
Instead of focusing on telling people what to do, a more respectful approach is to tell people what a good result looks like. Setting a standard removes the Parent–Child dynamic entirely.
The wrong approach is to make rules and get annoyed at people when they don’t follow your instructions.
The better strategy is to craft a standard containing descriptive specifications, which lets you ask more useful questions:
Is this the correct result to aim for?
Is there any reason we can’t meet this standard?
Are there situations where the standard may not be appropriate?
The answers to these questions will help you make changes to improve compliance overall.
All articles in this blog are available for use under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.