What makes you a disruptive person?

Introducing... The Scale of Disruption

In my previous post I explored the transformational power of disruptive behavior. In continuing the conversation, we need to look at the greater concept of innovation and how disruption is rooted in this idea. Maxwell Wessel explores the various types of innovation in his most recent HBR article: he talks about Continuous, Reverse, Sustaining, Disruptive and Platform innovation and how each type can affect a business on different levels.  A business can innovate as a cohesive market force, leaders can disrupt societal norms like we explored in the concept of liminality or consumers can drive technological advancements through a sustained demand for innovative products. Im less concerned with the ways in which 'innovators' simply capture the value that others create and make a viable business. Im more concerned with the disruptors that create fundamentally different products, processes, services or operations which uproot our mental models and influence a generation of new ideas. Its this kind of disruptive innovation that I will be most focused on during my second quarter blog. In order to classify things appropriately, Ill be using the following innovation scale:

1. Uber-Disruptive - "a major innovation is one that is so successful that soon after its introduction few people can even remember what life was like before the innovation was introduced" -Rick Miller, President Olin College of Engineering. 
2. Super-duper Disruption - An innovation that impacts a market significantly and creates a "new or fundamentally different product or service that disrupts existing markets and displaces formerly dominate technologies." (Wagner, p.10)
3. Incremental Disruption - "significantly improving existing products, processes or services"  (Wagner, p.9)
4. Copy-Cat Disruption - Businesses that successfully commoditize the innovative ideas, processes, products or services of others. 
5. Pig-lips Disruption - really not a form of innovation at all, more like putting lipstick on a pig. 

Where does disruptive behavior play out?

Now that we have a renewed sense of our topic, I want to focus on where and how disruptive behavior plays out in a business setting. My hope is that it will help us to better understand the difference between business-as-usual scenarios from truly disruptive-business formats. In their book, The White Space, Rummler & Brache lay out three interdependent areas in a systems model of an organization; the job/performer level, the process level and the organizational level. Their book examines opportunities for performance improvement and adaptation within each specific area and across all three. I'm going to use their structure as a foundation for exploring disruptive behaviors and effective innovation strategies within each arena.  

1. The Person- or Job/performance - the human dimension, people are "the vehicles through which processes function." (Rummler, p.21)
2. The Process - 'How work gets done', cross-functional work processes
3. The Organization - Strategy, organizational structure

The Person: What makes you disruptive? 

Do you consider yourself creative? Would you consider yourself 'exceptional' at any of the following? I know we've done a lot of asset mapping lately, but I encourage you to respond below and claim what your good at. 

1. Critical thinking and problem solving
2. Collaboration across networks and leading by influence
3. Agility and adaptability
4. Initiative and entrepreneurship
5. Integrative & interdisciplinary thinking
6. Empathy
7. Curiosity and imagination
8. Perseverance
9. Willingness to experiment, take calculated risks and tolerate failure
10. Optimism and enthusiasm

These are some of the essential qualities of innovators that Tony Wagner explores in this book, Creating Innovators.  An individual is a powerful source for disruptive behaviors, talents and ideas.  I love this list of characteristics because its precisely the ammunition you need when tromping through a liminal space. A person with an effective combination of the above qualities is able to think and feel effectively in challenging or new situations leading them to truly original ideas. When put into a 'liminal' place where normal limits of thought, self-understanding and behavior are relaxed, an innovator is sure to flourish instead of feeling panic. In a professional context, an individual with these qualities could potentially innovative strategies, products and processes for a thriving and disruptive business.  

Rate the 'Disruptor'!!!

An example of a sought after innovative professional is Dan Schulman, the group president of enterprise growth at American Express. A former CEO of virgin mobile and Priceline, he has a strong background in the tech industry and was brought to American Express in order to "imagine what a new future of financial services might look like." (linked article). The article describes the process by which he transitioned american express from an "exclusive" to an "inclusive" brand by teaming with Walmart to develop a financial product called Bluebird. His team essentially functions as a 'start up' within the American express company, which means they have a lot of organizational interplay. Their software platform seems to be disrupting the normal 'credit card' capabilities by allowing people to deposit or save their money in completely different ways and spend rewards points through different formats. They have over 1 million bluebird accounts and 85% of those account customers are new to AMEX. 

Disruption scale says: Incremental Disruption.  American Express has made some clear investments in new software, market segmentation, strategic partnering and developed a distinctive product with Bluebird. Undoubtably this process has taken some innovative energy on behalf of Dan, his team and the executive team at Amex. They have clearly had to collaborate to develop this product, both internally between departments and externally with stakeholders. However, it seems to be more of an improvement of an existing technology, relationships and marketing strategies rather than a true advancement. The Bluebird project aside, its clear that Dan is an innovative person and that through his creative vision, he has lead the charge for a product that is unique in its marketplace. He seems to be good at 'leveraging' positions to create new projects. However, like Bluebird, I don't think Dan is working above the level of Incremental Disruption. His work is helpful, effective and profitable but not fundamentally different. 

Disagree? Is there something fundamental that Im missing with Dan? Aside from his work with AMEX, Is there evidence that Dan has the qualities of a Super-duper disruptor? Ill let you be the judge.

Da Da Disruption!

Disruption: “A disturbance or problems that interrupt an event, activity, or process.” Whether it be a single act, a business strategy or an epoch; disruptions are all round us. I think of Rosa Parks sitting on that bus, a single act of disruption that influenced a movement. It wasn't that her action was particularly extreme (like killing someone) but that it seemed to capture the emotions of so many others. The emotional validation that was offered in this simple act seems to be a key factor to its disruptive potency.

• So what happens leading up to a disruptive behavior?
• What qualifies as a disruptive? What makes it effective?
• What potential for change lies in the aftermath of a disruptive act?
• How are businesses living, breathing and acting within disruptive places?
• Are there actors doing this specifically in relation to sustainability?

For the next quarter, I plan to look at the current state of disruption in our modern business world today. I want to investigate companies and individuals leading the charge both in the past, present and future. I would like to examine their unique interactions with consumers and citizens and how exactly they are changing business for good or bad. I'm curious to see how companies act disruptively themselves but I also want to observe how they interact to the mounting human emotion behind disruptive acts like that of Rosa Parks.

What peaked my interest in all this disruption? Well, for quite some time I’ve been obsessed with this anthropologist, Victor Turner, and his social change theories concerning Rituals and Rites of Passage. His work has now been applied beyond anthropology into various fields concerning social structure and change. He is most famous for the ‘social drama’, a sequence of social events that he believed to play out universally in all human cultures. There are four stages: Breach, Crisis, Redressive Action and Reintegration. The disruptive part (aka the fun part) comes after the crisis event, when no one knows what’s what anymore and they enter a ‘liminal’ space. 

Liminality is a curious place to ‘be’ because its essentially a transitional or transformative place. Everyday assumptions, institutions, boundaries, hierarchies and social norms have the ability to dissolve and open up a new space for social creation. However, like the airport or a waiting room, one cannot stay there forever. We eventually reintegrate with evolved agreements or end up further reinforcing old social structures.

All this got me thinking about intentional liminality and ways to actually create an open space for evolving ideas. It seems that liminal states are a part of the process for effective disruption. In order to transform a behavior, eventually we have to relax our previous thoughts and habits.  There are some businesses like Apple, that have continually changed the rules of the game, creating a space for new behaviors to thrive. Their disruptive strategies have proven effective as we can see with the widespread adoption of their products and services.  

I look forward to exploring the disruptive world with you all in Quarter two. Please feel free to post ANY materials and share your thoughts & feelings below. Thanks!

First quarter is over...

First quarter was an intense time. Aside from managing all the increased content, there were some technical and logistical learning curves I had to overcome. Attending class online, collaborating with team members online and working within our web based classroom was a major adjustment from attending class physically. Once I got into the swing of things, it became easier to focus on absorbing the content and delivering on assignments. However, integrating my schedule with school was not an easy task. It was challenging to manage my time between school, work and personal while still feeling like a balanced human. I learned a lot about what is expected of me during school and how to best manage a life balance. I feel like second quarter will be much easier to strike this balance without the addition of a technical learning curve.

Course material

I really enjoyed learning about the history of economics. Learning about the origins of the industrial revolution helped me to situate our current capitalist mentality and further understand modern economic theories. As anyone can tell from my blog posts, I’m fascinated by what we associate with value and how our relationship with value has evolved throughout history. What I find most striking - what has remained constant in our relationship to value creation rather than what has changed. I enjoyed observing the common human behaviors behind our collective historical actions. Rational actors are expected to ‘want to belong’ or ‘feel loved’ or at least be perceived as such. I feel like these are some of the most powerful motivations behind our actions throughout history and will continue into the future.

Our exploration of business models was another interesting part of our course material this quarter. I was able to see value in some of the more traditional business models as well as the alternative models. Examining different ownership models is a good example of our work this quarter. Looking at shareholder, private and stakeholder models allowed me to further examine how business structures can affect decision making, effectiveness and overall happiness of employees. I look forward to learning more specifics about business modeling and how different structures can yield varying results depending on the goals and culture at play.  

BGI culture of learning

Its clear to me that BGI values holistic business practices, integrated systems approach, strong presentation skills and a solid foundation of business basics like accounting. This past quarter has taught me a lot of these skills and opened the door for further understanding. I particularly enjoyed the ‘flipped classroom’ approach which allowed for enhanced discussion and further development of ideas instead of simply lecturing. Working in teams was also a valuable experience for me. I felt like it was the epitome of the ‘integrated’ approach to learning. Not only were we expected to produce several products as a team, like our presentation and white paper, but we also had to develop team agreements through our team log. I learned through direct application the effectiveness of intentionally building team dynamics and upholding shared agreements in order to be the most effective team we can be.

Overall I learned a lot, both professionally and personally. I learned to really value the power of observation. So much of our modern economics has abandoned this undervalued skill while fields like science have thrived by utilizing it. I found that by observing my team mates, professors and fellow classmates, I gain insight into their human experience. When one can further understand the perspectives of others, they are truly participating in their community. I look forward to developing my observational skills further in quarter two as well as refining the skills I have established in quarter one.