Rules of the game
Once you learn the ‘rules of the game’ you can change them and get a different, better result. For example, when I was an enlisted soldier in the United States Army, I learned they had a lot of rules. A fact my Drill Sergeant seemed all to eager to impress upon me (thank you Drill Sgt. Fitch). As time progressed, I became aware that if I had to follow the rules, well so did everyone else. Now I was not a rule breaker, or even a rule bender, but I was able to learn how to use the rules to my advantage.
Cover Your Assets
I learned a rule called CYA (cover your ‘assets’). I saw it applied by a fellow soldier in a creative and unique way. He created a ‘little black book’ that anytime he saw other soldiers performing behaviors that could be considered ‘against the rules’ he recorded what behaviors he observed, the dates and times. Why? He had been getting harassment from his superiors about his behaviors. They had singled him out – if for personal vindictiveness or to make an example of him, I don’t know.
The ‘rule’ that applies here is you can’t talk back to your superiors. In order to have good discipline in the Army, you have to have this rule. If they say ‘charge’ you can’t have soldiers saying ‘no’ or ‘I don’t want to’. So, each time a superior came to this soldier and chastised him for his behavior, he would politely apologize, agree and pull out his little book and say something to the effect that they were right, and they’d have to go after these other people also, because on this date and time they were observed breaking this exact ‘rule’. As you can imagine, they soon backed off and left him alone. He had effectively used the rules to his advantage.
Company rules can be used to your advantage
Once I left the Army, I learned companies had rules too. Most were ‘unwritten’ and were embedded in the culture. Probably because I worked in many different companies, I saw that some of the rules are different and the rules can be changed. This was indelibly written into my brain when I was at a large electronics retailer. We were continually being asked to take on more computer support work, so I developed a simple and effective transition process to make sure instructions were clearly documented, expectations were agreed upon and the necessary passwords and permissions were granted.
I was asked if I wanted to do that role permanently. I declined. They found someone else to do it. I trained this person and they followed the rules and procedures I wrote. Years later, it became necessary to update the process. This person actively resisted any changes to the process because they believed in following the rules. My big “ah ha” moment was that these were the ‘rules’ I had written, not some mindless corporation or otherwise brainless boss. I had done it on almost a whim, without more than a second thought, because I knew I could change the procedures (or rules) as needed. I had not counted on someone else investing so much of their work identity into these rules.
This person was the ‘transition manager’, in effect they were telling themselves and others they WERE the rules. They had become the rules. My attempt to change the rules was impacting their very work identity. Here’s the big secret. I made the rules, which means I also made this person’s identity. This made me wonder what else (and who else) I could create in this manner.
Knowing the rules and understanding how to change them
So how does this apply? Well, look around. Everything is affected by and subject to the ‘rules of the game’. Once you know the ‘rules of the game” you can understand how to change them to your advantage. Why? Because the biggest rule of the game is there are no rules. The only rules are those we make.
Alan Hill is a business and executive coach with ActionCOACH, the world’s number one business coaching company, ActionCOACH. If you would like to learn more about him, check out his website at http://actioncoach.com/alanhill.
August 28, 2008 at 1:02 pm |
[...] and victim thinking. Sometimes, we discover that the dream doesn’t bring about the… There Are No Rules August 24, 2008, By Alan Hill Once I left the Army, I learned companies had rules too. Most were [...]