Going rogue, the new normal?

A new way of thinking about yourself and your work

I wrote an article – Is going rogue the new normal? – four years ago. It focused on a new way of thinking about yourself and your work. And it's even more relevant today than back in 2016 when I wrote it.

I quote from my article:

In the work world today, people often need to go rogue in order to get things done. The online urban dictionary defines going rogue as “To cease to follow orders; to act on one’s own, usually against expectation or instruction. To pursue one’s own interests.”

This may sound reckless and extreme—not following orders or instructions, acting on your own, pursuing your own interests versus those of others. But I interpret it to mean “daring to take initiatives that go against policy and doing what seems best from your point of view”.

It means going rogue in your head, then living it in your actions

A real example of going rogue is the customer-facing workforce I described in an article I wrote for HBR back in 2016. I showed a correlation between high-performing customer-oriented workforces and organizations where the sales and service teams disobeyed corporate guidelines and used their own phones. This was known as BYOD at the time (bring your own device). I have many anecdotes about how going rogue brought positive results from my years of advising large organizations, but this is not the place to share them!

The points I made in the 2016 article apply to many of us, now working much like the customer-facing people I studied in my research. My advice at the time, and even more so today is:

1. Learn to use your devices as optimally as you can. Whether it's a cell phone (now standard!) or an online tool such as Zoom, there's a lot of potential we forget to explore.

2. Take personal responsibility for acquiring new skills. Learn about new subjects. Today there are many online courses available, many free, around a multitude of new topics.

3. Build your networks, inside and outside your organization.
Improve your habits for organizing and sharing information and knowledge.

Quote:

You can go rogue right where you are today. By becoming digitally skilled, well informed and connected in meaningful ways to others, you will develop a rogue mindset ­­– confident of your ability to survive and thrive inside an organization as well as outside.

The original article is here: https://www.netjmc.com/is-going-rogue-the-new-normal/