Aug 18, 2026 · 8 min · 6 segments
Picture a room stuck for three weeks on one sentence for a new policy. Half the team wants a rule tight enough to enforce, the other half wants it loose enough to survive real life. Nobody's wrong…
A team I coach is three weeks into building a new policy, and they're stuck on one sentence.
Because if you leave room for interpretation, nobody is gonna enforce it, and the whole thing just becomes a suggestion.
The other half wants it looser, because the second you write a rule that's rigid, you're gonna hit a case that it doesn't fit, and now you're either breaking your own policy or enforcing something that clearly doesn't make sense for that situation.
It was two real constraints pulling in opposite directions, and everyone in that room had already said their piece more than once.
They were just restating their positions a little more emphatically each time.
Either the leader keeps the discussion open, hoping that someone will cave at some point, or the leader calls a vote, majority wins, and the meeting ends with a policy on paper and a fracture underneath it.
And stick with me because I'm gonna tell you exactly why and how you can use the same approach in your tough decisions.
I am Mamie Kanfer Stewart, and every week I share tips and strategies to help you close the gap between knowing what good management looks like and actually doing it.
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A team I coach is three weeks into building a new policy, and they're stuck on one sentence.
Because if you leave room for interpretation, nobody is gonna enforce it, and the whole thing just becomes a suggestion.
The other half wants it looser, because the second you write a rule that's rigid, you're gonna hit a case that it doesn't fit, and now you're either breaking your own policy or enforcing something that clearly doesn't make sense for that situation.
It was two real constraints pulling in opposite directions, and everyone in that room had already said their piece more than once.
They were just restating their positions a little more emphatically each time.
Either the leader keeps the discussion open, hoping that someone will cave at some point, or the leader calls a vote, majority wins, and the meeting ends with a policy on paper and a fracture underneath it.
And stick with me because I'm gonna tell you exactly why and how you can use the same approach in your tough decisions.
I am Mamie Kanfer Stewart, and every week I share tips and strategies to help you close the gap between knowing what good management looks like and actually doing it.
