Today is April 10 and the Navigate the Chaos question to consider is “How frequently do you disrupt yourself?”
Recent research into the field of disruptive innovation by Clayton Christensen and others suggests that when a company pursues growth in a new market rather than an established one, the odds of success are six times higher and the revenue potential 20 times greater.
Christensen is the father of disruptive innovation —the idea that the most successful innovations are those that create new markets and value networks, thereby upending existing ones.
Volumes of research and evidence show how disruptive thinking improves the odds of success for products, companies, even countries. Our investment fund focuses on disruptive stocks, and it has outperformed relevant indices by a sizable margin over the past decade.
Writing in the Harvard Business Review, Whitney Johnson stated “I believe that disruption can also work on a personal level, not just for entrepreneurs who launch disruptive companies but for people who work within and move between organizations.”
Johnson suggested that “It is impossible to quantify the effects of personal career disruption in the same way, but anecdotal evidence suggests it can yield similar results—dramatically improving your chances of finding financial, social, and emotional success.”
But disrupting yourself means shaking up the status quo.
Doing so frightens many people. The status quo has a powerful undertow, no doubt. Current stakeholders in your life and career will probably encourage you to avoid disruption.
For many of us, though, holding steady really means slipping—as we ignore the threat of competition from younger, more agile innovators, bypass opportunities for greater reward, and sacrifice personal growth.
Innovative companies that disrupt entire industries get a good deal of attention. They are vital engines of economic growth. But the most overlooked economic engine is you. If you really want to move the world forward, you need to innovate on the inside—and disrupt yourself.
Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky noted “Times of crisis, of disruption or constructive change, are not only predicable, but desirable. They mean growth. Taking a new step, uttering a new word, is what people fear most.”
How frequently do you disrupt yourself?