Just because everyone is doing something doesn’t make it the only way.
In the Corporate world, the dressing code is formal followed by a dress down on Friday and Saturday. If you show up wearing a tee-shirt on Monday, you might be sent home or feel out of place. If you dare question the policy on the dress code, you might get to be asked to work somewhere or open your own Company and live the way you want.
My first workplace after graduation was at the shores of Lake Victoria. The view from my office was that of Kirinya Prison. Our work Campus had over three hundred employees, most of them being “Blue collar” While we had to wear ties and jackets in administration, factory workers wore what they deemed fit as long as one was not naked, he or she walked in with ease. I had made substantial grooming compromises to get this job. I cut my long hair, gave up wearing jeans and here I was watching folks walk in like they worked at the beach. I started questioning assumptions about different policies from dress code or leave etc. Every time I brought up the conversation with the Human Resource Manager, she simply told me, “Sudesh, these are policies, I simply do what my bosses tell me to do” Matilda (not real name) has closed the possibility to think about alternatives.
The possibilities of employee engagement are endless. Options to grow your career care endless. Compensations has limitless channels. Solving customer problems has a plethora of ideas most of which we have never thought of. But for you and I to break out of the rut, we need to think about alternatives and outlive being limited by policy this and policy that.
Before our own eyes we are seeing policies change in United States of America. Case in point: If a child to non-citizens is produced in any of the states, that child won’t be a citizen anymore. Law is a matter of context. Policies are tools of law enforcement; nothing more. Nothing less. Don’t be stuck on Policy! Policy! Policy!
The best analogy for creating alternatives comes from “Textbook of Wisdom: Shortcuts to Becoming Wiser Than Your Years” by Edward Debono. Here is the excerpt:
There is a person at point A. For some reason you want to prevent that person from moving to B. What might you do?
1. You might give no information about B, so that the person is not even aware that B exists.
2. You might give misleading information, so that the person is looking in the wrong direction for B.
3. You might make sure that there is no road between A and B. So there is a ‘gap’ or the absence of any path.
4. You might build a wall between A and B.
5. You might dig a ditch between A and B. The ditch does not have to be very wide.
6. You might build a wall (or ditch) around B.
7. You might fix a heavy ball and chain to the person’s ankle.
This would restrict movement in all directions – including moving to B.
By far the most effective way of preventing that person getting to B is to provide an easy and attractive path to C. In all the other ways the person has B firmly in mind and is seeking ways to get there – except where there is no information at all about B. The person might be seeking ways to climb walls, cross ditches and remove the ball and chain. With the easy and attractive path to C, the person forgets all about B and no longer notices B or the desire to get there. It is because the mind works this way that ‘wisdom’ is so important.
We do not always want to take the easy and obvious path that our minds and our feelings set out in front of us. It is the same with ‘creativity’. We do not always want to take the easy and obvious traditional path. Wisdom is designed so you can open your mind to creativity and new possibilities. Embrace it
