Guardrails are meant to protect us - they are very good things. When I am driving on a mountain pass and there are guardrails on the side, protecting me from the cliff - I feel better. It allows me to focus on the highway ahead. If I'm driving on the inside lane of a four lane road and there are guardrails between my vehicle and oncoming traffic - I feel reassured.
Often in business there is a reluctance to put up figurative guardrails. "No, let's not prescribe that - we don't want to quash entrepreneurial spirit." "We want to encourage our people to have ownership of their work - so let's allow them to figure this out." "This should be a place in which people enjoy their work - they won't like it if we put too many rules down."
And all of these statements are true - but only to a point. Like most things, there is a balance - in many instances, it is the kinder thing to do to put in place certain restrictions.
What do you want people in the workplace to focus on? Their relationship with the team? Developing talent? Daily sales? Much like the example of the mountain road, guardrails help guide the focus to that which you feel is most important. Left to their own devices, people will often worry and take an entrepreneurial spin on items that really do not warrant the time or energy (this is why we have processes in place). Instead of focusing on that which is truly important, teams will literally be "all over the road" unless there are strong guardrails of consistency and rigor in place.
And to allow teams to be "all of over the road" is not kind. It does not give them ownership of the business. It does not make them better professionals. "All over the road" often equates to chaos and causes accidents. What does make people better professionals is to create focus around those select few priorities which are truly important to the business - that is what guardrails in business should do.
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