Rule Followers

Have you ever met someone who HAS to follow the rules? Always. Everytime. No room for just winging it a bit. These are the people who can't just pick up a game and play it. They have to read every single rule and follow them precisly and exactly or they won't play. They can't just play a game for the fun of it. Those people can be bit annoying sometimes.

Now, don't get me wrong. It's good to have rules and it's good to follow those rules. I'm glad we have rules for driving and that most people follow them. That's good stuff. But sometimes people use rules as an excuse to do things a certain way - mostly so they won't have to think. If you have a procedure to follow at work for something and you want to trying improve the process - the rule followers will fight you all the way. Again, it's good to have some rules at work. There are somethings that just have to to be done. But when you are trying to improve the process or sometimes even just get by as best you can in the current situation, the rule followers can be a big pain. They will complain that you are doing it wrong and just generally be a pain in the neck. Of course, they rarely have any positive suggestions for improvement.

Listen to what they have to say, but if they are just complaining to complain - or they are just complaining because you aren't follow the rules, don't let them get to you. You've got a better idea. Keep after it. Don't let the stone throwers stop you. After all, nothing would ever get invented or improved if we all did everything the same way all the time.

What's your idea? Are you keeping after it? That's worth pondering about....