What does this mean for me? To me breaking the mold is simple in our current culture. Its being true to who you are and just practicing what used to be traditional principles. If you have the values that our grandparents lived by in generations past and apply them to the culture today you see a stark contrast. It’s not hard to break the mold!
Breaking the mold is showing up 15 minutes early when everyone else is just on time. Breaking the mold is staying busy when everyone else is on their phones or conversing. Breaking the mold is finding things to do when there seems to be nothing. Breaking the mold is suggesting more efficient ideas to management when everyone else would rather not have their routines bothered. Breaking the mold is doing more than what is required of you. Breaking the mold is picking up that piece of trash that everyone else walked by in the bathroom or on the sidewalk. Breaking the mold is seeing someone else struggling and offering a helping hand. Breaking the mold is seeing the extra tasks that your boss has and asking if you could take one off of his plate or better yet, just doing it.
See? My take on breaking the mold is simple. Do what no one else is, but don’t do it to get noticed, do it to make your company and the environment around you better. If several people started showing up 15 minutes early you might see more and more people follow you because by nature people are followers that don’t like to break comfort zones on their own. People will follow if they see the value in it, so do it and show them the value and then they’ll follow and even if they don’t, you broke the mold.