BREAKING THE RULES

In one of the organizations that I worked in, I almost had the privilege of working with a young, talented, and extremely courageous leader. I use the word ‘almost had the privilege’ because his tenure was quite short and, unfortunately, he brought about his own exit.

This was the time when the organization had done well in the past 5 years and the then Department Head had decided to pursue a new opportunity and had put down his resignation. In the process of searching for a new leader, the organization, after several rounds of interviewing many potentially capable people, zeroed in on a young man to lead the department.

It was a stark contrast to the leader, who was on his way of exit, because he was quite seasoned and had been with the organization since its inception. Naturally, his style was different, and so were his actions.

The new supervisor was a very “happening” kind of person. He had some good plans and was a man of action. He immediately started making his observations, and within 3 days, he called the key members for a team meeting. He shared a list of some 15 things he wanted to change in the department, and that too in 3 months. Not so surprisingly, the majority of the things he proposed required us to break the earlier rules.

When a few members expressed their reluctance and hesitation towards this speed with which he was expecting change, he went on to explain his philosophy and how he brought change wherever he went.

Members came out of the room. The news spread that the new change agent will change everything. Few were excited, others threatened.

Some of us tried to explain how breaking so many rules and attempting to bring immediate change could have an adverse impact and that is when he announced his success mantra ‘Rules are meant to be broken’.

In the next few meetings, he proposed some major changes

• Change in the login time of the department members (report 45 minutes early for team meetings)
• Change in weekly offs of the members
• Change in the way emails were written (he came up with his own format which had to be followed by all)
• Change in the duration and pattern of the lunch break (only 2 people could go at a time for lunch break, while others would stay back to finish the work and when those 2 would come, only then the other 2 would go)
• Change in the escalation matrix (earlier people used to solve majority of the concerns by talking to each other and discussion over phone or in person – the new rule required them to escalate the matter over an email with a copy to the HOD)

There were many more changes that he proposed and submitted to the clients. While the team was still confused about the modus operandi, the leader was way ahead in promoting his commitments to the stakeholders.

To be honest, some of the changes that he proposed were definitely the need of the hour and would have helped the department for sure, however, in the process of bringing about a revolutionized team, he did two major mistakes

• he did not give any respect to the existing rules. The rules were there for a reason. People were emotionally connected to those rules and by breaking all of them, he also broke the emotional connect with the members.
• He refused to listen to and consult people who had been in the system for long and had already seen lots of ups and downs in their career.

The last nail to the coffin came when he decided to suspend a senior member for 3 days for not meeting the targets for the month.

And thus, the downfall of a very promising person came about. By the end of the quarter, he was an extremely frustrated man. Majority of his plans did not materialize. Members backed out of key projects at last minute leaving him stranded. He was guilty of losing his cool on several occasions and he also lost control over this professional language in couple of instances.

By the end of the quarter multiple escalations were raised against him, from stakeholders for not meeting his commitments and targets, from members for his misbehavior and conduct and from others as well. Having left with no other option, the senior management gave him a couple of warnings and within few weeks he decided to quit.

I still feel he could have been a good leader, had he been more aware of his doings. He had the courage, the conviction, the plan…. Somewhere the organization also knew, that he had some good proposals, however, he took the ‘Hurricane approach’, destroying everything in his way, destroying all the rules, but most importantly, destroying the opportunity that was given to him.

Upon reflection about this incident, I feel

There are times when some rules may have to be broken, however, before taking such a decision, here are 4 things one should consider so as to have the best outcome

1. The context: Try to understand why was the rule set in first place. Get a fair idea about the situation and the need for setting such a rule.
2. The impact: Try to analyze, get data to verify and validate. Use numbers and instances to understand how did that rule impact the people concerned.
3. The change: Try to understand what kind of change do you want to bring and how will your new plans/proposals assist in bringing about that change. In any field, you will have some wise people ready to guide you. They could come in the form of your supervisors, clients, stakeholders or even employees. It is always a good idea to think about the people who will be impacted by your initiative, hence be open to wise thoughts and opinions. Ask yourself, “Do you really need to break the rules, or instead of breaking the rules, would adding a new clause make more sense?” If the answer to your questions is still a resounding “yes”, then
4. Bring the change – act with all your conviction

Have you ever come across situations and people like these? What were your observations?