Liberation
The trick of civilisation lies in recognising the moment when a rule ceases to liberate and begins to govern.
A good policy liberates.
A good policy is a decision made in advance.
A good policy has the five steps to a good decision baked in. Use the policy and you’ll make a good decision.
A good policy marks out the boundary of your decision making authority and discretion and silences the distracting white noise of your circle of concern .
Policies have such a bad rap from organisations who draft, apply, and interpret them to rule rather than liberate. They use language such as ‘comply’, ‘enforce’, ‘audit’, ‘breach’. Entire departments are dedicated to compliance and audit.
We’re transformed back to school. Someone telling us what to do. A comforting certainty.
We aid and abet the compliance mindset and fall into line behind the rules because we choose the wrong liberator. We choose the anxiety liberator over the freedom one. This also gives us someone else to blame for our predicament.
It takes courage to choose liberation. To be an adult.
To liberate ourselves so we can seek to liberate others.