Rules Rule.

 

For years I thought I hated rules. But I realized, I absolutely adore them.

Rules are still a thing from somebody's imagination. As I wrote in "Remember? Your Organization Isn't Real.":

"When you are stuck in organizational policies, structures and rituals it may be wise to look at the environment before you as a blank canvas. See the elements for what they are: artificial. They may be there for a good reason, but still, artificial."

In my own defense, if you perform interventions in host organizations, when you change things in an organization, rules might get in your way. So, sometimes you have to go around them. Which can mean getting temporary dispensation from them.

In this context "rules" meant "obstacles".

But before you can bent rules, you have to study them. Learn them. Know them.

And I love studying them.

Rules provide you with a sense of expectations.

And meeting stakeholders expectations is the essence of … well ... being stakeholder centered…

Study the rules. And you study the expectations.

Ba da bing!

Processes. Role descriptions. Policies.

Hints of expectations. But still obstacles to interventions.

I always thought that I had a knack for introducing the new, appropriate rule for a given problem.

You know. Freestyling. “We need people that can use any technique, any mindset, any approach at the right time.”

But I realized my real knack is studying rules. What they mean and how they affect people as part of the system.

There is a difference. Perfectly described by Penelope Trunk in respect to "thinking outside the box":

"The thing about thinking out of the box is you have to know where the box is. People think my talent is thinking out of the box. But that’s not it—my talent is finding the box, defining it."

So. I am loving rules now.

How about you?
 

Bas de Baar is a writer who draws about people in transition. He loves to make visual maps and travel guides for the collaborators of our brave new world.