People generally underestimate the important role played by unwritten rules in just about every facet of our lives. From family, to church to work to play, all sorts of unwritten rules (philosophers may refer to them as “norms” or “conventions”) give structure to, and generally civilize, our world. Some unspoken rules are pernicious, of course. In some places still today, there is an unspoken understanding that one part of the beach is for whites and the other part of the beach is for blacks. And in some institutions, there’s an unspoken rule that women don’t get equal consideration for promotion. But in general, unspoken rules make our world safer and more enjoyable, and they reduce the need for explicit rules of the kinds promulgated and enforced by government and other institutions.

In that regard, here’s a very interesting short piece rom The Guardian’s Bike blog: Winning the Tour de France means learning its unwritten rules.

Written ethical codes don’t count for much in cycling. There have been a couple of attempts to make professional cyclists sign charters stating they won’t take drugs, but they have been quietly abandoned, because they didn’t stem the tide of positive tests, and they were viewed solely as window-dressing. The unwritten rules are another matter. They are everywhere, although the Contador-Schleck episode shows that as in Pirates of the Caribbean, the “code” is sometimes merely viewed as a guideline….

So, food for thought: what unwritten rules civilize the world of commerce? What unspoken standards civilize the following:

• Interactions with your co-workers, or with your boss?
• Interactions with the businesses you interact with daily, both big and small?
• Interactions between businesses?