What IF...

I am a proponent of systems!  By systems I mean the procedural methods that we develop in business and education that allow us to be objective when making decisions, producing materials, training and building a team, and implementing policies and the list goes on.  When using a tried and true system, an organization can be assured that they will be consistent, fair and above all diplomatic in how they handle all situations.  Most people who rely on systems and find value in them give similar reasoning as to why they are used.  However, what isn’t being acknowledged and what we don’t say out loud is that with the system comes less accountability for decisions that are made.  When someone makes a business decision or changes a policy or hires someone based on qualifications and is questioned about WHY… they have the SYSTEM to back them up.  We get to take our personal reasoning, educated knowledge and that “gut” feeling out of the process.  Sometimes this is good, but what about when it might not be the best choice to make?

Bob (employee) “George…I don’t understand why we changed the insurance provider.  This made our premiums go up and over 50% of the employees now have a larger insurance deduction from each paycheck.  We didn’t improve our co-pay and many of the preferred providers are not the doctors that many of us had before.  There will be a lot of people affected by this in the company.”

George (HR Manager) takes this in and replies, “Well, it is written policy that every three years, we re-evaluate the insurance provider and we have a system that we use.  Every company gets to submit bids.  We have a formula to put each bid through that allows us to rate the policies, costs and benefits.  This is the system and that is what we do. That is the process. Sorry.”

When is it okay to veer off the path of the system?  Could it be that there are too many qualitative factors that must be considered to rely exclusively on a quantitative formula?  How do you factor in the feelings, beliefs, wants and values of those who are directly affected? 

Be sure as you create the SYSTEMS for your organization that you allow for the outlier.  That you make room for the unexpected and create a clause that permits the ultimate decision maker(s) to make an exception to the rule.  If you don’t do this, you will eventually end up with a very consistent environment…but that environment might be consistently boring, consistently neutral and lack a lot of creativity and ambition.  Think about the most successful businesses you know… maybe some of the most intriguing entrepreneurs and innovators that our world has seen.  Did they simply “follow the rules?”  Greatness comes from those who are willing to take a risk, chance the outcome and do something different. 

Kudos to those of you who can stick to your patterns, follow the rules, conform to the expectations…but don’t discount those who are game changers, the ones who keep us on our toes and energize and challenge the status quo.  These are the ones who ask the tough questions, make us think new thoughts, and consider "WHAT IF..."