According to a story at Open Forum, intelligent disobedience is not about setting out to be disagreeable or arbitrarily disobeying rules for its own sake.
Rather, it is about using your judgment to decide when, for example, an established rule actually hinders your organization, rather than helps it.
The antonym of intelligent disobedience is blind conformity. Conformity smoothes our day’s journey at work.
Conformity, however, can have its downsides. It saps creativity for one, and it is, in John F. Kennedy’s parlance, “the enemy of growth.”
Here are some ideas to inspire you and others in your team to establish a culture that values intelligent disobedience:
1. Consider the benefits of decentralizing some of the decision-making in your unit.
2. Don’t surround yourself with yes-men.
3. Beware of naysayers.
4. Don’t take expert opinion as the final word.
5. Catch yourself if you habitually insist on “going by the book.”
6. Become aware of your mental scripts.
7. Help your people distinguish between fact and conjecture.
8. Examine your reaction when confronted with new ideas.
9. Establish a culture that values common sense over bureaucracy.
10. Get comfortable saying no.
Photo by asifthebes.