Every business already has rules, either written down or learned by being told off for something nobody had mentioned. The Rules of the Game is a single page that states three things plainly: what a person may decide alone, what they must check first, and what never happens under any circumstances.
Unwritten rules make the owner the permission department. They produce inconsistency, because the answer depends on who asks and what kind of day it is, and they punish good people for guessing wrong, so everybody learns to check first.
What the model is
Write down all three zones.
Inside the lines. Decide, act and tell me afterwards: spending under a stated figure, refunding up to a month’s fee, moving your own diary, fixing a complaint on the spot.
On the line. Check first, every time: spending between two stated figures, any discount above a set percentage, anything that changes a contract or a price.
Over the line. Never, whoever asks, including the owner: promising a date the delivery team has not agreed, hiring without you, anything you would not want a client to read.
The first zone is the one that most often gets left out. Businesses often list what people must not do and never list what they are free to decide, so people check everything.
How it differs from a handbook
A staff handbook covers employment terms and values describe character; neither tells anyone whether they can authorise a four-hundred-pound refund on a Friday afternoon.
The Rules of the Game is a short statement of decision rights and non-negotiables, with numbers in it: money limits, who can promise what to a client, what happens when something goes wrong, and what ends a conversation regardless of who is asking.
Why it matters to an owner
Many bottlenecks in a small business are waits for permission: the work is waiting on an answer from one person who is in a meeting.
If the same request gets three different answers depending on the week, people stop making decisions and start managing you instead of the work.
Without written limits, the business phones you on holiday, and it is worth less to a buyer for the same reason.
What the cost looks like in hours
An illustration with round numbers, not a client. Take a fourteen-person business where the owner signs off effectively everything, and log the permission questions for a week. Say the count comes to twenty-two.
The owner's own cost is modest: twenty-two questions at six minutes each is a little over two hours. If each question holds up a piece of work for an average of four hours while it waits for an answer, that is roughly eighty-eight hours a week of stalled work sitting inside the business, and none of it appears on any report you produce.
Then write the rules. Spend under £250, no approval needed. Between £250 and £2,000, the team leader. Above that, the owner. Refunds up to one month's fee at the account handler's discretion. Any discount above 5 per cent comes to you. Nothing is promised to a client unless it is in writing. Run the log again a month later and most of what was being asked has disappeared, because most of it was money under £250 and permission to do the obvious.
What belongs on the page
Money
What can be spent, by whom, up to what figure, and what happens above it. Use figures rather than words such as “reasonable”.
Client promises
Who can commit to a date, a price or a piece of scope, and in what form. Damage here often comes from somebody being helpful.
People
Who can hire, who can agree hours or leave, and who has the conversation when something goes wrong. If the answer to all three is you, say so deliberately and put a date on changing it.
Quality
What gets checked before it leaves the building, and by whom. If nothing is checked, decide that on purpose rather than by accident.
Information
What is confidential, what has to be recorded in the system, and what never goes in an email.
The hard nos
The short list of things that end the conversation regardless of who is asking or how good the reason sounds. Keep it short.
How to use it this week
Log every permission question for five days
Record who asked, what about, and how long it waited. Do not fix anything yet.
Sort the log into three piles
Sort into three piles: they could have decided this, they should check, and this must never happen.
Put numbers on the money rules
If a figure is missing, people will assume the limit is zero and ask you.
Write one page and hand it out
Keep it to one page.
Decide what happens when a rule is broken
State the consequence, because a rule with no consequence is treated as a suggestion.
Review it quarterly and widen the top band
Aim to move more decisions into the first zone each quarter.
Questions to ask yourself
- Out of ten, how clearly could each of your people state what they are allowed to decide without asking?
- How many questions reached you last week that somebody else could have answered?
- Which of your rules exist only in your head, and how would anyone else know them?
- Which rule do you break yourself, and what is that teaching the team?
- If you were away for three weeks with no phone, what would stop — and is that a capacity problem or a permission problem?
Where this connects
This is foundational to Leadership Coaching. Accountability comes from people knowing what is theirs to decide and where the edges are. Read it alongside Situational Flex, which is about how much direction a person needs on a given task, and The 7 Habits, where defining the outcome comes before anybody can be asked to own it.
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Frequently asked questions
How is this different from a staff handbook or a set of company values?
A handbook covers employment terms, and values on a wall do not tell anyone whether they can authorise a four-hundred-pound refund on a Friday afternoon. The Rules of the Game is one page of decision rights with actual numbers in it: what can be spent and by whom, who can promise a client a date, what happens when something goes wrong, and the short list of things that end the conversation regardless of who is asking. It is designed to be used in the moment somebody would otherwise have interrupted you, so it has to be short.
Won't writing rules down make my business feel bureaucratic?
Writing all three zones, rather than only the limits, reduces friction. Most businesses already have an unwritten list of things you must not do and no list at all of what people are free to decide, so everybody checks everything and the owner becomes the permission department. Naming the decisions somebody can make alone removes far more friction than the boundaries add. Judge the page by how much freedom it grants: if almost every decision sits in the check-first band, you have written a description of your own bottleneck.
What if someone uses their new authority badly?
Set the limits where a mistake is survivable, then treat the first mistake as information about the rule rather than about the person. If somebody refunds a month's fee and it was the wrong call, the useful question is whether the figure is set too high or the guidance around it is too thin. Rules also need a stated consequence when they are broken, because a rule with no consequence is a suggestion. Review the page quarterly, and widen the top band each time rather than tightening it by reflex.