The Art and Science of Creative Disruption

 Virtually all real economic growth or societal progress is driven by some sorts of creative disruptions.


There is no doubt we are moving from a static and linear business world to a dynamic, hyper-connected, and interdependent digital era. Innovation is the result of some kind of disruption; it can be defined as the collision between different perspectives, mind-states of possibility and thought patterns that result in creative ideas and solutions. Virtually all real economic growth or societal progress is driven by some sorts of creative disruptions.


Disrupt the outdated mindsets, systems, processes, cultures, business models, or practices: Organizations today are the business system with a mixed bag of old and new. When a system produces "bad" side-effects, we may wish to intervene. Often, creative disruptions are inevitable. In fact, innovation is all about disrupting outdated thinking and old ways to do things, such as silo, status quo, dysfunction, complication, rigidity, or bureaucracy, etc. “Disruption” and “stimulation” makes sense, taking into consideration that many businesses do not seem to be satisfied with the current circumstances because there are not enough innovations happening in their businesses to disrupt outdated mindsets, systems, processes, cultures, business models, or practices. It’s critical for organizations to make creative disruption for awakening innovation, make a seamless transformation from the closed and silo system to a cognitively open, hyper-connected, and intra-active ecological systems.

Disrupt and then reconstruct: The highly innovative companies usually have a powerful innovation navigation system which involves tapping the business ecosystem for a collective perspective on where to disrupt or where to reconstruct. When systems are bad, silo thinking is propagating, functional gaps are enlarged, you know some breakdowns are needed to stimulate innovation. When people are not working via the system to solve the real problems but play the system or create frictions to changes, or when systems beat good people every time, you know the systems are “bad,” you acknowledge that the system is dysfunctional, and creative disruption is a strategic imperative. When organizations only seek examples to follow, rather than develop their own tailored solutions to emerging problems, you know some simulations are needed to first disrupt, and then reconstruct, integrate all critical business elements into unique innovation competency.

Information Technology catalyzes constructive disruption: Historically, technology indeed stimulates mankind's imagination, to make constructive disruptions and achieve the “art of the possible” continually. Organizations today can leverage lightweight, powerful and intuitive digital technologies to make constructive innovation. The exponential growth of information brings new opportunities for companies to capture business insight or forecast customers’ demands. To make creative disruptions, organizations depend more heavily on their technological knowledge and market capabilities to experiment, learn and innovate. Information Technology matters not only because it’s pervasive, but also because it continues to advance, and its nature of the "constructive disruption." At the highest level, Information Technology needs to become the game changer for the business. Make people feel more comfortable with the digital new normal - chaos, uncertainty, and ambiguity. It’s also important to build a risk-tolerance environment, allow time for playing and exploring, stimulating creative thinking, and catalyzing disruptive innovations.

Creative disruption is both art and science. It could make previously valued skills or competitive advantage less demanded, with potential of becoming obsolete. On the other side, it’s exciting because often it could bring something new to the party - something that couldn’t have been possible. Creative disruption can lead to breakthrough innovation. So you will get very great chances and opportunities to change your organization in many fields and lift up the organization to the next cycle of growth and maturity.

Posted in: Creativity,Innovation