Intelligently disobedient rule following

(upbeat music) - When talking about intelligent disobedience, it is so easy to focus on breaking the rules. I want to tell you a story about Steve who is following the rules. Yes, he engaged in intelligent disobedience and followed the rules. Here's how that worked. Steve was managing a team of people in an IT environment and they had just been outsourced. They were going to leave their company and go to the outsourcer in five weeks time. They had a series of things they had to accomplish, however, according to that outsourcing contract before they went to that outsourcing company. Now, it was going to be an intense five weeks, so Steve, thinking about the welfare of his people, went to HR to get permission to pay them overtime. No dice. He went again, and appealed the decision. Again, got a no. So, he thinks of something. He goes to HR, and he said what are the rules around posting a new job? Does that new job have to have specific duration five years, 10 years, forever? And they…