I learned a very important management lesson from this long-dead gentleman. Lord Falkland was at the height of his power in England in the 1740's, and the islands in the South Atlantic are named after him. While he was a powerful man, he learned the importance of using discretion in the exercise of his power.
What later became known as Lord Falkland's Rule: "When no decision needs to be made, it is important that no decision is made." Simple but, when one thinks about it, damned good advice. How many of us have been in situations where things were chugging along smoothly when someone higher up the chain thinks they can "tweak" things and make them even better, but turns the situation into a quagmire? For me, there are too many to count and I do my best to forget them. Power should never be used simply because one can, but we have all met so many who never learned this.
A recent example of this involves a co-worker who was asked to prepare a report involving data from a project she was working on. The deadline to complete the report was a couple of hours, and she worked feverishly to put it together. The individual who wanted the report went to the meeting without contacting her to get the report to take along; an obvious example of a decision that didn't need to be made.
While this is a simple, harmless example (annoying, maybe, but harmless), other examples are out there that are more dramatic. President Bush's decision to invade Iraq over the non-existent Weapons of Mass Destruction is a prime example of a decision that was made that didn't need to be. The decision by the FBI to storm the Branch Davidian Compound in Waco, Texas is another one. You can probably give a dozen other examples.
If people in positions of authority knew and practiced Lord Falkland's rule, life would probably be a lot better in many respects for most of us. Unfortunately, we don't have a lot of control over this, so being prepared for some occasional chaos is not a bad idea. On the bright side, it helps keep us from being complacent.
