Disruption or innovation ? Maybe both ?
I have been wondering lately trying to figure out if innovation is disruptive or if disruption is innovative.
It’s difficult not turning this argument into a cynical piece because honestly, if we got a euro for every time we heard or had to use one of these buzzwords to build a case, we would have already reached our yearly revenue target way back in April.
Now the truth is that both innovation and disruption are the essence of what we do and I fully appreciate the importance of their existence in our daily language and work but can we please try to get down to the core? What is it really all about ?
Sometimes it seems that saying the right word, at the right moment to the right people opens amazing doors and opportunities one couldn’t even imagine.
What we want is to get to the bottom of it and understand not only what it means and what to do about it but also WHY we should actually care.
So I went off and asked some people what it meant for them and here are some answers:
Innovation is: away to resolve problems in the smartest way possible, pushing the limits, time after time, creating something New or doing something in a different way than before, a never ending story, a new meaningful idea transformed into a solution able to improve people’s life and achieve market results and some even went as far as saying, Post-it thinking.
Disruption is: a horrible name to describe something that changes some rules, uncommon, a story you don’t expect, acting like a surrealist artist, tearing things apart and rebuilt them in a different way, having outdated thoughts
It is obvious that innovation and disruption (will be addressed as ID from now on) are unique, individual and personal. They are not like 1+1 that will always make 2 no matter which emotional or professional sphere you choose to cultivate in your life.
ID will constantly take on a new form and shape having a wonder effect on the direct subject.
When reading some interpretations of the greater and more professionals minds, ID seems to mostly have a “business” angle. These terms have become so frequently associated with work, customers, services and products that we tend to forget the great intimate correlation they have with us people. And when I say people I mean us as human beings, not us the workers, customers or users, but us the “person”, the one who then also becomes the worker, customer or user.
Innovation and disruption can be found anywhere and in everything we do, from how we have a conversation to how we cook our food or even how we think. ID is not always related to some external force inflicting change upon us, sometime that force actually sparks from within, for the sake of our own good for no specific “work” or external interaction purpose.
This actually brings us to the famous WHY.
For organizations the answer is quite obvious: Staying relevant, and this is why for them innovation and disruption are so crucial.
But if we take this why one step backwards and look at organization we will actually see and maybe remember they are made of people, and people need a spark, it’s what makes them tick, it’s what gives them a sense of purpose.
So innovation and disruption ??? for us it’s about helping people find the spark, their own sense of purpose as part of a greater purpose. It’s doing something new or in a new way interrupting the course of what is already going on.
This is our why innovation and disruption make sense, if we start with people all the rest is downhill.
