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.
