The second something goes wrong, the natural tendency is to create a policy.
"Someone's wearing shorts!? We need a dress code!" No, you don't. You just
need to tell John not to wear shorts again.
Policies are organizational scar tissue. They are codified overreactions to
situations that are unlikely to happen again. They are collective punishment for
the misdeeds of an individual.
This is how bureaucracies are born. No one sets out to create a bureaucracy.
They sneak up on companies slowly. They are created one policy--one scar--at a
time.
So don't scar on the first cut. Don't create a policy because one person did
something wrong once. Policies are only meant for situations that come up over
and over again.