Disruption by Design: 3 Ways to Navigate an Ever-Changing World with Purpose and Precision

Imagine walking into your office one morning to find that every familiar process, tool and technology has been completely overhauled overnight. How would you react? With panic and resistance, or with curiosity and adaptability? If your first instinct is to resist, you’re not alone. This reaction is deeply rooted in human nature.

Our brains are hard-wired to seek stability and predictability – making resistance to change a natural and almost inevitable response. Yet, in today’s rapidly evolving business landscape, this scenario isn’t far from reality. Change is no longer just a possibility – it's a constant force reshaping industries, organizations, and careers. Those who embrace it pave the way for unprecedented growth and innovation, while those who resist risk being left behind.

Your body fights change to survive. Your business? It needs change to stay alive.

As humans, our natural resistance to change is not a flaw. It's a survival mechanism, also known as homeostasis, which is rooted in our biology. It is responsible for maintaining internal balance and is essential for survival. Yet it creates a paradox that lies at the heart of many organizational challenges today: we want things to stay the same, but the world around us is constantly changing.

The COVID-19 pandemic has ushered us into an era of rapid change in the workplace and recent data reveals a staggering reality: in just the past year, the average employee has navigated through 10 planned enterprise-wide changes. This relentless pace is undoubtedly taking its toll on employees and leading to increased frustration and disengagement.

In fact, a Gartner survey revealed that employees’ willingness to support enterprise change collapsed to just 43% in 2022, compared to 74% in 2016.

It is our responsibility as HR leaders to not only overcome this resistance, but to inspire and empower our employees to view change as an opportunity for growth.

Despite our human nature to resist change, in today’s dynamic landscape, there are two choices: You must either disrupt yourself or face being disrupted by outside sources. Both paths involve change, but proactively choosing to self-disrupt is empowering; being disrupted is jarring – and often leaves you scrambling to catch-up in a race you didn’t choose to enter.

At Johnson & Johnson, we are on a constant quest to not only challenge our processes, products and strategies to solve the world’s biggest healthcare challenges–but to also empower our people to embrace this era of disruption while doing it. This requires taking calculated risks and embracing uncertainty to propel our organization forward.

When done successfully, the result is an organization built on enhanced agility, increased innovation and competitive advantage for the purpose of profoundly impacting health for humanity.

Strategies for cultivating a self-disruption mindset across any organization:

1. Embrace Continuous Learning: Encourage employees to become architects of their own growth by fostering a culture of continuous learning and self-disruption. Help them to envision their futures, and then make it real.

We’ve launched J&J Learn, an AI-powered, best-in-class learning & development ecosystem that empowers our employees to think beyond their career today – and into their future career of tomorrow. We challenge our employees to view their skills and capabilities as malleable, constantly evolving with our business and the changing business landscape.

Through J&J Learn, employees can access approximately 100,000 learning programs, allowing them to customize their development plan based on their aspirations and the future company’s needs. This approach allows them to acquire new skills, broaden their perspectives, and reshape their career trajectories. By promoting this culture of continuous growth and self-reinvention, we're creating an environment where employees feel emboldened to challenge the status quo and drive transformative change.

2. Foster Experimentation: Create an environment where experimentation and calculated risk-taking are encouraged.?

At J&J we’re encouraging our people to engage with tools that are transforming our world, including generative AI tools, and creating opportunities for them to explore and gain experience in their desired fields of work through short-term learning assignments called GROW Gigs.

As technologies like AI are being rapidly integrated into our daily lives and workplaces, new skills are needed to excel. That’s why we’re upskilling our workforce to make digital savviness a core competency, equipping our people to use tech for the good of all. We are continually investing in efforts to help our employees expand their understanding – from digital upskilling courses to developing our own Generative AI Intelligent Chat tool that empowers our employees to experiment responsibly with the power of generative AI in a protected environment.

Equally as important is encouraging our people to explore outside their comfort zones by taking on short-term learning assignments that allow them to experience a different line of work and gain new skills. These kinds of experiences can enhance adaptability and help cultivate a self-disruption mindset.

3. Challenge the Status Quo: Regularly reassess and question existing processes and strategies.

Our global talent team is reimagining every aspect of our talent acquisition process. Challenging traditional ways of thinking and creating new avenues to acquire and retain top talent is crucial to remaining competitive in today’s business environment.

Our Re-Ignite and U.S. Veteran Recruitment programs for example, are allowing us to bridge talent gaps – and helping us create a more agile organization. We’re also embracing a skills-based talent model, moving beyond the traditional hiring methods and rethinking conventional role requirements. By prioritizing access to new talent pools and creating a common language of skills rather than job titles, we’re not just filling immediate needs, we're strategically positioning ourselves for long-term success in an increasingly competitive global business environment.

I can admit that I, too, oftentimes have the human tendency to resist change, but as we navigate this era of constant transformation – I encourage you to join me in embracing the challenge of shaping our new normal with enthusiasm and purpose.

By taking proactive measures today, we lay the foundation for a more resilient future – one where adaptability becomes our greatest strength and continuous growth our defining characteristic.

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