Breaking the Rules Essay

Breaking the Rules

Breaking the Rules is truly a life-changing book for me. Just another self-help book, I thought. It turned out to be unlike any other self-help book that I've ever read. How is this book different? This is not a book that made me feel good, but never managed to change anything about me, leaving me feel more powerless than before. The authors, Kurt and Patricia Wright, actually manage to engage into a relationship with me, never leaving me off the hook. On the contrary, sometimes I found them to be so inquisitive and personal I put the book down or feel uncomfortable with their questions.

It is indeed the questions that are life changing. I never really new how to ask questions of myself and others that actually improve things. You know how in our conversations and thoughts we so often focus on what's wrong and trying to fix that? And how it never really gets us anywhere? Breaking the Rules is about that, about asking right, empowering questions. About learning to recognize your already existing strength and to build on those so we can all reach a state of effortless high performance. After reading this book I can never look at myself the same way again. It's like that image where you could at first only see the old lady, unable to see that there was also a young lady in there.

Once you see the young lady you can never "unsee" her. If you are ready for looking at what's right in your own life and the lives of those around you, whether in your personal relationships or in business, you've found your book. This is a brilliant, provocative, intriguing, challenging, energizing book! His concept of the Detached Control Achievement patterns and clarity around how to get my Life Purpose (two years of Landmark Forum training did not get me to GET that!).
We get more of what we measure (so measure what you want improved) The author goes on to state that I have a "powerful drive to learn" and all the behavior/thoughts which go with that.
I look at the world through my own eyes, not those of others. No wonder when I ask people about me, what they see is so different from what I see myself! And that readers need to envision at least 10 years ahead (last year I created a goal of being "Alive, Alert and Active on my 100th birthday" so I've been thinking along the Right lines.) It's amazing how my perspective changed when I thought in terms of having another 45 years of life to map out and plan! This is not just a book - it is a working manual for driving through life on maximum revs! This is one of the most remarkable books I have ever read about effortless high performance. Wright provides practical, achievable techniques that can take you beyond your wildest dreams, then backs them up with anecdotes. My colleagues and I have used these techniques and achieved remarkable success. It's remarkable, wise, and soul awakening. Concepts such as all stress is self-induced, that all criticism is self-revealing, that every moment has total perfection, are mind stretching, liberating, and empowering.

This is a classic book. I'm going to get copies for people I care about.His approach to asking "right" questions that allows the other person to arrive at their own conclusions has deepened my relationship with colleagues, friends and family. It has totally changed me from a micro-manager to someone who trusts others to achieve objectives. I have rarely been let down when I showed confidence in other's competence to get things done.It's definitely a "sunny" book, though, so if optimism makes you puke you probably won't like it. Kurt Wright examines how the brain handles different types of information and he outlines methods that use your brain's inherent abilities to improve your performance.

The book can be used either as a self-improvment tool or as a guide to increase an organization's productivity.Are you looking for creative and easy-to-implement ways to develop a more positive and productive work environment? Author Kurt Wright in his book Break the Rules offers a compelling vision for what workplace interaction, engagement, and relationship-building can look and sound like. His central framework revolves around asking "RIGHT questions." "RIGHT questions" are those kinds of questions that generate deep thinking and reflection about value and opportunities in situations, people, and relationships. They focus people on strengths as opposed to "what is wrong." When leaders ask RIGHT questions they help their people look inside themselves for the answers. There are three "domains" for asking RIGHT questions:
1. Habit-starters - questions that focus on finding value in the past and the present:
* What was the best part of your day? Why?
* What is working well with our team process? What can we do to ensure we keep doing this [what is working well]?
* What goals do you look forward to working on this week?
2. Vision-building - questions that ask us to describe specific aspects of our evolving vision of an ideal future state:
* What creative ideas for new services or products keep you up at night?
* What do you see happening for us once we achieve our goal?
* What are some important next steps to help us reach out goal?
3. Issue resolution - questions that help us identify the point at which we are stuck, and reveal what is needed for us to get "unstuck" so we can move forward with our goals:
* What would we need to do to ensure we stay stuck in this problem? (This one is tricky!)
* What is getting in the way of us moving forward?
* Which one barrier could we work on that would have the most effect on helping us move forward with our goals? Why is it important for leaders to ask RIGHT questions to create an empowered workplace? Asking the RIGHT questions is a simple yet powerful technique that develops trust and high-energy relationships. Asking our team members these kinds of questions assumes that they have the knowledge and wisdom inside to come up with answers that make sense for themselves. It is incumbent upon the leader to find the RIGHT questions to help their employees reveal these answers for themselves. RIGHT questions have the power to help team members reflect on the value of previous experiences and apply their learning to approach new opportunities and resolve challenges. Because of the focus on values, strengths, and opportunities, RIGHT questions have the potential to help workplace teams generate energy and momentum to move them forward instead of staying stuck in the past. When applied authentically and frequently, leaders can use RIGHT questions to empower their teams to build leadership capacity for moving forward in achieving their goals.