…first,disruptyourself!

“Everyonethinksofchangingtheworld,butnoonethinksofchanginghimself.”LeoTolstoy

By:FelipeAfanadorCortés

Augustof2017Barcelona,Spain

nnovationhasbecomethekeyelementor concept for today’sbusiness success.

Nonetheless, innovation is a mindset, a philosophy, not a strategy or a tactic,

neitheraprocess.Thismeansthatisdifficulttoreplicate,defineandtomaster.Itis

anintangiblethathelpyoucreatetangiblethings,thereforeishardtoframe.Companies

areverybadatcopyingintangibles,butverygoodatbuyingandsellingcompanies.For

example,bigcorporationsarebetteratworkinginincrementalinnovation,insteadof

disruptiveideasthatwilltransformanindustry.

Innovation, it’s also a broad term, with multiple definitions and perspectives. For

example,theInnovationmatrix,thatdefine4types:breakthrough,sustaining,basicand

disruptive.Nowadays,openinnovationhasbeencalledthebestwaytoinnovatefrom

within big corporations. Let’s recall that innovation to happen requires observation,

knowledge,aclearopportunityandtonsofconstrains.Inmodernbusinessliterature,

most of the cases and examples related to innovation are about failures of big

corporations and big wins from small and medium companies disrupting any given

market.However,innovationhasbecomeacommodity,everyoneisdoinginnovation

tojustifymodernismandalong-termview.Nevertheless,innovationcouldbeseenasa

skilloranenablertocreatecompetitiveadvantageandcreatenewmarkets.Thismeans

thatinnovationisaresourcethatwillcreatecapabilities,thatwillproduceacompetitive

advantage,thatwillchangethecompany’svalueanditsmindset.

The above thoughts aremainly focus in organizations, but if anyone start to dig in,

innovationisaboutpeople,thinkingprocesses.It’saboutobservation,linkingthedots

andfindingasolutionefficientandeffectivetoanygivenproblem.Peopleisatthecore

oftheinnovationprocess.

Ifthisistrue,anotherquestionemerges:Howandwhyanyonecoulddisrupthimmyself

tobemoreinnovative?Fromthesmallestcell,theindividualperspective,tobevaluable

inahighcompetitivemarket, innovation isa relevant skill to sell,butahardone to

prove.Innovationisnotpredictable.Justbecauseyouweresuccessfulinpastventures,

I

it doesn’tmean you are a disrupter or an innovative individual. Is better to identify

values around thinkers that are continuously questioning about how to change the

statusquo,howtodothingsdifferent,howtocreateandconnectdifferentideas,the

capacitytoobserveandproduceconclusions,peoplethatisaskingwhyandwhynot,

individuals thatarecuriousandhave theabilityofunlearnold thingsand learnnew

things,anyonethatisabletodothingsdifferent,peoplethatisabletofindtheinvisible

lines between things, individuals that find the structures and the networks to

accomplish.

Creativityishighlycorrelatedtoinnovation,becauseisrelatedtonewthings,butthey

havedifferentmeanings.Creativityismoreofaverb–aprocess-,thananadjective.As

aprocessofthehumanintelligencetomergeideasandcreatenewtangibleorintangible

ones,itcouldbelearnedandimprove.Forexample,designthinkingisagreattoolto

help individuals to be more creative, within organizations. The most well-known

innovation firm, IDEO,suggestamodel for innovation:Understandtheenvironment,

observe real people, visualize the customers, evaluate and refine theprototype and

implementthenewconceptforcommercialization.Thus,thereareframeworktowork

withtocreatenewthings,withinorganization,butlittletoapplytoanindividuallevel.

Somecouldarguethatthisframeworkcouldapplytoindividuals,howeverindividuals

are the catalyst to innovation, therefore the input and the output is different. For

example,todisruptoneself,theprocessmustbearoundmotivationsandpassionsand

linkthemwiththat individual´scompetitiveadvantage.Aplacewherenooneelse is

playing.Sometimes,identifyingthistakestimeandeffort,butit’sworththejourney.

Thewholepointaboutdisruptingoneself is identifyingthepurposeandthekeycore

competencestoworkwith.Inorderwords,findanichewhereyourinsightsarestrong

enoughtomakeyouthinkaboutthestatusquoandthethingsaroundyou.Todothis,

assessyourinternalvaluechain,tounderstandyourinputs,processesorvalueadded,

andyouroutputs.Bycreatingadisruptivemap,itwillhelpyoutonavigatetheprocess.

Thisisamapthatwillshowwhoyouaretodayandwhoyouwanttobeandhowyou

areassessingthatgapfromadisruptingperspective.

Disruptorslooktomeetneedsbyoccupyingnichesthatemploytheirdistinctivestrength

andcompetitiveadvantageforamajorobjective.AsSouthAfricancalledit:Ubuntu-

"the belief in a universal bond of sharing that connects all humanity”- Finally, our

purposeistocontributetothetimeweliveinbyreinventingourselvesandourworld.