As natural as change is, there’s no getting around the fact that it can be painful. Especially when it happens to you and is not authored or initiated by you. ‘Disruption’ is a word that some managers toss around in a pretty cavalier way as a desirable state or productive path for businesses and their employees. Disruption (from the Latin ‘dirumpere,’ meaning to break or burst asunder) is not, however, always such a pleasant thing. The past can collide with the future in an agonizing present. Disrupting an unproductive pattern of behavior is not the same as disrupting a hardworking family’s way of life, and we are seeing entirely too much of that these days.Try telling residents of a small Midwestern town that just lost its largest employer in the auto industry downturn that disruption is cool, and nobody’s going to be buying you a beer anytime soon. In this kind of economy, we often greet disruption with the same enthusiasm we welcome a rusty nail disrupting the bottom of our foot.
When there’s so much natural disruption in the workplace, there’s no need to go looking for it, or fomenting it. It’s going to happen no matter what. What GameChangers realize is that times of change are also times of immense opportunity. When the ground is in upheaval, it’s time to plant. The same is true with the business environment. Players who are ’sowing seeds’ during the disruption are those most likely to benefit when the seasons change. That doesn’t mean it’s easy, or without its pains and stresses. But there is a productive path, there is always a produtive path, and a GameChanger is in the best position to make the choices that lead in that direction.
Participating in and managing disruption requires an understanding of what is at the root of it. You cannot manage your own situation if you don’t understand the larger context in which your situation is happening, and the forces that are in play. The biggest change, when it comes to the business environment, the single biggest source of disruption, is that we are moving on a global scale away from Industrial Age business models and organizations to models and organizations built to operate in the Networked World. This shift is so profound that it deserves its own name. Call it The Disrupture.
Understanding The Disrupture gives you the opportunity to see it, act on it, and benefit from it.
To help you on your journey, here’s a crib sheet. Here are some characteristics of business in the Industrial Age, and what is going to replace them in the Networked World.
Rigid—>Fluid
Predictable—>Capricious
Controlled—>Liberated
Owned—>Shared
Cosmetic—>Authentic
Market Research—>Trend Analysis
Scripted—>Improvised
Nation Building—>Community Building
Released—>Discovered
Repetitive—>Progressive
Pushed—>Invited
Monologue—>Conversation
Prima Donna—>Team Player
Status—>Happiness
Hierarchy—>Tribe
Doctrinaire—>Heuristic
Memorized—>Understood
Domination—>Support
Advertising—>Narrative
Planning—>Preparation
Ideology—>Reality
Who—>How
Consumer—>Customer
Stakeholders—>Audience
Money—>Wealth
Greed—>Generosity
Dogmatic—>Karmic
Group Think—>Group Mind
Destiny—>Serendipity
The Big Idea—>The Good Idea
Right—>Consistent
Wrong—>Inconsistent
Move away from the Industrial Age qualities like they smell bad, because they do, they reek of decay and demise, like a rusted-out steel mill in Wilkes-Barre or a Tennessee slough suffocating with coal sludge.
The characteristics of Networked World, by contrast, smell like Monterey Bay, a farm field in Indiana in the spring, or a forest full of Oregon evergreens after a rain. It is the smell of new growth. Be guided by this aroma, it will not steer you wrong.
Tags: , Change, disruption, GameChanger, Goodbye, Growth, Hello, Industrial Age, Networked World, The Disrupture
Great post Mike!
Ray
As usual. . .brilliant Mike! The list is soo dead on! We are in interesting times.