The Rule of Discipline: Designing a Lesson Plan

The Rule of Discipline: Designing a Lesson Plan

(The leader) must exercise the utmost concern for the wayward member…Therefore (the leader) ought to use every skill of a wise physician and send in mature and wise brothers…to support the wavering brother.
- The Rule of St. Benedict (Rule, 27)

Objectives:
See discipline as formative plan more than a punishment.
Discipline is applied to all.
Forgiveness (Second Chances) is fostered.
Learn that discipline is a communal value.
Discharge of a member must always be the last resort.

In reality…
Three strikes and you’re out.
In baseball, a player has three chances for success.
Many modern organizations, the subordinate is given far fewer opportunities.
Some CEOs of high-profile corporations are even reputed to have fired unfortunate employees who don’t happen to recognize them in an office hallway.

Benedict, however,…
Saw mistakes as a natural process of human development and learning; forgiveness was, after all, an important Christian doctrine.
That basic leadership beliefs of group stability and cohesiveness required a serious look at subordinate discipline and punishment.
Organizational Cohesion - Built on mutual reliance and trust, not fear of punishment.

How do you deal with errant behavior?

Discipline
Disciplina connotes the concept of instruction, education and training, an exercise designed to provide a lesson in proper conduct.
Organizational discipline
More of a leadership process, one that needs to be carefully conceived and implemented in order to have the desired results.
Diciplina and Punishment are not one and the same.

Lessons of Discipline:Four principles
Rule of Consistency
Rule of Four Strikes
Rule of Sanctions by Peers
Rule of Discharge

Rule of Consistency – Never Make an Example
All member of a group are subject to the SAME rules of discipline, regardless of position, power or personality.

"The (leader) should avoid all FAVORITISM…and apply the same discipline to all according to their merits." (Rule, 2)

Rule of Consistency – Never Make an Example
Cohesion is a community-wide concept and not based on a privileged few.
Acceptance of hierarchical nature of organization, particularly by those in lower echelons, is a realization that everyone plays by the same rules.

To resolve dilemma, the responsibility clearly at the feet of the senior executives.
They were expected to set the Standards and overcome the natural inclination to play favorites.

Rule of Four Strikes
Stabilitas loci - Demands a degree of tenure.
Requires an implicit agreement of bonding between the group and its members.
Every individual will give the group the best of his abilities and 110% effort.

Four-step lesson of disciplina:
For Senior and Middle Management (Deans and Priors):

"If so deserving of censure, he is to be reproved once, twice and even a third time. Should he refuse to amend, he must be removed from the office and replaced." (Rule, 21)

For subordinates who defy the orders of superiors

"He should be warned twice privately by the seniors…If he does not amend, he must be rebuked publicly…but if even then he does not reform, let him be excommunicated." (Rule, 23)

Applies to all infractions including actually leaving the community and then seeking reentry

"If he leaves again, or even a third time, he should be readmitted under the same conditions (loss of seniority)." (Rule, 29)

Several lessons:
The rule of four is applied equally to all from senior managers to the lowest in seniority.
There is an increasing severity of sanctions with at least the first 2 disciplinary actions given in private.
The sanctions or discipline such as removal from the office become public to the rest of the group.
The final sanction is one of peer pressure where the basic motivation for proper behavior comes from the group rather than the supeior.

Rule of Sanction by Peers
Benedict recognized the tremendous power of cohesive groups in adjusting errant behavior.
In case of a monastic order, it is called "excommunication", which is a form of short-term isolation.
Objective: That warnings would provide sufficient motivation for the errant member.
The degree of peer pressure should be proportionate.
"If a brother is found guilty of less serious faults, he will not be allowed to share the common table." (Rule, 24)
"A brother guilty of a serious fault is to be excluded from both the table and oratory." (Rule, 25)
Rule of Sanction by Peers
"(The leader) must exercise the utmost concern for the wayward member…Therefore (the leader) ought to use every skill of a wise physician and send in mature and wise brothers…to support the wavering brother." (Rule, 27)
This meant to be used ONLY as final wake-up call.
The Rule demands that the leader make every effort to compassionately modify the errant behavior of subordinates and provide for several "SECOND CHANCES."

Rule of Discharge
The Rule allows for final counseling session and one final opportunity for change.
If this does not work, then there is only one remedy:
DISCHARGE and SEPARATION from the group.
Rule of Discharge
"Yet if even this procedure does not heal him, then finally, the (leader) must use the knife and amputate…lest one diseased sheep infect the whole flock," (Rule, 28)

Honesty is the ONLY Policy
Benedict speaks another theme…
People are human and make mistakes.
The leader’s job is to foster an organizational climate that encourages mistakes, even serious ones, to be immediately reported without fear of repercussion (except fair restitution)
Honesty is the ONLY Policy
"If a (subordinate) whle working does anything wrong, breaks or loses something…he shall go at once to the (leader)…and confess, offering to make satisfaction. If he does not and it later becomes known, he shall be severely punished." (Rule, 46)

Leadership the Benedictine Way
Superior leaders see discipline as a lesson plan, not as punishment.
There should never be favoritism in the application of organizational discipline.
Cohesive organizations give second chances.
Discipline should be based on the principle of calculated peer pressure.
Discharge is like an amputation and must always be carefully considered.