Crisis Management: What Works? Tight Rules or Loose Rules?

Crisis Management: What Works? Tight Rules or Loose Rules?

THE CRISIS CONTINUES:  It’s hard to find anyone who is not in crisis right now with stay-at-home orders, kids out of school, jobs lost and leaders trying to lead from afar. If you’re a leader or manager in charge, what works best: a tight-fisted rule or one that recognizes and allows individuals to rise to the occasion?

WHO FOLLOWS RULES AND WHY?  In her book, Rule Makers, Rule Breakers, cultural psychologist Michele J. Gelfand details years of research on individuals, organizations and countries about different approaches to rules and their enforcement. In a recent podcast of Hidden Brain, Playing Tight and Loose: How Rules Shape Our Lives, host Shankar Vedantam interviews Gelfand on how her research informs what is effective during the virus crisis. The answer: it depends. While some of us may be natural born rule makers and followers, like the Muppet Kermit the Frog, for example. Others are more like chaos Muppets, such as Cookie Monster. Some people and organizations tend loose, and others tight.

Of course, it’s not just a question of whether you have a lot of rules, but do people follow them? Some countries, such as South Korea, for example, clamped down early and tightly on virus rules. South Korea, Gelfand argues, has historically been a “tight culture”. This may explain their relatively low rates of virus transmission. Other places, such as Italy, which Gelfand characterizes as a “looser” culture, were slower to enact rules, resulting in high rates of transmission, as well as problems enforcing the rules.

MANAGEMENT HEROES?  New York Governor, Andrew Cuomo, for example, has gained many fans for his current hard line rules and transparency about New York’s approach to the crisis, even if some argue that he was slower to respond than he could have been. As a former member of his staff argues, even in calmer times, he could drive his staff nuts with his micro-management and his insistence on always asking “And what else?”, even in response to the most detailed presentations. But that approach left him well prepared to lead through the current crisis.

What Should You Do?

HO FOLLOWS RULES AND WHY?  In her book, Rule Makers, Rule Breakers, cultural psychologist Michele J. Gelfand details years of research on individuals, organizations and countries about different approaches to rules and their enforcement. In a recent podcast of Hidden Brain, Playing Tight and Loose: How Rules Shape Our Lives, host Shankar Vedantam interviews Gelfand on how her research informs what is effective during the virus crisis. The answer: it depends. While some of us may be natural born rule makers and followers, like the Muppet Kermit the Frog, for example. Others are more like chaos Muppets, such as Cookie Monster. Some people and organizations tend loose, and others tight.

Of course, it’s not just a question of whether you have a lot of rules, but do people follow them? Some countries, such as South Korea, for example, clamped down early and tightly on virus rules. South Korea, Gelfand argues, has historically been a “tight culture”. This may explain their relatively low rates of virus transmission. Other places, such as Italy, which Gelfand characterizes as a “looser” culture, were slower to enact rules, resulting in high rates of transmission, as well as problems enforcing the rules.

CRISIS MANAGEMENT HEROES?  New York Governor, Andrew Cuomo, for example, has gained many fans for his current hard line rules and transparency about New York’s approach to the crisis, even if some argue that he was slower to respond than he could have been. As a former member of his staff argues, even in calmer times, he could drive his staff nuts with his micro-management and his insistence on always asking “And what else?”, even in response to the most detailed presentations. But that approach left him well prepared to lead through the current crisis.

What creative ways have you found to lead your team remotely? Call or write us at: 303-216-1020 or Lynne@workplacesthatwork.com