I owe credit to JoAnn Sabol for an important observation. One of those rare individuals who works tirelessly and can keep the details of vast systems in her head, JoAnn is also an astute judge of people. She originally came up with the premise which was then refined into a law: “JoAnn’s Law” is the catch-22 where setting a rule to rein in a few rogues often backfires. Instead of the rule-breakers falling in line, they dodge or downplay it. Meanwhile, the rule-followers, feeling guilty, redouble their efforts to comply, wasting time since they were already playing by the rules.

In short, policies aimed at policing a small subset of the work population don’t work well. They rarely hit the intended target and they make those not targeted, and often already adhering to the policies, anxious that perhaps they are doing things wrong.

The classic example of this has to do with phone calls. A few years back, when physical phone lines in offices and homes were the norm, and cell phones rather new and expensive, a manager friend of mine noticed some people making extensive personal calls during work hours. When they asked everyone to be mindful due to the costs and the time away from doing their job, the worst offenders kept making the calls, they simply switched to their cell phones so they couldn’t be tracked! Meanwhile, the majority, who were not misusing the time, became reluctant to even make work-related calls during work hours. This policy was aimed at those who talked for an hour or more a day but my friend tells of people coming to him explaining how they had to make a five minute call to the veterinarian!

This doesn’t apply just to policies. I remember once a boss giving a decree that the status of the computer systems be checked more frequently due to some recurring problems. It soon turned out that systems already under thorough observation were scrutinized even more thoroughly, while those lacking adequate checks remained just as neglected. Staff members already working hard to be vigilant worried that their superiors felt they weren’t vigilant enough and redoubled their efforts, whereas those who didn’t care before didn’t start caring just because of a new policy.

This suggests a shift towards more targeted leadership approaches. Rather than issuing general statements about checking systems or any other task, it might be more effective to directly contact individuals who need improvement and encourage them to step up their efforts. This approach may not always succeed, but it tends to be more effective than broad directives, which often miss their intended mark and inadvertently increase the anxiety of those already performing well. Also, if you are going to give a decree, make sure you can easily tell who is or is not following it.