People disrupt disruptions

A few days ago, I ordered some ice cream as a desert. It seemed like a very good idea until it arrived at which point I realised that (1) I was full (2) it didn’t look as good as the description had sounded and (3) I was suddenly consumed with calorie-guilt. So, I passed it to my friend’s 5-year-old daughter who was delighted. It took her 20 minutes to clear the plate because, for her, eating an ice cream involves sculpting it, shaping it, singing a song, adding some crisps, some drinking straws, and a whole host of other activities. She loved it far more than I ever would have done.

Hold that thought.

Now, if you’re not familiar with the Gartner Hype Cycle, let me sum it up because it’s very useful. When something new arrives, they call that the ‘Innovation Trigger’. From there it rises to the ‘Peak of Inflated Expectations’, crashes to the ‘Trough of Disillusionment’, emerges into the ‘Slope of Enlightenment’ before ending at the ‘Plateau of Possibility’. I know that all sounds like a map from Harry Potter, but try applying it to the story of my ice cream, or Brexit or, better still, the rise of Social Media, for example.

When Social Media arrived, the early-adopters led the charge until everyone sang the praises of being Web2.0-ready and flooded the emerging channels with new content. Shortly afterwards, upon realising that the online world could speak openly, frankly and often bluntly, many companies crashed into the horror of being openly scrutinised for the first time. As the dust settled, they realised that this new world was not the conventional ‘broadcast’ model that had existed for centuries, but a new era of openness. With that came the start of generating useful, meaningful content and creating communities that would champion their brands.

That’s an illustration of the Gartner Hype Cycle and you can apply it to many things from ice creams to new technology and even to your relationships (I have).

So what does this say about disruptions? Everyone’s talking about them these days, following the disruption of the music industry from downloading and streaming, Uber’s upturning of the taxi industry, Air BnB’s shaking of the hotel industry, and a host of others – everyone’s either creating them or fearing them or anticipating them. I wonder sometimes if we’re seeing disruption for disruption’s sake: perhaps living an illusion that a new technology will topple a target industry if it’s simply clever enough. I think it's easy to forget the human element: the behavioural aspect – the unforeseen effect of uptake. You could call it change management, change adoption, change adversity: call it what you will.

Now, something with the potential to create change is like a virus. A virus, you see, is not a living thing; it needs a host. You could call it incomplete; it is only completed when it latches on to a new life form. H5N1 influenza, when attached to the DNA of a pig, is much different to when it’s attached to human DNA. It changes with every new being it touches and so its progeny are always a little different. Permanent, fast evolution.

This is an analogy for a potentially disrupting technology. Even with the most prescriptive user interface, it is the uptake that creates the disruption. You may well innovate a new platform, app or widget but you can never be 100% sure of how it's going to perform until you put it in the hands of people. That’s what makes technology-driven disruption so different. Whatever you created in the lab or the office will retain, to some degree, the quality of modelling clay – you put it in the hands of the audience without complete certainty of what it could become.

When I launched an internal social media platform for Luvata’s 10,000 employees in 2010, I believed I was just creating an idea-sharing channel. I didn’t foresee the peer-to-peer discussions that tamed so many ‘trolls’. The clustering around issues that had been hidden to the executive team was also a bonus. In fact, what ‘The Wall’ became within six months of its launch was much more powerful than what it had been designed for.

It was the same with iconising the company culture and principles - the real revolution came when these materials were placed in the hands of the stakeholders. In one plant they printed the icons in off-brand colours and stuck them as badges-of-shame on underperforming leaders. We learned that we achieved greater, unforeseen buy-in, motivation and alignment by handing a new development to our regional operations and letting them take ownership of it and run with it.

Of course we went to great lengths to ask our staff and our customers what they wanted us to work on but we also learned that people don’t behave like code – that without a lot of study and empathy, it's not easy to predict how something will be employed once it’s in their hands and minds. They took our projects the extra mile because we had a shared sense of purpose in advance. This is why change management and establishing shared goals are so essential.

Here’s a quote from George Patton:

Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.

So, one of the pillars of my change management strategy was simply to be open and clear of the intention – be aligned about that. First, study all your stakeholders and understand them and their needs well. Be aligned, engaged and transparent about what your visions and ambitions are; and when you achieve that harmony, you can put a new platform or tool into the hands of your stakeholders with confidence that they will use your new invention to disrupt what NEEDS to be disrupted in the most organic and long-lasting way.

And that's why I believe that people are the enablers of disruptions, and that alignment on intentions is the oxygen of change management. Create alignment around the intention of your new invention. Create clarity and engagement and a shared sense of purpose among its stakeholders. Then set your technology free and let it live. You see, I think the human effect is essential. We are not yet governed by technology.

Now, who fancies ice-cream?