Breaking the Rules

The theme for me over the last week has been about 'Breaking the Rules.'  A note of caution here, I do not mean breaking the law, I am referring to how good it feels when we sometimes go against the rules of convention, tradition and protocol. Having returned from a week long trip in Hong Kong, where I was running two consecutive workshops and which is a favourite NoLimits programme of mine, 'Presenting for Leaders', it brought back memories and nostalgia of the days when I used to live there. There is something about the pace, buzz and sheer rudeness of the taxi drivers and some of the people in Hong Kong that I find captivating, thrilling and unconventional.  

My first reminder of the unconventional was when I jumped in a taxi to drive me to my hotel. I immediately sensed there was no time for pleasantries when I didn't get a response to my polite, 'pleased to meet you' hello. Many taxi drivers in Hong Kong do not speak English, so I was already equipped with a print out of the hotel address and its location. Using sign language, which consisted of the taxi driver grunting with a firm nod, we both knew where we stood. In no time at all we were on our way. We sped off, as if we were going to race the Formula One circuit, tyres burning, engine screeching, as I and my hand luggage were flung across the back seat of the taxi and I clung onto my seatbelt, desperately trying to fasten it. It was if we had no time to lose at all.

Although Hong Kong is Chinese in so many ways, such as the towering concrete blocks, unconventionally built in an ad-hoc fashion, with their characteristic poles hanging out washing like flags saluting the city; the seemingly rude behaviours where people push in (rules about queuing are virtually non-existent and even when there are attempted planned queues, people still push in); as well as their direct bargaining approach, where you are left wondering whether you did get a good price; it does have some 'homely' and 'conventional' characteristics for me that date back to its British colonial days. The buses, for example, are double-deckers and the fire engines look just like the British ones. It made me smile when one of the Hong Kong participants on my workshop told me that she spent her honeymoon in the main cities of Europe and particularly liked London because the double-decker buses reminded her of 'home.'

The old fashioned Hong Kong tram brought back memories of Europe, until the taxi driver decided to break tradition and beat the congested traffic jam by driving along the tram lines! It felt like being in one of those action packed, car chase movies, where we would do anything to get ahead.

The two storey colonial buildings that nestle at the feet of the ultra-modern, tall, gleaming and architecturally exquisite masterpieces against the dramatic backdrop of the tree covered mountains, demonstrate how the untraditional can mix with the traditional. The rules of keeping the 'old' with the 'old' and the 'new' with the 'new' have refreshingly been broken and can similarly be applied with the way in which we manage our work and life.


While running our NoLimits' 'Presenting for Leaders' programme, I encouraged participants to 'break the rules' of their traditional Powerpoint presentations and stand out from the crowd by using visuals with few words, pictures and no bullet points. I also encouraged them to use metaphors and stories to present their key messages with clarity, impact and confidence. Just because your boss and colleagues use a deck of 68 slides with enough data and words to sink a battle ship, doesn't mean that you have to do this too.

As the great inventor, Thomas Edison said:-

"There are no rules here, we are trying to accomplish something."

Sometimes it's good to break the rules to accomplish what we want and to help us get to our destination quicker, just like the Hong Kong taxi drivers did with me!

Janet

Find out more about 'breaking the rules' of the conventional PowerPoint presentations and how to stand out from the crowd by contacting Sandra Lai on sandralai@nolimitsasia.com