Liu Bang
Three clauses, and the rest repealed
A rule nobody can recite is not a rule
Records of the Grand Historian, Annals of Emperor Gaozu
He reached the capital first and held the entire legal code of an empire. He replaced it with three sentences.
What actually happened?
First into the passes, he took Xianyang, called together the elders and the powerful men of every county, and said they had suffered under the harsh laws of Qin long enough. Then the announcement: a covenant of three clauses only, that a killer dies, and that wounding a man or robbing him answers for itself. Every other Qin law was repealed. He sent his own men out with the Qin officials to explain it in the villages. They brought oxen and wine to feed the army; he refused, saying the granaries were full and he did not wish to put anyone to expense.
Three, because three can be remembered
A rule works in proportion to the share of people who can recall it. Qin law was complete and unmemorable, so to an ordinary man it was a minefield he crossed daily. Three clauses can be recited, and recitation is the precondition of both obedience and trust.
A fifty-page handbook nobody finishes binds less than three lines on the wall that every person in the building can repeat from memory.
Subtract first, add later
Taking over a mess, the instinct is to write more rules. He did the opposite, cut down to three, and established the minimum order that had to hold. Everything else waited. Trust is the thing you build first; complexity is what you earn the right to add.
Inheriting a process nobody follows, delete four fifths of it, keep the two steps that must happen, and get that much running before designing anything new.
Refusing the oxen is the second half of the same move
Announcing a rule is speech. Turning down the food is the act. The granaries are full, I do not wish to put you to expense — declining at the one moment he could have taken anything he liked did more for the covenant than any amount of explaining.
Having announced the freeze, cut your own travel first. Everyone is watching to see whether the first exception turns out to be you.
How do I use it today?
Where you are: you have just taken over something disorderly and you want rules in place quickly.
Ask first: can the team say your rules back to you without opening a document? If not, you have written a document, not a rule.
Where it goes wrong: answering disorder by adding rules; or announcing the rule and then making your own first act the first exception to it.
Lines to keep
The elders have suffered long enough under the harsh laws of Qin.
Three clauses only: a killer dies, wounding and robbery answer for themselves.
Same situation, other people are asking
The more rules I add, the more people route around them.Everyone is chasing the same thing. Where is nobody standing?Every hour is booked and one delay wrecks the week.The numbers look great. Is that skill or is it leverage?I'm managing it and it's getting worse · all 14 questions →If this one named what you are going through,
send it to someone who needs it, or keep it somewhere you will find it again.