The Rules of Work

excellence.
R U L E   1 0 8
255
H A N D L E T H E O P P O S I T I O N
L A U G H   AT   T H E I R   J O K E S ,
B U T   D O N ’ T   G O   O N
VACAT I O N   W I T H   T H E M .

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256
T H E R U L E S O F W O R K
Know When to Break the Rules
P O S T S C R I P T
Many excellent and committed Rules Players I meet start out
following every Rule. When you’re first setting out, this is a
sensible approach. After all, the alternative is complacency
and an assurance that “I can do this stuff,” which certainly
isn’t true. None of us finds every situation effortless. It may be
clear what we should do, but that doesn’t always mean it’s
easy. And sometimes we’re not sure which way to go.
So, by all means start out taking each Rule seriously. That’s the
general idea. However, as you become more comfortable and
self-assured as a Rules Player and begin to develop sound
instincts for Rules behavior, you can begin to loosen up. Many
of the Rules will become automatic, and you’ll no longer have
to think about them. And once you reach this stage, you’ll find
that occasionally one of the Rules really isn’t quite appropriate.
It’s no good persuading yourself a Rule doesn’t fit because
you’d much rather not have to follow it. You need to be clear
and objective. But when your instincts genuninely tell you to
break a Rule, then go for it.
Personally, I find that there’s rarely a need to break a Rule. I do
break Rules occasionally. For example, a Rules Player never
deliberately belittles other people in public, but about twice in
my life I’ve encountered people who really needed to be belit-
tled in public to stop them from doing it to others.
In the end it’s about gut feeling. Follow the Rules until they’re
so ingrained they become instinct, and then trust your
instincts. If you refer back to the Rules from time to time, and
you work on the ones you find tricky, you can be confident
that in time your instincts will serve you better than any book.

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