Disruption as a tactic
This week I had the opportunity to fly in everyone on my team that isn’t normally in Redmond and spend some time talking about our plans and getting things done for the coming year (Microsoft’s fiscal year starts July 1). I’ll write about that in a later post, but I did want to talk about something that came out of one my discussions with Roger Grimes who is also now working on my team. Roger is a visionary and unlike many other visionaries you may have come across who have vision but no action, Roger is actually pushing to make his vision of secure internet (or a securer internet) a reality. Part of the problem though is that he needs to get people to think about something in a totally different way. Sometimes to do that, you have to display a little “disruptive behavior” – disrupt people’s thought patterns which forces them to re-think their entrenched positions and conclusions. Microsoft is full of very talented, very smart, very opinionated people… so sometimes to get the mindshare needed requires forcing people to look at things in a new light. So you might be wondering, well, how does it work?
- First of all, clearly formulate your thoughts… be ready to defend your position
- Identify a crisis or other reason for immediacy… some people think a preventable disaster is needed to get people to open their eyes, well maybe you can warn them of the coming train wreck you already see?
- Speak as a member of the collective “We have failed…” or “we need to do better…” , never make it a me vs. you type argument
Think about the people around you… which ones are seen as innovative thinkers? Why?