Every now and then the rules that we play by are challenged.  Various strategies are used but rarely are they really successful.  Strategy one “the blast through” or strategy two “the never get through” are the most common methods we see chosen, but neither scenario seems to create enduring valuable change.

The “blast through” occurs when someone behaves in a way that is outside the normal rules, they are called “game changers” and they give everyone permission to play by those new rules.

The “never get through” occurs when someone questions the rules that we play by and they are told “that’s just the ways things are” and nothing changes.

We’ve seen lots of examples of scenario one in politics and the media, where the rules are changed but we don’t hear a lot of constructive dialog about whether those changes are desirable or make our processes better.

We’ve seen lots of examples of scenario two in every workplace, where the rules stay the same because we are too scared, comfortable or busy to think differently, regardless of how desperately we need to create a change to the way we operate.

I think it makes sense for us to identify the things that need to change, have a meaningful discussion about what they could change to and then test that the change makes sense.

Then we’d be in a position to really “change the game”.

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Written by Lisa Smith

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Lisa is a professional thinker dedicated to helping people unlock their innate creativity and to empower them to think differently – for themselves. She is passionate about building innovative cultures and about harnessing and engaging talent to create thinking communities. Lisa holds an MBA, specialising in organisational change and innovation, which forms the nucleus of her work. She relishes opportunities to share the Minds at Work thinking strategies with government bodies, socially responsible corporate, educators, community groups and farmers, helping them to turn their big ideas into realities.