Don't Be A Rule Fool

by Holly G. Green

Wait your turn. No pushing in line. Yield to pedestrians. Treat others the way you would like to be treated.

Certain timeless rules are better obeyed than broken. But in today's topsy-turvy business world, many of the rules that informed and guided previous generations of business leaders no longer apply. If you're not breaking rules on a regular basis, your customers and markets have probably already left you behind.

Most business leaders intuitively know that they need to do things differently. But they struggle when it comes to determining which rules to hold onto and which rules to cast aside for newer ways of thinking.

In working with clients around the world, I have found two areas in particular where throwing out the old rulebook is essential for keeping up with today's frenetic rate of change. One involves the skills, attitudes and mindsets required to manage people and work processes. The other has to do with how you go about analyzing and assessing your competitors and your markets. In these two areas, I highly recommend forgetting most (or all) of what you think you know.

For example, from a people/process perspective:

Old rule: Strive to maintain the status quo, but react quickly when change happens.
New rule: Don't wait for change to hit you. Anticipate it, plan for it, and make it happen on your terms.

Old rule: Management's job is to make decisions.
New rule: Management's job is to facilitate decisions made by those closest to the customer.

Old rule: Avoid conflict.
New rule: Rock the boat! Purposefully create conflict and manage it in a constructive manner.

Old rule: Tell employees what to do, when to do it and how to do it.
New rule: Give employees the resources and support they need. Then stand back and let them do their jobs.

From a competitive analysis perspective:

Old rule: Focus your research on competitors inside your industry.
New rule: Stretch your horizons. The next competitor that causes your world to implode may well come from outside your industry.

Old rule: Markets have predictable life spans and earnings curves.
New rule: Today's markets can (and do) disappear overnight.

Old rule: Strategic planning involves creating a 5-year plan.
New rule: Look 12 to 24 months (at most) into the future. It's almost impossible to accurately predict what will happen after that.

Perhaps the most important new rule for today's chaotic market realities is to constantly challenge what you think you know about your business and the world in general. Don't allow yourself to get comfortable with the status quo. Don't allow yourself to get stuck thinking that what has made you successful so far will continue to make you successful in the future. And if you haven't re-evaluated your customers' wants and needs within the past six months to a year, do so now!

Letting go of rules that have served you well in the past can be difficult, but holding on to them can be fatal. What rules are you holding onto that you should be letting go?


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Holly is the CEO of THE HUMAN FACTOR, Inc. (www.TheHumanFactor.biz) and is a highly sought after and acclaimed speaker, business consultant, and author. Her unique approach to creating strategic agility, helping others go slow to go fast, will change your thinking.

Part 2 - Nature's 10 Simple Rules

Here's the second half of my thoughts on Nature's 10 Simple Rules for Business Survival (read Part 1 here). Send me your views on this list. Also, make sure you pin it up on your wall, your company's survival may depend on it.

Nature's # 6. Integrate metrics. Nature brings the right information to the right place at the right time. When a tree needs water, the leaves curl; when there is rain, the curled leaves move more water to the root system. OK, I'm not a big metrics guy. Experience has shown me that a quick decision grounded in intuition often beats the 100 page report and meeting from hell. But I also find inspiration in understanding how the world works, and for that big picture we need numbers - just numbers from a lot of different sources. Smart, revealing, insightful numbers. For example, James Dyson worked through around 5,000 prototypes before coming up with the wildly successful Dyson vacuum cleaner. Let the truth of that number hit you around the head. When did any of us make 5,000 attempts at anything? If all you read are balance sheets, that's how you'll see the world and you will fail. Too many factors impact on us for any one perspective to show the way forward. If you think otherwise, ask a banker about subprime.

Nature's # 7. Improve with each cycle. Evolution is a strategy for long-term survival. The long-term is the only term if you want to survive. Short-term thinking - like the ridiculous obsession with quarterly earnings - has taken more eyes off the ball than a couple of streakers at a football match. The magic mix? Big, long-term ideas combined with the spirit of "Fail fast, learn fast, fix fast". We can all learn from the frenzied world of fashion. In my first job at Mary Quant, we had nine months to conceive, produce, launch, sell, and then discontinue, a complete line. We got better at it - I promise you.

Nature's # 8. Right size regularly, rather than downsize occasionally. If an organism grows too big to support itself, it collapses. If it withers, it is eaten. When businesses start there are usually just a few people doing everything. Then there comes a time when more people are on the job than can comfortably fit around the lunch table. Thus middle management kicks in and, as Kurt Vonnegut put it in Slaughterhouse-Five, "So it goes". Right size is such a great term. The right size of a business depends on the business. This is where business gets specific and where clarity counts. If you want to manufacture cars for the world to drive, your right size is nothing like that of a boutique fragrance. The key though is to know what's right - right size, right people, right choices - and to take action.

Nature's # 9. Foster longevity, not immediate gratification. Nature does not buy on credit and uses resources only to the level that they can be renewed. Since joining Saatchi & Saatchi, one of my great pleasures has been the opportunity to speak to the P&G Alumni. These are people who have worked for P&G and believe in P&G principles. Best of all, they keep the P&G flag flying long after they have left the company. They are in it for the long-term and the long-term extends beyond a job at P&G and even their working life. They are an amazing renewable source for P&G that promotes the company, attracts more great people to work there, and connects P&G in rich and complex ways to the communities and countries it works in. Longevity is about making a worthwhile contribution. Gratification is about an immediate sensation.

Nature's # 10. Waste nothing, recycle everything. Some of the greatest opportunities in the 21st century will be turning waste - including inefficiency and underutilization - into profit. This rule can transform businesses, regions, nations, and people. One area of waste that I take very personally is the waste of human potential. That's why TYLA - Turn Your Life Around - is very close to my heart. This remarkable program based in New Zealand helps kids at risk start to make positive choices about their lives. We use mentors, fresh opportunities, experiences, support - whatever it takes to transform these young people into hard-working, energetic and joyful citizens. In today's tough climate, we want every hand to the pump. Waste not, want not.

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Kevin Roberts is the CEO worldwide of The Lovemarks Company, Saatchi & Saatchi. For more information on Kevin, please go to www.saatchikevin.com. To see this blog at its original source, please go to www.krconnect.blogspot.com.

The real crisis? We stopped being wise.

Here is an interesting video of Barry Schwartz making a passionate call for "practical wisdom" because rules often fail us, incentives often backfire, and practical, everyday wisdom will help rebuild our world. It's well worth the time investment.



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