Empowering

God is not a micromanager. The guidance God offers in Genesis and Exodus is, in most cases, concise and restrained. God instructs Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply, be vegetarians, and to not eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Otherwise they have authority and, even, dominion.

To Moses, God gives Ten Commandments:

You shall have no other gods before me.
You shall not make for yourself an idol…
You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord…
Remember the sabbath day and keep it holy.
Honor your father and mother…
You shall not murder.
You shall not commit adultery.
You shall not steal.
You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
You shall not covet your neighbor’s house, you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor. (Exodus 20: 3-17)

The commandments are specific rules for broad application through independent decision and action. Even as Moses adds rules and regulations in Numbers, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy, the scope of individual choice remains quite broad.

In nature we can observe a few simple rules providing a consistent framework, but allowing for extraordinary diversity. A meadow, a river, a mountain undergo constant – sometimes dramatic – change. Yet each retains an essential identity. Change and choice are tools of empowerment.

Just as we share with God the ability to create, we share the power to choose. Without the power to choose, our ability to create would be meaningless.

Kathleen Eisenhardt and Donald Sull, business professors at Stanford and Harvard, argue that, “In complicated, fast-moving markets where significant growth and wealth creation can occur, unpredictability reigns. It makes sense to follow the lead of entrepreneurs and underdogs – seize opportunities in the here and now with a handful of rules and a few key processes. In other words, when business becomes complicated, strategy should be simple.” (Eisenhardt, Kathleen, and Sull Donald; Strategy as Simple Rules, Harvard Business Review, January 2001)

Moses was clearly an underdog. He came down from Mt. Sinai with ten simple rules. Eisenhardt and Sull explain, “Managers using this (simple rules) strategy pick a small number of strategically significant processes and craft a few simple rules to guide them. The key strategic processes should place the company where the flow of opportunities is swiftest and deepest.” In studying successful companies the business scholars found that the simple rules were consistently of five types:

How-to rules: They spell out key features of how a process is executed (honor your father and mother),'

Boundary rules: They focus on which opportunities can be pursued and which cannot (you shall not…),

Priority rules: They help managers rank the accepted opportunities (you shall have no other gods before me),

Timing rules: They synchronize how one opportunity is paced with other parts of the company (remember the sabbath),

Exit rules: They help managers decide when to pull out of yesterday’s opportunities.

It is, perhaps, significant that the Ten Commandments do not address the possibility of exit. A relationship with God is timeless as even the best customer relationship is not.

According Eisenhardt and Sull consistent application of well-chosen simple rules provides just enough structure to capture the best opportunities in an unpredictable environment. This loose structure maximizes the scope of individual choice in dealing with change.

Moses anticipated this finding by more that 3000 years. We are each meant to be empowered to choose. When this power is taken from us we cannot become our true selves. Making choices and creating the future, consistent with a few simple rules, is fundamental to our shared humanity.