Organizations face unpreceded threats from disruption. With the rate of change increasing almost daily, via innovation facilitated by technology, we cannot deny this reality. We have to routinely rethink almost everything we do: how we work, what we sell, who we sell it to, infrastructure, the tools we use, our competition (known and unknown), etc.
This is a fundamental shift in how we work. It means that mastery of process, individually or collectively, becomes increasingly out of reach as we are forced to continually rethink our processes. Instead we must gain mastery at disrupting ourselves in a healthy way.
Unhealthy disruption can destroy companies. If you tear apart your car and rebuild it after every drive there is little chance of getting anywhere. Organizations may be forced to build their own disruption dashboards to monitor and tweak the disrupt/mastery mix.
I believe that every organization must find a way to institutationlize disruption. Building in the necessary time for disruption has to be carefully weighed against the damage it will do. Because it can do real damage. But if done right, it will be short lived and lead to sustainable growth. Like pruning a tree.
related: at SmallBox we have bi-annual Factory Weeks where we take a week off from client work to focus on internal projects. Most projects start with us asking "how can we do x better?" We find that every six months works for us. It creates a place for ideas that would be damaging (the negative sides of disruption) if acted on during regular business periods.
Factory Week on SmallBox site
Slideshare Factory Week Presentation: How To Guide