Disruptive Leadership

New year, new administration, global and domestic outlook not so nice. I've been reading lots of blog entries recently and everyone I'm reading is trying to find an upside. Umair Haque's new rules for creating value in a changed world are an example. ("Innovating from Constraint in the Developing World"; "Detroit's 6 Mistakes and How Not to Make Them") If a business can no longer succeed using old paradigms in established markets, it now looks to new markets and (one hopes) reshaping its paradigm to exploit that market. Haque is not alone in his advise, just a cogent voice worth heeding. And yet I wonder what business leadership makes of it all.

I'm reminded of previous market downturns, and the businesses I was working in at the time. Invariably, I found myself in a boardroom in which the company's leadership worked diligently to locate itself on the life cycle curve, and redefine what its 'real' business was (as in: 'We're not in the buggy whip business; we're in the business of motivating horses!") so to better frame its marketing. None of those businesses actually re-invented itself, although they survived the specific downturn -- and later, it all seemed rather foolish. The new mission statements and value propositions didn't necessarily leverage the business out of the general economic muddle, but coming up with them did focus the leadership on something positive -- so there was no doubt some benefit to the employees in hearing a message of hope and sustainability.

But actually what's needed now is disruptive leadership: breaks with the past and past assumptions. As I read thought leaders such as Haque, I'm reminded (again) of the Zander exhortation to choose to live in a world of abundance, rather than scarcity. As we look forward to what can only be an extended period of economic recovery, it is too easy to feel the world has contracted, and one's immediate world diminished. And yet, that viewpoint is simply one choice of many. Shifting your perspective 45 degrees, you can just as easily see a world of abundance. It does force you to put the world you're used to viewing on pause, and step out of the frame to shift your perspective. What's required is innovation leveraging constraint to create abundance. In recent history, businesses have routinely outsourced their 'innovation' to consultants, as if this is something that can be purchased. What's needed is not Cliff Notes; you have to do the work yourself. This is an exercise that does not reward years of industry experience - not knowing that you can't do something should have a premium, it seems to me.

Leaders need to think outside the boardroom. Get into your teenage mind, when you were so much smarter than the dead men in your history books, and were feeling absolutely bullet proof and so much more confident than the person you became 10 years later. You weren't thinking about mortgages and daycare and surviving the annual review. Along the way you accepted the world of scarcity. What if you let go that illusion, and re-entered the world of abundance you once abandoned?

This week I've been listening to Beethoven's 5th and 7th Symphonies, and found my heart leaping at the beauty of this very familiar music that was made completely new for me. Conducted by Benjamin Zander, the orchestra created a world in a different time: same notes, different tempi. This seemingly subtle change recreated the work; it was as if I was hearing the music for the first time. Change your personal time signature; explore the new associations created from disruption and unlikely juxtaposition; change the world.