Succeeding in the box will only happen if we have the box defined and work hard at staying in the box.

We get outside that box when we try to shoot from the hip, or...when we attempt to circumvent writing policies and procedures, and/or following those policies and procedures.

We JUST WANT THINGS TO GO WELL. We want people to get along and JUST GET IT DONE.

Yet....we don't do the basics of defining the box we have to work in. We don't write the policy or procedure, we don't explain what we want to happen, we don't hold people accountable to their actions, or we attempt to hold them accountable to "things" we haven't explained very well..if at all.

Drucker wrote, way back in the 1967, He said that a good manager has to manage by walking around, and he has to repeat his desires over and over again. And if he doesn't keep repeating himself people will not believe he is serious. This has been quoted by management and leadership gurus many times since.

I've been told there is a book titled "Hope is Not a Strategy." The book is probably about managers that think they lead by hoping someone will adhere to a policy or procedure that hasn't been written. There's very likely a chapter on those that think something really needs to get done but doesn't take time to tell anyone else and instead hopes it happens.

I bet there's even a chapter on two people working on a procedure together, implementing that procedure, and hoping it is correct....even though other people in authority over the procedures actions haven't been consulted.

Thus, hope does not bring Joy at Work.