Last couple of days I’ve listened to Simon Sinek a lot and he’s writing history in making work environments awesome.
One of the learnings I took away was a story where an airport employee obeyed the rules to not let a passenger in a hurry pass into the plane.
It annoyed the passenger, the rest of the people and moreover the employee herself as well.
We should disobey rules when
- There is a clear spirit of the rules set
- The situation requires acting in spirit and not in letter of the rules
When we act in the vision of the company, why would breaking a rule be ever a bad idea, when the act is integer and in the best interest of everyone?
To create such an environment, companies need good leadership. And therefore need trust.
We don’t trust people to follow the rules. We trust people to know when to break them.