Rebel Talent

Rules Are Made to Be Broken

Every culture has its rules. Laws, norms and traditions help a society function by setting guidelines for acceptable behavior. Businesses and other organizations have their particular sets of rules, including codes of conduct, dress codes and standardized procedures. Most cultures, including corporate cultures, discourage stepping out of line and impose penalties of varying severity on rebels.

But following the rules isn’t always the best option, because rules have a serious downside: They can smother employees’ creativity and engagement. A standardized workflow that requires little creative input from workers quickly becomes routine and eventually turns to drudgery. If you can perform much of your job without thinking, you will sooner or later disengage from it. If you want to be creative and feel passionate about your work, you may need to go off script.

Being a rebel doesn’t mean indiscriminately flouting norms. It means asking a lot of questions and curiously examining processes, norms, rules and assumptions – including your own. Rebels’ favorite questions...