Rules are fun! Introduction
Rules are Fun! It might seem impossible to make this a true statement.
Increasing regulations preoccupy us and influence our daily chipper attitude at work. They continuously pose questions like: ‘What are we not doing right now?’ And: ‘Am I complying with the rules, the norms?’ Working toward achievement and having to comply with rules add to an increasing and often too-high stress level at all layers of the workforce. But where does the negative connotation of the word ‘rule’ come from? Is it fear of punishment? Why do we want to follow rules? Is it because the complexity in society and in our organizations increases and, therefore, also increases in our lives?
These questions already prompted Michiel Arens, CEO Mavim Holding, in 1990 to see if automated aids could be helpful to reduce the pressure and regain or hold on to the Work-is-Fun feeling, if it is still there.
An organization can only get started if there is money, if there are people... and yes... if rules have been established. Without rules there is no organization. Rules are that important. Gather 22 people, grab a ball, and pick two goals, and the first question you’ll get is: ‘What are the rules of the game?’
Rules, thus, are an elixir of life. Necessary. No rules, no organization, but especially, also: NO FUN.
For the ‘money’ aspect in organizations, systems have been available for a long time. As such, the computer was introduced initially to manage money. A computer could certainly save a lot of money and time in the money management of the organization. Payables, receivables, balance sheets, profit and loss, cash flow, budgets. Besides taking care of the separate administration of all these tasks, the computer allows us to effortlessly manage the coordination between those tasks.
This is the beauty of a computer system: It handles these tasks for us, especially when it concerns the connection, the glue between various business functions.
Later, much later, the importance of the computer was also recognized in the area of another important aspect, namely PEOPLE, in the capacity of an organization’s employees. In this area, it also became more necessary to use the computer and create systems to manage the ‘people’ factor in the organization. Next to payroll administration, the computer began to be used to support the personnel administration and the task and job descriptions that go along with it.
When it comes to regulations, we are still in the infant stage. In most cases, regulations for organizations are still looked upon as ‘having to comply’ to a specific norm, such as ISO, or working according to a standard set of rules and procedures, such as ITIL. In the meantime, the list of norms and regulation procedures has continued to grow.
Managers of organizations in the government and commercial sector complain, “It's no fun anymore”. So in 1990, Michiel Arens decided to make it fun again. With rules and computers!
How is the computer used nowadays?
A lot of regulations, instructions, and procedures are written in prose. The writer should be able to write clearly and accessibly. Furthermore - and this is even more important - the reader of this prose should have good reading comprehension. Just looking around already tells us that most people do not possess this skill. But what is even more disturbing is that they don’t have the time to do this. Another aspect of regulations is conveying and explaining their structure. We then talk about, for instance, process flows and orgcharts. They do provide an immediate overview, but not immediate insight. Sometimes organizations offer textual and visual means, but you have to establish the relationships yourself.
Most of the time, both aspects are constructed separately. This means that in order to structure the regulations and obtain overviews, tools are implemented to help with the design of the structure.
The structure of the organization, the structure of processes and systems, and objectives, performance features, norms, etc., are determined.
The target group mostly involved with overview and structures is (top) management. Then there are also tools to put these regulations in prose, especially, in the form of documents (such as Word documents, but also stand-alone Visio documents, Excel spreadsheets, etc.). Then Document Management Systems are implemented. Soon people realize how cumbersome it is for the staff having to read entire documents. This concept frequently leads to converting to a Content Management System that stores text in smaller segments and then offers the staff more relevant information. These Content Management Systems completely lack the relationship with the overlaying objectives (fixed and produced with the design tools).
On its own, neither system fulfills the information need of the various people involved. The Mavim Rules system combines these two aspects. It offers valuable possibilities to shape the architecture, models, and patterns, and to also create text, images, and matrices that give the staff on the floor a clear insight. This gives the staff a single one point of entry to relevant instructions and regulations.
Rules, regulations, where do you find them?
Every department in an organization deals with rules, instructions, procedures, and processes. If an organization has several locations, a set of rules for those locations are often established centrally and, if necessary, complemented with location-specific add-ons and/or deviations.
Departments, such as Human Resources (HR), Automation, and Legal Affairs frequently also have rules for others besides their own rules. Task and job profiles, laws and regulations come to mind (frequently interpreted for use in the specific organization). It doesn’t stop there because external parties, such as government and other governing entities in turn, produce rules and regulations a company has to deal with and follow. Sometimes organizations are also linked with other organizations in such a way that they have to comply with the others’ regulations and orders. Think about chain organizations, such as the justice department, police departments, fire departments, counties, townships, but also suppliers, e.g., in the auto industry or complex organizations like the airline industry.
In brief: We pretty much always have to deal with a great number of rules and, often, this results in a certain degree of dependency. Regulations use and refer to other regulations.
The challenge Michiel Arens dealt with in 1990 was, therefore, coming up with a system design that would clarify the large diversity and changeability of rules, the difference in setup and structure, and how it all connects.
Next to the changeability and large differences within and between organizations, something else stands out: When it comes to rules and regulations, you don’t need to know ‘where things stand now’ in order to do your job. You don’t have to have the regulations available like the balance of your bank account.
For rules and regulations the following applies: The last agreed upon snapshot has to be available. It should provide a stable base for practical use and be suitable to test if these regulations apply to that specific situation or if deviation is necessary. This last situation, the ability to deviate from existing regulations, gives an important starting point for developing a Regulations Information System. The system should make sure that deviations, directly related to the regulations, are registered. This is important for all parties involved: Staff, management, the Regulations Manager and, not the least, the (internal or external) auditor.
Registering deviations that are directly related to the regulations, gives the auditor a wealth of relevant information and saves a great deal of work. He doesn’t have to go dig in all the archives or conduct interviews to discover which procedure was followed.
After Mavim mapped all these different situations in 1990, we were the first to start working on a way to store information so it does not need to be changed every time something changes in the setup and connections of the regulations. Most systems do work his way. First, quite a few parameters have to be set, and it takes quite a while before it is up and running.
Our goal was to circumvent this situation with a smart storage solution. We managed to do that and, in 1997, actually received an award from TechnologyRating International for our storage solution.
Mavim Rules, unlike a lot of other systems, does not require you to complete a bunch of parameters before you use it. It does not get more user-friendly than that! We also stipulated that the system should work the same way as any other Office application, such as, Word and Windows Explorer.
Read more about the author Mr M.A. Arens on http://www.rulesarefun.com/index.php?id=1
