Reprint: R1207Q
Disruptive innovation has been a pioneering concept in business since 1995. Johnson, a founding partner at Clay Christensen’s investment firm, explains how you can apply disruptive thinking—responsible for the success of many products, companies, and even countries—to your own career. Using the stories of highly successful personal innovators, including herself, she articulates four principles of self-disruption:
1. Target a need that can be met more effectively.
Playing in a market where no one else is or wants to be might mean leaving your comfortable career perch for an amorphous role. But it will enable you to head off the competition and could generate rewards you’d never envisioned.
2. Identify your disruptive strengths.
Think about what you do exceptionally well that most others can’t. Then use that discovery to make an innovative transition.
3. Step back (or sideways) in order to grow.
Personal growth can stall at the top of a classic S curve. Avoid that problem by jumping to a new plane and putting yourself on an entirely different growth trajectory.
4. Let your strategy emerge.
Don’t hesitate to be flexible and inductive in your approach to personal innovation. Disrupters take a step forward, gather feedback, and adapt accordingly.
