Give people options, but just one

I once read in the Reader’s Digest that when you’re raising kids, the best way to coerce them to make a decision is to provide only 2 options. When you present them with 3 options, kids are slightly confused. More than that, their brain freezes in the decision-making process like a deer on a highway and you can’t get an answer from them.

I say this concept is complete BS, that’s not how I manage my company.

When you’re managing any group of people, the most efficient way to lead them is to provide people with a single option and emphasize that they are pretty lucky to get this one and only option. Politicians are also very good at this, and let me expand on my idea.

When I was working at Bell Canada back in the early 90’s, it was the Garden of Eden combined with free buffet and unlimited chicks. For those of you who live outside this great country, Bell had a total monopoly over the Canadian market. If you wanted a land line, you’d call Bell and that was your only option to speak to the outside world. Whenever you needed long distance, Bell was also there to rip you but we did it with a smile. Competition was a sin. Obviously we at Bell charged obscene rates for our service and we had the blessing from the Canadian government for reasons I cannot disclose here.

Things went south when it was obvious to the average Joe that the Canadian telecom industry was going nowhere thanks to its totalitarian regime. Then politicians got elected by promising taxpayers that they would open the market to competitors, and Bell started a long descent to hell. It was around that time that Serge called me and offered me a position that I couldn’t refuse, and I left the freaking boat before it got submerged.

My point is that, when you can enforce such policy, giving only one option is highly preferable from a management standpoint. Offer two options, and people will start asking for a third, and then a fourth, and the train will never end.

If you’re a CEO, you don’t want to manage a kindergarten where liberty of choice rules, you want to manage something closer to a Soviet work camp. By doing so, employees follow strict rules, your company runs literally by itself and you stop managing humans and emotions. And then and only then you can focus your attention to bigger issues, like how to fuck your board into believing that you’re on the right track when obviously you don’t even have a clue where you are and where you want to go.