Disruption

I watched Deborah Haynes interview Gen. Sir Nick Carter this morning on Sky. He was asked about the future shape of the Armed Forces, from which he focused on the development of a system fit for the 2030’s, with the sensible caveat that we won’t get there overnight. He also used the phrase ‘disruptive edge’, which really caught my ear. As we live in the most disrupted times I can certainly recall, how we deal with disruption is important. But equally so, the way we cause disruption is such a critical factor for our future success and prosperity that it mustn’t remain an elephant in the room.

Disruption fascinates me. My twitter account profile carries the George Bernard Shaw quote; “Progress depends on the unreasonable man”. It is only perhaps in the last five years I’ve better understood how to harness the energy that disruption provides.. I’ve been a disruptor since birth. I’ve always been ‘different’, in my thinking and approach to problems. and their solutions, but my single-minded and sometimes unorthodox approach would regularly bring me into conflict with those further up the pecking order. I suppose I was what is commonly referred to as ‘disruptive talent’ - or perhaps even more commonly ‘a pain in the arse’. This is why today, as an executive coach I have a keen professional interest in helping companies get the best out of people like that. It is only when a disruptor has a mirror held up to themselves, and that mirror is ‘skillfully wielded’ that change can occur for the better. The individual feels better valued, and the organisation gets better value from them because they finally fully understand their impact

Of course, this doesn’t always work…

Yesterday, the biggest disruptor I can remember was toppled from power. Donald Trump was unseated by Joe Biden, and denied a second term as POTUS.

Lets just cast our minds back four and a bit years. This bold, narcissistic, large- than-life figure steamrollered into the presidential race, and convincingly won. He vowed to make America great again. The whole thing was almost impossible to comprehend. It reminded me of the words of Cassius from Shakespeare’s ‘Julius Caesar’; “Ye gods, it doth amaze me a man of such a feeble temper should so get the start of the majestic world.”

And arguably, he did what he said he would.

Before Cononavirus whipped the carpet from under his feet, the American economy was thriving. And then there was North Korea. He stepped foot in it, and opened a dialogue with Kim Jong Un! Lets also remember the historic peace deals he brokered with Israel and multiple Middle Eastern states. as they might say in cycling, “Chapeau, Monsieur Trompe!”

So what went wrong?

Well, without doubt, Covid disrupted his way. Donald didn’t have an answer to that, and with it creating a metaphorical hitting of the ‘pause’ button, people had more time to reflect on where they were, and their relationship with their President. I’d wager a lot reflected on that picture and didn’t like what they saw. It really underlines what disruptors often fail to see; you can only achieve so much if you don’t take the people with you. Add in a degree of control-freakery, and the removal of power from other people to help make a difference through their own creativity and innovation, and you will see a marked shift in attitudes towards that individual. Perhaps that is what has played out here?

What would another four years of Trump have brought to the world? We will now never know. Whatever your views of the person, I think in many ways that is a great pity he won’t serve for longer. He really did disrupt all he touched, rolling hard-ball through literally everything, including things that people thought might never be achieved. With Biden, I predict we will see a settling of the pendulum, and a return to the ‘proper’ way of doing things. That tends to slow things down, and sometimes for opportunities to be missed, but conversely, with proper decision models being applied, for less mistakes to be made.

Donald Trump created a moment in history that will be analysed by scholars for decades to come. He came in like a wrecking ball, and will doubtless leave like one too. But to quote again from Julius Caesar; “The evil that men do lives after them, the good is oft interred in their bones.” This is often the problem with uncontained disruptors; the negative is focused upon, rather than the positive.

That is why it is critically important for organisations to corral and develop such individuals. We are all stumbling into the great unknown together, heading towards a new world order which is neither clear nor comfortable. It will be the disruptors, and free-thinkers that will shorten the path, and nose out the truffles of solution, but only if we let them.

My advice? Get them a coach. Let that coach help you nurse the very best out of those who right now you might actually see as your most difficult individuals in the organisation. Anything we can do right now to steal a march on the future has to be a good thing.

Derek Flint Cert.Ed., MCIPR

(Image credit: Kit Nelson)