Waghorn’s Law

When determining what is the right amount of policies and procedures in an organization, it is important to remember Waghorn’s Law.

If you are operating at a high level of confusion, you are completely disorganized, and tripping over yourself.  That is an expensive operating point.   At the other end of the scale, if you are operating at a low level of confusion, you are rigidly controlled, and nothing gets done in a hurry. That is also an expensive operating point.

Thus Waghorn’s Law can be summarized by the statement “It should be the goal of every organization to operate at the optimal point of confusion.