Breaking Rules

Have you broken any rules lately? Have members of your staff broken any rules, and if so, how did you respond? In his classic book, Deep Change, Robert Quinn tells a powerful story of rule-breaking within a large governmental organization. The senior leaders identified several examples of dramatic turnarounds in individual departments, and wanted to highlight these stories to inspire others. However, the video team that was sent out to collect the stories “returned with bad news. … In every single case, the transformational leader had, at least once, broken a state law.” Rules are not always bad, but they are often established to protect an institution and to formalize ways of doing things. In general, the longer an organization has existed, the more rules it will create. The result is that innovation and experimentation become increasingly difficult, and entrepreneurial leaders find other places to offer their talents. This isn’t an easy blog for me to write. I’m a rule-maker and a rule-follower. I like order and structure. But I like it even more when leaders ask what changes need to be made today in order to prepare for tomorrow. Those changes will often run counter to the established norms, and may even involve breaking some rules. If you think that innovation is unimportant for your church or ministry or non-profit, then write all the rules that you want, all the way into obscurity. Otherwise, it may be time to allow for (and even encourage) some rule-breaking. It’s easy to receive my blogs by email. Just sign-up on Feedburner by clicking here.]]>