Fuck the rules; try structure instead
I recently flew a major US airline whose name I will withhold for the benefit of any of you who may have stock in this sorry ass company (OK, it was US Airways).
The flight wasn’t bad, but one of the things I noticed is that this airline has no clue when it comes to understanding their customers.
People hate rules.
People love structure.
There is a huge difference between these two things.
Rules are things you tell people they have to do: You have to stand over there. You have to have to do this our way or it’s the highway. Rules and policies make customers and other people feel empty and hollow as they go about complying with them. Their grudging compliance is a by-product of a power struggle. What companies with rules are doing is the equivalent of leading a horse to water and forcing his head into a bucket until he drinks.
Nobody — not your customers, your kids, or your friends — wants to be told what to do. They just want to do what they do.
But people love structure. They love the familiarity of it, the feeling of knowing they can walk into any McDonald’s in the world and get served the same greasy nastiness of dead cow. Or that they can go into any Starbucks and get the same burnt coffee and order it in any one of the three sizes that are “Starbuckian” for Small, Medium, and Large.
Structure means people are willing to be trapped in a retail store for hours so they can save a few bucks and walk down the yellow brick road of options. It’s OK that it takes almost an hour to get though the store on a good day, wandering between the areas for bedrooms, bathrooms, organization, lighting and so on and on and on and on.
Given predictable structure, people are even willing to do almost all the work themselves — picking and packing their own order from the warehouse just to save a few bucks. They complain, but they come back again and again, driving as many as three, four, or five hours to get to a store.
A business like Ikea gets structure. Its understanding of structure has made the owner the richest man in the world.
Structure is something you can strongly encourage — but it’s never something you can enforce. Rules are mandatory. Structure always has an out.
Tags: Ikea, rules, structure, US Airways
By sam trout, November 16, 2009 @ 3:16 pm
Could you give a little more explanation of this and how it is applicable? I understand the beginning of your concept but not sure how to apply it.
By Chris Rugh, November 16, 2009 @ 3:39 pm
Sam,
Rule- Your sales person has to sell 100 shirts a day or you fire them.
Structure- Your sales person gets a base salary of $20/hr and commission between 1% and 15% of what they sell. If they aren’t averaging $35/hr (100 shirts/day) within 3 months of employment they will have to move on.
Rule- Only have 30 people in your “club”
Structure- the first 30 people pay $20 to join anybody over that $100.
Rule- we don’t offer support for MS windows
Structure- Support is $40 a phone call if you really really need it.
Structure is about flexibility and empowerment
Rules are about control and dominance
Sometimes structure can be very fuzzy with rules and sometimes annoying but, rules totally suck.
By Chris Pollick, November 22, 2009 @ 2:29 pm
Interesting concept. Makes sense. Seems also to apply to the public sector. Rather than an outright ban on certain items or activities (i.e. smoking) you discourage them by imposing punitive taxes. People will grumble, but the option is there for those willing to pay the price. I’ve always thought that this made for a sounder policy than prohibition.
By Liz, November 23, 2009 @ 9:01 am
You never did tell us what US Airways did as far as imposing rules rather than structure…
By Chris Rugh, November 24, 2009 @ 9:20 pm
Liz it wasn’t what they DID so much as the general dictatorial attitude of the flight crew. “you must” and “our policy is… ” comments. VS other airlines where they have a way of “suggesting” and/or “encouraging” wanted behaviors.. The line is fine.. very fine
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