PROCESS

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Rules

The manner carries the force

The spine showed that a rule has five dimensions. This discipline takes the second of them deep, the how, the manner the deed is done in. Of the five, the how is where most of a rule's force lives, and it is the dimension a designer spends the most care on, because it is the one that turns an intention into a result.

Consider the difference between a deed and a deed with a manner. "Inform the customer" is a deed; it says what happens. But left there, it will happen ten different ways in ten different hands, one person warm and long, another curt, another forgetting half the facts. The deed alone does not give a result you can rely on. Add the manner, "inform the customer using the template, in its wording and tone", and the same deed now lands the same way every time. The how is what closes the gap between something getting done and something getting done right. That is its force: it makes the deed repeatable.

This is why the how carries the weight of a rule. The what chooses the deed, but the how is where the designer actually shapes the work, because almost everything that could vary, and so could go wrong, lives in the manner. How carefully, how fast, in what form, to what level, with what words. To design the how is to decide, out of all the ways the deed could be done, the one way it will be done. A rule with a vague how is barely a rule; a rule with a well-made how is one you can trust to give the same result in any hands. The designer's craft is most visible here.

The highest possible standard is to design the manner so deliberately that the deed gives the same result in any hands, closing the gap between something getting done and something getting done right.

Key Takeaway: The how is the manner the deed is done in, and of the five dimensions it carries most of a rule's force. A deed alone ("inform the customer") happens differently in every hand; the manner ("using the template, in its wording and tone") makes it land the same way every time. Almost everything that could vary lives in the manner, so the how is where the designer shapes the work, deciding the one way the deed will be done. A rule with a vague how is barely a rule.

The how is what closes the gap between something getting done and something getting done right.

MarvinPro · PROCESS · Here is How to Build · Design · Rules · Discipline 3: How · Section: The manner carries the force

MarvinPro | June 2026

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How much to fix

Designing the how is not only choosing a manner; it is choosing how much of the manner to fix. Every rule sets a level of constraint. At one extreme, the how fixes everything: the exact words, the exact order, the exact form, nothing left to the doer. At the other, the how fixes little: it names the manner in broad terms and trusts the doer to fill the rest. Between those lies a scale, and where a rule sits on it is one of the most important decisions the designer makes.

The template rule sits high on the scale: it fixes the wording and the tone almost completely, because the whole point is that every customer receives the same message. When sameness is the goal, you fix tightly. But not every rule wants that. A rule for how to open a difficult conversation with a customer might fix only the principle, be honest, be brief, acknowledge the problem, and leave the words to the person, because here judgement matters more than sameness, and fixing the words would make the rule wooden. The designer reads the deed and decides: is this a deed that must be done identically, or one that must be done well, with room for judgement? The answer sets how much to fix.

Get this wrong in either direction and the rule suffers. Fix too much, and you bind the doer where judgement was needed, the rule becomes rigid, people follow the letter and lose the sense, and the work turns mechanical where it should be alive. Fix too little, and you leave open what should have been settled, the rule gives no real guidance, and the variation you were trying to remove creeps back in. The skill is to fix exactly what must be the same and leave free exactly what must be judged, and to know, for this deed, which is which. That judgement, how much to fix, is the heart of designing a how.

The highest possible standard is to fix exactly what must be the same and leave free exactly what must be judged, reading each deed to decide how much of its manner to constrain, neither binding judgement nor leaving guidance open.

Key Takeaway: Designing the how means choosing how much of the manner to fix, every rule sets a level of constraint, from fixing everything to fixing little. Fix tightly when sameness is the goal (the template fixes wording and tone); fix loosely when judgement matters more than sameness. Fix too much and the rule turns rigid and mechanical; fix too little and the variation creeps back. The skill is to fix exactly what must be the same and leave free exactly what must be judged.

Fix exactly what must be the same, and leave free exactly what must be judged.

MarvinPro · PROCESS · Here is How to Build · Design · Rules · Discipline 3: How · Section: How much to fix

MarvinPro | June 2026

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A how must be clear and doable

A manner that cannot be understood, or cannot be carried out, is not a how at all. It only looks like one. Two tests decide whether a how is real: can the doer understand exactly what is being asked, and can the doer actually do it? A how that fails either is a rule on paper that breaks in practice, and the designer who writes such a how has shaped nothing, only the appearance of a rule.

Clarity comes first. A how must be readable by the person who has to follow it, in their terms, not the designer's. "Handle the matter appropriately" is not a how; it tells the doer nothing they did not already know. "Reply within one working day, using the template, addressing each question the customer asked" is a how, because the doer can read it and know exactly what to do. The test is simple: could a competent person, reading only this, do the deed the way you intended, without guessing? If they must guess, the how is not yet clear, and every guess is a place the result will vary.

Doable comes second, and is easy to forget at the design table. A how can be perfectly clear and still impossible: it asks for a step the tools do not allow, a time no one has, a sequence that cannot physically happen. A how that demands what cannot be delivered does not get followed; it gets worked around, and the work-around, not the rule, becomes the real process. So the designer checks the how against reality: can this be done, by these people, with these tools, in this time? A how survives only if the answer is yes. Clear and doable are not refinements of a how; they are the conditions for it being a how at all.

The highest possible standard is to write every how so that a competent person could do the deed as intended without guessing, and to check it against reality so that what it asks can actually be delivered.

Key Takeaway: A manner that cannot be understood or cannot be carried out is not a how, only the appearance of one. Clarity: the how must be readable by the doer in their terms, "handle it appropriately" tells them nothing; "reply within one working day using the template" tells them exactly. Doable: a how can be clear yet impossible, and an impossible how gets worked around, making the work-around the real process. The designer checks both: could a competent person do this, with these tools, in this time?

A how that cannot be understood or cannot be done is not a rule, only the appearance of one.

MarvinPro · PROCESS · Here is How to Build · Design · Rules · Discipline 3: How · Section: A how must be clear and doable

MarvinPro | June 2026

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The how that bends

Even a well-made how meets the case it did not foresee. The manner was fixed for the normal run of the work, and then a situation arrives where following it to the letter would be wrong, the template has no line for this customer's circumstance, the fixed wording would mislead in this one case, the prescribed step cannot apply here. A rigid mind follows the how anyway and produces a bad result correctly. A designer builds for this in advance.

The first answer is to see that no how is followed in a vacuum: it sits inside the reason it exists. When the letter of the how would betray the why, the why governs. The template rule's manner exists so that every customer gets the same clear word; if, in some case, the fixed wording would confuse rather than clarify, then following it would defeat its own purpose. Knowing the why is what lets a doer, or a designer, see that this is such a case, and that the manner must bend to serve the reason it was made for. A how without its why cannot bend safely, because no one can tell a sound exception from a lazy one. This is one more reason the why is designed with care.

But bending a how is not the same as breaking it, and the difference is itself a matter of design. A how that must bend often needs a rule for how it bends, who may decide that the normal manner does not apply, what they must do instead, and how that departure is recorded. The deviation from a rule is its own subject, with its own discipline, and it is taken up fully later (coming in Exceptions). Here it is enough for the designer to know two things: that even a good how will meet cases it cannot serve, and that the soundness of a how includes how gracefully it gives way when it must. A how designed as though the normal case were the only case is not yet sound.

The highest possible standard is to design a how that can give way gracefully when the letter would betray its reason, governed by the why and handled through a known way of departing, rather than a how that holds rigidly and produces wrong results correctly.

Key Takeaway: Even a well-made how meets cases it did not foresee, where following it to the letter would be wrong. The why governs: when the letter of the how would betray the reason it exists, the manner must bend to serve that reason, which is why a how needs its why to bend safely. But bending is not breaking; a how that must bend often needs a rule for how it bends (who decides, what instead, how recorded). The deviation from a rule is its own subject (coming in Exceptions). A sound how can give way gracefully.

A how without its why cannot bend safely, because no one can tell a sound exception from a lazy one.

MarvinPro · PROCESS · Here is How to Build · Design · Rules · Discipline 3: How · Section: The how that bends

MarvinPro | June 2026

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A real example

Follow the same rule down into its manner, and almost its whole working life is there. The deed is plain, inform the customer. The weight is in the how, and watching the how take shape shows why the manner carries it.

At first the how fixes almost everything. The template sets the wording, the order of the information, and the tone, and the Performer's task is to use it as written. That tight constraint is deliberate and right: the reason for the rule is that every customer receive the same clear word, and sameness is exactly what a tightly fixed how delivers. A looser manner, tell the customer roughly this, would let back in the variation the rule existed to remove. So the Designer fixes the wording and the tone, and leaves the Performer only what genuinely needs judgement: which template the case calls for, and when to send it.

Then come the cases the template did not foresee. A customer whose situation the fixed wording does not quite fit. A message that, sent exactly as written, would tell this one customer something slightly misleading. Following the how to the letter would serve the form of the rule and betray its reason. Because the why is known and written, that every customer receive the same clear and accurate word, it is possible to see that accuracy is the point, that the manner has to bend in this case, and to handle the departure properly rather than either obeying blindly or going off-script at will. How that departure should be decided and recorded is a matter the team takes up as its own rule (coming in Exceptions). What the example shows is the shape of a how done well: fixed tightly where sameness matters, left open where judgement does, clear enough to follow without guessing, and able to bend, by its reason, when a case arrives that it cannot serve as written.

That is a manner designed, not merely stated.

MarvinPro · PROCESS · Here is How to Build · Design · Rules · Discipline 3: How · A real example

MarvinPro | June 2026

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How

The how is the manner the deed is done in, and of the five dimensions it carries most of a rule's force. A deed alone happens differently in every hand; the manner makes it land the same way every time, closing the gap between something getting done and something getting done right. Almost everything that could vary lives in the manner, so the how is where the designer shapes the work and where the craft is most visible.

Designing a how is, above all, deciding how much of the manner to fix. Every rule sets a level of constraint, and the designer reads the deed to place it: fix tightly when sameness is the goal, as the template fixes its wording and tone, and fix loosely when judgement matters more than sameness. Fix too much and the rule turns rigid and mechanical; fix too little and the variation creeps back. The skill is to fix exactly what must be the same and leave free exactly what must be judged. And whatever is fixed must be real: a how must be clear, readable by the doer in their terms so they could act on it without guessing, and doable, possible with the people, tools, and time at hand, because an unclear or impossible how is only the appearance of a rule, and gets worked around until the work-around becomes the process.

Finally, even a good how meets the case it did not foresee, and a sound how can give way gracefully when it must. When the letter of the manner would betray the reason it exists, the why governs, and the manner bends to serve its purpose, which is why a how without its why cannot bend safely. Bending is not breaking: a how that must bend needs a known way of departing, who decides, what instead, how recorded, and the deviation from a rule is its own subject, taken up later (coming in Exceptions). A how designed as though the normal case were the only case is not yet sound.

You now hold the dimension where a rule's force lives. To design a how is to choose the manner, decide how much of it to fix, make it clear and doable, and build it so it can bend by its reason when a case demands. Do that, and the deed will be done the same way, the right way, in any hands, which is the whole purpose of a rule. The next dimension sets the moment that manner is called for: the when.

The how is where a rule's force lives: the manner, fixed exactly as much as it should be, clear, doable, and able to bend by its reason.

MarvinPro · PROCESS · Here is How to Build · Design · Rules · Discipline 3: How · Chapter Outcome

MarvinPro | June 2026

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