In previous blogs I have called for disruption as a necessary and required force for change. This has been particularly true for me given my long experience in healthcare. We have a very expensive system that doesn't deliver on what it should given the resources expended, we have imbalances in how we spend our dollars in light of our changing population demographics (e.g., a need to continue a shift from cure to prevention, mental health, palliative and care of seniors), and there is a need to appropriately leverage technological advances (the right tool, at the right time, for the right reasons). In those past blogs, I have suggested that healthcare needs some form of Uber-like development or something akin to how Apple disrupted how we communicate and interact with each other.
This is not, however, a post about disruption in that sense. Rather, it will speak to a perspective of leaders as disruptors within their own companies or organizations. By definition - or at least by my reasoning - leaders are not brought in or hold a pinnacle position to manage to the status quo. They are uniquely positioned and tasked with scanning the environment for the organization, identifying both threats and opportunities, and required to position the business for future success. Disruption can and often is the name of the game for a leader. This is why there is a constant need on the part of the leader for continuous learning and development. The strengths or knowledge that got you to a position of leadership must remain as evolving and dynamic as the organization's environment.
The same holds true for leaders at all levels of the organization, even if to a lessor extent. Even at a front-line supervisory level, the leader must be in a constant state of learning, evolution, and anticipation of what is before them. They are required, at their level, to challenge their teams to grow and avoid stagnation and complacency. Their teams must be made change ready and resilient if they are to maintain effectiveness and engagement.
Let's be clear here as well that I am not talking about change for the sake of change. There are just as many leaders - in both the private and public sector - who go for the appearance of disruption without actually changing anything of substance. Nor do they intend to or are they capable of leading real change in these circumstances. The most common forms of this in my estimation are things like mergers and acquisitions and organizational restructuring.
Turning back to healthcare for the moment, how many restructuring efforts have our systems been through in the past decade or two? Can we say that the benefits of such have outstripped the cost of the disruption that was caused? I am in the cynical group that would say we have put on the modern day equivalent of Roman bread and circuses without addressing core fundamentals. Similarly, I have worked with several organizations that are in a constant state of acquisitions, driven to enhance (short-term) shareholder value or image, but oblivious to or uncaring of the systems and cultural integration work required in such endeavors. There is much bluff and bluster built on shaky foundations.
This is where the question of Disruptor - In Service of What? comes into play. And it applies no less at a front-line level as it does for a CEO. In fact, just recently, I had a newly-minted leader recount how he had been questioned and even goaded by a subordinate to be more disruptive, to challenge the culture of the organization, to take on senior leaders all in order to make a leadership mark. In the view of this subordinate, disruption was required in order to make one's mark as a leader. The further implication was that failure to be disruptive was tantamount to mediocrity and career stagnation. What I believe I heard in this was that disruption was seen as a means to advance a personal agenda. Disruption and challenging behavior were seen as necessary for career advancement, to get noticed and to otherwise standout. The reality was the organization is saddled with a challenging employee who scorns the use of influence versus power in leadership, engages lightly, if at all with others, and is not an icon of collaboration. At this point, disruption is most often destructive, conflict-ridden, and a sport for one. There is much promise accompanied by little hope that this potential can be harnessed.
It's at this point that I am reminded of Jim Collins's concept of Level 5 Leadership. Whereas our examples above seem motivated by personal gain and short-term thinking, Collins notes the success and longevity of other leaders who are as equally ambitious, disruptive and creative with a focus on team and organizational success. The difference between the hard-driving individual in the little vignette above, and the executives in restructuring and acquisitions noted earlier, is one of motivation. Disruption that acts only to challenge and destroy, or change for change's sake, are all too often about personal ambition and glory. They don't necessarily create something new and better, and even if they do create something, these edifices are built on shaky foundations that inevitably fall in the next strong wind. They get changed and disrupted by the next "great" leader.
So by all means, disrupt, challenge, seek out, and generate change. That's what a leader is supposed to do. But if you really want a legacy and to build something of lasting impact, do it for the purpose of creating something bigger than yourself, of building up the capacity of those you lead, and to realizing a potential for yourself and your organization that you never dreamed of when you started. I further suggest that being the lone wolf, railing against all around you, calling out the failings of others, may feel vindicating and cathartic. However, in order to be truly called a leader, you have to have more than a few people follow you down a new path of change. Leaders need willing and committed followers.
In my view, disruption is necessary, inevitable, and should be used to create rather than simply tear down. Be a disruptor. Be a creator. Be a leader.
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