Have you ever provided a guard rail to your kids or to your employees?

But you were light on the list of bullet point rules of boundaries that are excluded?

Example- “I need you to turn this into me by Friday, every week.”

Or, “Hey son, I do not like you watching that TV show, I think there are better shows available”.

Neither of those examples provide a list of explicit bullet point adjoining rules and regulations. Right?

This week I had a situation where the response given to me for why the guard rail was crossed was, “You didn’t say Never.”  Yep.

You are right. I didn’t say, “I need you to turn this into me by Friday, every week….and NEVER be late” or “Never….watch that show”.

Who wants to be that guy?  Not me.

I prefer guard rails as fundamental boundaries but negotiation can always enter the discussion.

“Hey, I can’t make the Friday deadline…..I’ll have it to you on Monday. Is that ok?” Of course. That sounds so much better than, “Hey, I did not receive your report on Friday.” And the answer, “You didn’t say I could never be late”.

I think I’ll add this to my growing list of excuses not to EVER use.