HOW TO LEAD THROUGH DISRUPTION: ADAPTING TO UNCERTAIN BUSINESS TIMES

In today’s exponential world, standing still is falling behind. To thrive, companies must harness disruptive thinking to challenge status quos, spark breakthrough innovation and unlock new sources of value. Indeed, leadership now requires the creativity, critical thinking and contrarian mindset of entrepreneurs combined with the operational excellence and influence of executives. Leading with disruptive thinking is essential.

To begin with disruptive leaders nurture curiosity, openness and non-conformity. They foster idea flow across diverse thinkers through open forums like hackathons, incubators and crowdsourcing campaigns. Leaders encourage respectful debate of accepted norms and ask probing questions like, “What if we thought about this completely differently?” This expands perspectives.

On top of it, disruptive leaders catalyze experimentation around the edges and frontiers of the business. They support early testing of unconventional ideas that under-optimized assets, flexible budgets and moonshot programs. Failure is accepted as the cost of stretching for 10x possibilities rather than 10% improvements. Laser focus establishes constraints so experiments stay aligned to strategy.

Forward thinking execs also incentivize new metrics, models and mental maps. They know transformations often require reshaping assumptions about markets, capabilities, products, channels and business models. Fresh frameworks reveal unseen opportunities, expose false constraints and redefine the competition. New scorecards track different success measures.

And of course disruptive leaders anchor experiments to the core business. Wild creativity ungrounded from company strengths and priorities typically ends poorly. But the right innovations leverage existing competencies and infrastructure as launch pads to adjacent spaces. Leadership connects emergent strategies to what already works.

Also you’ll see leaders in the space making a point to develop talent unafraid of the unknown. They cultivate learn-it-all mindsets through training on design thinking, agile development and lean startup methods. Leadership emphasizes that disruption starts with individual behaviors shifting from the status quo to questioning the status quo. This ripples across organizations.

In times of exponential change, playing it safe is the riskiest path. Disrupt or be disrupted is reality. By fostering contrarian, experimental and combinatorial styles of thinking, leaders can unlock their organization’s full disruptive potential. The future favors the bold.