Scoreboard Principle

The Scoreboard principle is old wine in a labelled bottle. The label is new; the wine has kept many households steady.

The principle works because it moves the decision from the moment of weakness to the moment of clarity. You choose the rule when you are calm, so that the rule can carry you when you are not.

The idea is simple, and like most simple ideas it is easy to nod at and hard to use. The nod is free. The use costs attention, every day, in small change.

Watch a good tailor in a busy lane. He does not measure twice out of fear; he measures twice out of respect for the cloth. Teams led with that spirit rarely need scolding.

An organisation is only a group of people who have agreed, for now, to pull in roughly the same direction. You will meet this idea again this week, wearing different clothes. Now you will recognise it.