Permission to Think

There are moments in leadership where you realise the problem isn't capability.

It's permission.

Many years ago, I had the privilege of leading an offshore contact centre in Manila.

The team was exceptional.

Disciplined.

Committed.

Hard-working.

And they followed every process exactly as it had been written.

When I say they followed the rules, I mean they followed them to the letter.

If those rules had been printed on paper, I'm convinced the pages would have been gold embossed, sealed with wax and handled with white gloves.

There was just one problem.

The customer experience wasn't improving.

Our Net Promoter Score was struggling.

Customer complaints were high.

The team felt frustrated because, in their minds, they were doing exactly what had been asked of them.

So why weren't we getting the results?

Following the Rules

During a coaching session with the team, we started unpacking the problem together.

As always, I resisted the temptation to arrive with answers.

Instead, we explored the challenge.

Eventually, one of the team members, Reuben, cautiously raised his hand.

"James... I think we'd improve our NPS if we could write off more than $10 when handling a complaint."

You could almost hear the room hold its breath.

He wasn't really talking about ten dollars.

He was questioning a rule.

A Lesson I Didn't Invent

Years earlier, one of my own leaders, Darren, introduced me to a concept I'd never heard before.

Intelligent Disobedience.

At first, I thought it was just another one of his Kiwi expressions.

Then he explained it.

Sometimes you have to disobey a smaller rule in order to fulfil a greater one.

Guide dogs do this every day.

If their owner tells them to walk into traffic, they refuse.

They're trained to disobey.

Not because they're rebellious.

Because they're committed to a higher purpose.

That idea stayed with me.

Maybe leadership isn't about blind obedience.

Maybe it's about helping people understand why the rule exists in the first place.

The Coaching Question

So I asked the team a simple question.

"If you could be intelligently disobedient... what would you do?"

They looked at me.

Someone finally asked,

"What's intelligent disobedience?"

After explaining the concept, I asked the question again.

This time, something changed.

Permission had been given.

Not permission to ignore policies.

Permission to think.

The room came alive.

People started exploring possibilities instead of limitations.

Questioning assumptions instead of defending them.

Building solutions instead of listing obstacles.

As we dug deeper, the real issue became obvious.

The problem wasn't a $10 write-off limit.

The problem was that the team didn't feel empowered to make good decisions for the customer.

The dollar amount was simply a symptom.

The real issue was trust.

Empowerment Isn't a Dollar Figure

It would have been easy to leave that workshop believing the solution was increasing complaint authority from $10 to $50.

It wasn't.

The solution was helping people realise they were trusted to think.

That's what empowerment really is.

Not unlimited authority.

Not ignoring governance.

Not making up the rules as you go.

It's giving people enough freedom to exercise judgement in pursuit of a greater purpose.

As leaders, we often spend enormous amounts of time creating processes.

Processes matter.

Policies matter.

Governance matters.

But none of those things should ever replace thinking.

The Greater Rule

One of my favourite movie quotes comes from Spider-Man:

"With great power comes great responsibility."

Leadership works both ways.

With great responsibility must also come appropriate trust.

Otherwise, we don't create leaders.

We create rule followers.

I've often wondered whether children understand this better than adults.

Children naturally look for the spirit of a rule.

Adults are often conditioned to obey the letter of it.

Somewhere along the way, many of us stop asking,

"What's the outcome we're trying to achieve?"

...and start asking,

"What am I allowed to do?"

Those are very different questions.

The first creates ownership.

The second creates dependence.

Permission to Think

One of the greatest gifts a leader can give isn't another process.

It isn't another policy.

It isn't another checklist.

It's permission to think.

To ask better questions.

To challenge respectfully.

To exercise judgement.

To own the outcome rather than simply follow the instruction.

Because sometimes the greatest act of obedience...

...is being intelligently disobedient.

Reflection

Before your next team meeting, ask yourself:

• Have I built a team of thinkers or followers?

• Are my people clear on the purpose behind our processes?

• Where have rules become more important than outcomes?

• Do my team have permission to exercise judgement?

• If someone found a better way tomorrow, would they feel safe enough to tell me?