Good polices keep people focussed, providing the discipline and direction they need to succeed.
If anyone were to ask what I think is one of the grand questions confronting us in our time, aside from getting the right leadership and getting leadership right, I would say it’s how to make the idea and importance of policy sexy or mainstream again.
The explosive growth of digital communications technologies and social media platforms is transforming our relationship with time and influencing how we measure impact.
Life feels as if it is accelerating.
Everything carries with it a sense of urgency and great importance.
Because of this, we often feel an obligation to react instantly to whatever is happening in the moment.
The more we feel it necessary to react to events immediately as they unfold, the less likely we are to value the importance of policymaking to help us make better decisions.
Good policies can be written or unwritten, but they remind us of what we’re doing and why, making our vision and intention plain.
As guiding principles, policies underpin every aspect of human existence, governing decision-making and influencing the direction and pace of change anywhere groups of people gather.
Policies are as relevant to governments and countries as they are to companies and industries.
They’re even relevant to individuals and families.
I might have a policy, for instance, to govern how I respond to people in need in my community. My neighbours might have a policy for doing their part to protect the environment and address climate change. Other people might learn about what we’re doing and decide to get involved. That’s how social activism flourishes: one person, one idea, one policy at a time.
We Are What We Do
Policies set the tone for how people behave and how organisations function because we embody or become the principles and behaviours we practice.
In the past, when we didn’t have sophisticated technological devices, toys, games, multimedia channels and competing messages to distract us, more people seemed inspired daily to shape policy in the hopes of influencing the way the world works.
As a matter of fact, democracy’s great selling point was the idea that the will of the people is supreme, exercised either by them directly or delegated by them to representatives elected to govern on their behalves.
However, in exercising their power directly, there was an understanding that people ought to have a say in how institutions are run, and why and in what ways public resources are deployed in the public’s best interests.
But somewhere along the line cracks appeared in the model, and respect for the importance of policymaking was broken.
Some might argue this has more to do with people’s loss of faith in democratic institutions and their leaders than it does in people’s lack of interest or will to make the world a better place.
It’s a Game Changer
But in truth, it’s difficult to separate the quality of a policy from the quality of the leadership creating that policy.
Bad leaders rarely make good policies, and bad policies will sink even the best leaders.
Good polices keep people focussed, providing the discipline and direction they need to succeed. They lay the groundwork for strategic and business planning in an increasingly complex, competitive, and constantly evolving world.
I’ve learned that just as our perception shapes our reality, we also become what we practice.
Knowing how to create smart policies that inspire ordinary people to do extraordinary things is one of the biggest game changers around.
