Message of the Day - When to do it and when not to

Good Morning,

 

Rules are a part of our lives. There are rules in school, rules in work, rules in games, rules in social gatherings, and rules for operating in different cultures. These rules, some are written and some are just accepted, have come from a long line of mistakes, errors, and blunders. Like the little warning signs you find on all sorts of products, often those signs came as a result of someone actually using the product incorrectly. Bill Engvall has a great bit on this on his first CD, ‘Here’s Your Sign’.

 

Sometimes though, the rules form a barrier to getting work accomplished and achieving goals. These barriers are often in the form of red tape, people not willing to step outside of their perceived job description and those folks who follow the letter of the law no matter how insane that may be at times. Note, someone did get arrested by one of these sticklers for walking backwards, eating peanuts in front of a church in some town, just to get the law repealed. In Normal, Illinois it was illegal to call animals bad names. Yes, sometimes rules are just plain stupid.

 

So how do you survive when you see this endless web of red tape, idiotic rules, and the sticklers who will defy the laws of physics to enforce them?

 

Change the playing field. Change the rules, or in a more basic sense, bend the rule if, by doing so you achieve your goal or complete your to do item. I am not suggesting you become Machiavellian, or that ‘The Ends Justify the Means’.  I am saying that there are times that the integrity of the red tape is not more important than the goal you are looking to achieve, that is, following the rule will do more harm than good. Examples of this are speeding a sick or pregnant person to the hospital. Saving a stellar employee from leaving the company by allowing them to post outside of their unit before the one year period expires. Brad Barton once told me of a TSA agent who told him he could not carry on a container of honey (Brad is a beekeeper on the side) as a carryon on a plane and that the plastic jar would have to be disposed of. Brad offered it to any TSA agent as a gift, but they just tossed it in the garbage, what a waste. Bending the rules there a little would have meant someone had great homemade honey.

 

Be sure that when you bend the rules, that you understand the consequences of doing so, and that the goals you will achieve warrant the risk. That is, when you are finished, you will have made a positive change which did not hurt anyone other than the egos of the rule mongers.

 

Choosing when to and when not to bend the rules is a lifelong challenge, but remember, it is often better and easier to ask for forgiveness than for permission. In the end, you may get some idiotic rules changed and benefit everyone. Whatever you do, though, don’t break the rules just to do so, that too would be less than genius, as rules do serve a purpose, even though they may look like they don’t.

 

Enjoy!

 

Sanford Berenberg

Sanford@berenberg.net

http://sanfordberenberg.blogspot.com/  ß Check out the new Blog site

502-533-9336

 

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