to ask that we do the same in our everday living?
One of my former managers told me that you want to find a person who will do a job right, get the one who will be most impacted by that task. And when there is a task to be done and no one seems to want to do it, the person who is most impacted will invariable end up doing it. Unfortunately, that seems to be the culture we see in corporations today. Everyone is trying to get the other party to do what they should do, trying to avoid doing something they should do, essentially, wanting a free lunch.
How then do we get people to own up to owning the tasks they are supposed to and to make fair and equitable decisions in those processes or tasks that they own? That's why I like golf, and the etiquette they teach in golf. While not everyone who plays golf observes the rules and etiquette that is required of them in the game (which is sad), it does not make the game any less noble.
Golf is about the only game in which the player is his/her own referee. The rules officials are there to help the player make the right interpretation of the rules. The penalty for not making the right decision is disqualification (I am sure many of you have read the disqualification of Michelle Wie in her pro debut). And golf is about the only game where a player will call a penalty on himself/herself for infringing a rule. (Ian Woonam assessed a 2 stroke penalty on himself in one British Open when his caddy told him he had 15 clubs in his back, 1 more than the allowed 14, on the second hole.)
You may have heard of players arguing about what the rules are for a situation that they are in. Unfortunately, while the R&A and USGA tried to be as complete as possible in the rules, there will be situations which are not described in the rules. When that happens, the officials will rely on past decisions.
Thus, one golf magazine had this to offer to amateur players. "Play the course as you find it and play the ball as it lies. When you can do neither, do what is fair and equitable."
Will it be a tall order to ask that we do the same in our everday living?
posted by Guy in the glass at 12:34 PM
1 Comments:
I don't get your question. Do the same what? I also don't get what you are trying to say... When you can do neither, do what is fair and equitable? Fair to who? Equitable to who?
Don't think it's that straightforward.
Don't get me wrong... just trying to stir up some conversation in this otherwise "getting to be BOH-RING" blog...
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