I remember a valuable lesson I learned from a mentor a few years ago. I was speaking to this person and probably complaining about how our organization had so many processes and policies that it felt like we couldn’t do anything, everything we wanted to do we were told “no”. He said something really valuable. He said something along the lines of, “Sure, there’s rules, but we can get exceptions to the rules. You just have to properly document why and get the proper approvals. And if its important and justified and we can do it safely, then we can do it. Don’t just always stop at the first ‘No’.”

The more I’ve thought about it, this is not only great advice but CRITICAL advice for business leaders. If your processes and policies never change, then that means your business is not changing. And businesses have to change and evolve, if they are going to grow or even just survive.

This is a valuable lesson that I now use much more frequently than I ever expected. When I hit a guardrail, a process block, a “No”, instead of just giving up immediately I spend some time thinking about it.

• Is this important enough to find a way forward?
• What is this process protecting? If we get an exception can we still meet the spirit and intent, if not following the exact rule? Can we find mitigations if we decide to pursue an exception to this guardrail?
• Who do we ask for an exception? Is there maybe already an established exception-request process?

And then, if we find we are asking for the same exception repeatedly, do we approach the policy owner to discuss making permanent changes or pre-approved exceptions to the policy?

Obviously this all requires careful nuance and no measure of political savvy. But this is also what can elevate your career to the next level as a business leader, because this approach can help you find entire new markets, channels, areas of improvement, or other organization-wide impacts.