When it’s time for a change, you know. What to do when you know, is often the challenge. Sometimes…. you have to break all the rules.
For as long as I can remember, rules always made sense to me. I like order and routine, with enough freedom for experimentation, imagination, and adventure. I had the best parents growing up and a truly amazing childhood. Mom and dad made sure we learned the value of hard work and figuring things out. We developed a strong foundation of morals and had tons of fun, but there were rules and plenty of structure. Still, we never felt stifled. It was always, “you never know until you try!”
They wanted us to stand on our own two feet based on our own convictions and always from a position of respect. To this day, the lessons I learned growing up form the basis of how I approach everything in my life – with purpose, values-centered, and never forgetting to find joy in the journey. So when a colleague of mine gave me a fascinating book, initially, I was skeptical.
First, Break All The Rules, from Gallup Press, sheds light on what the greatest managers do differently. There is a willingness to break the rules. The concept of breaking rules was foreign to me at the time, but now resonates well, particularly when applied in a slightly different context. Project management has too many rules and there are too many voices telling us we can’t break them, when that’s exactly what we need to do.
When we reach a crossroad in life as we inevitably do – multiple times – decisions have to be made. A choice can’t be avoided. For years, I worked hard, sacrificed and played by the rules to make my way in the complex world of professional services and in particular, IT project delivery. But the rules kept changing. The methods, frameworks, best practices, roles, and tools for managing projects were a moving target.