The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences — the Academy Awards people — recently enacted a rules change that now requires Oscar voters to watch all the nominated films in each category to be eligible to vote in the final round. I couldn’t believe this rule had to be made, or that it just went into effect. Does this mean that people had previously been voting after only viewing a subset?
To most people, it would only make sense that you watched all the films before voting, or else how could you possibly know which one you felt was best? But increasingly, we need to spell out or codify behavior that used to be assumed or passed down as part of common social manners.
Are there practices that you believe are obvious but perhaps are not followed by all those in your organization? It might be in your best interest to be explicit about the actions you assume others will follow.
