Career
Disruption & Diversity
- by Holly Burton
A few years ago, I attended a conference on women's leadership. Mostly it was yucky -- rah-rah feminism mixed with corporate buzzwords -- but there was one talk that unexpectedly changed the way I thought about the arc of my career, my work as a coach, and my whole concept of diversity and inclusion.
The talk was by Michelle Moore, and it was about Disruption.
Disruption: One of My Many Middle Names.
I've learned by watching myself over the years that Disruption is a big way of life for me. I've never met a process I didn't want to improve or a way of looking at things that I did differently than most people.
In my first job out of school as a mining engineer, I completely revamped our production reporting and designed a new mine planning method. At my next job, I created a new approach to sales that made the company an extra $250k in a single quarter. Later I worked with maintenance, geology, and mine planning to create the most data-informed strategic plans and budget we had ever made. Then I quit and started WIMDI (and you know how that story goes).
There's nothing I don't get my hands in. I'm one of those weirdos that's always trying to change the world.
And luckily for me, this conference talk spent a whole hour talking about disruptive weirdos like me.
People LOVE Disruptive Weirdos Like Me
WIMDIs, let me tell you: The business world is OB-SESSED with disruption.
Mmm, they say, Disruption is so delicious. If we can revolutionize our business ahead of the competition, we'll be diving into giant piles of money like Scrooge McDuck*.
*(but hopefully with less racism & colonialism)
And I get the appeal. Although it sounds uncomfortable, making enough money to go swimming in a pool filled with gold coins has its fiscal advantages (and probably makes shareholders very happy). There are so many examples of companies who changed the game in their industry to wild acclaim and crazy valuations that it makes sense that companies would try their darndest to #disrupt stuff too.
But, of course, disruption isn't a total love fest.
People Also HATE Disruptive Weirdos Like Me
When you hire someone to disrupt the existing business model, you should (obviously) expect them to disrupt things.
So what does that mean? Well, our lovely friends over at thesaurus.com offer some instructive synonyms:
Rattle
Agitate
Shake
Unsettle
Upset the Apple Cart
Fun, right?
There are two main themes in that list: Change and Discord. And those are two things that human beings are hard-wired to detest.
Humans are risk management machines, for obvious reasons: The humans who aren't get Darwin-Awarded out of reproducing their risk-loving genes.
Over the generations, people have learned that the easiest ways to stay safe are to:
#1 - Avoid Change
Stick to predictable situations where you know how to manage the risks. New situations are inherently more risky because there are more unknowns. Sometimes the unknowns are embarrassing but no big deal, like singing the wrong note in a new song at karaoke. But other times those unknowns are going out hiking for the first time and getting tackled by a cougar.
#2 - Squash Discord
Don't fight with people because you might need their help. If you want to do anything ambitious, you'll probably need assistance. Trying to build a company? You need people. Want to remove a racist jerk from political office? It'll take more than just little 'ol you protesting in the streets and getting out those votes. And, ambition aside, you need people when life sucks too. When life gets hairy, we need people to turn to who can help us through the tough parts. Maintaining harmony in our family, friend groups, workplace and wider networks lets us do all that good stuff.
Cool!
Now, those two nifty little rules of thumb work whether you're trying not to get eaten by a bear or if you're just trying to keep your job. And just like not meeting an untimely ursine end, jobs are about survival -- they give you the money you need to...you know...pay rent and buy food.
So, unsurprisingly, disruption makes people a little nervous because it is designed to do literally the opposite of these two fundamental how-not-to-die rules. Disruption is all about change, and change often begets discord.
So It's Not Always Straightforward to Manage Disruptive Talent
With disruption, you get the good with the bad. There is no changing radically without...well, changing things radically. And lots of companies really struggle to embrace and empower that, even if it's what they say they want.
Embracing disruption means fostering change. It means creating uncertainty where you didn't have any before. And it often stirs up yucky things on teams: fear, infighting, and passive aggressive behaviour designed to maintain the status quo.
To manage this well and to get the full benefits of the disruptive talent they hire (like me), companies have to have strong management that's prepared to deal with some strife.
And in companies that aren't 100% on board with everything that comes with disruption -- including all the challenging parts -- the disruptive talent can become an easy scapegoat.
Fun.
Holly, What Does This Have To Do With Diversity, Equity & Inclusion?
Great question!
Well, the cool thing is that this story isn't just about disruptive weirdos like me who have some kind of DNA quirk that makes pursuing change my default setting. It's a story about anyone who disrupts the status quo. Who sees things differently. Who doesn't fit into the standard boxes.
This is a story about all of us women and marginalized folks in male-dominated industries who -- by definition -- aren't exactly the standard-issue straight, white, able-bodied dudes that make up 80% of our workplaces.
Because of our difference from the norm, we bring something different -- and a little disruptive -- to the table, whether we're explicitly trying to or not:
- When we ask about parental leave at a small engineering consultancy that never even considered having a policy -- because the men who worked there just took a few vacation days when their kids were born -- we disrupt the status quo.
- When we push for live closed captioning to improve accessibility at company town halls, we change the norms.
- Heck, even when we have idle lunchtime chit chat about the latest season of Insecure instead of the score from last night's sportsball game, we challenge conventions.
If you come to the table with a different set of life experience, a different socialization, or a different view of what normal looks like than most of the people you work with, then by choice or by chance, you are probably a disruptive weirdo like me.
Disruptive Weirdos = The Problem™
All of this stuff -- big and small, intentional and unintentional -- adds up and disrupts the business practices and social conventions that were once so normalized that they were invisible.
Hooray! #Disruption is the name of the game, right?
Not so much.
Like any change, the disruption outside-the-norm-talent brings with it is not always comfortable -- especially for those who benefit most from the old system. Great leaders will recognize the change and discord as essential signs of progress to revolutionizing their business. But most leaders get scared off.
Suddenly you have a bunch of stale-pale-and-males feeling uncertain and relying on their old survive a bear attack strategies: Avoid Change, Squash Discord.
And the bad news is, if the goal is to avoid change and squash discord, it's often just easiest to blame the disruptive weirdo (read: anyone in the minority) for creating the problem in the first place. After all, the problem didn't exist before they showed up with all their newfangled ideas and bizarre approaches, right?
So disruptive weirdos -- and the outside-the-norm employees that disrupt just by existing -- end up paying the price. We get labelled as The Problem™ and then tortured into quitting or managed right out the door (ahem: Basecamp).
Ugh.
So Now What, Miss Doom n' Gloom?
Now that we've taken a good look at this demoralizing pattern companies use to trip up some of their best talent, there's a few things we can do other than (in addition to?) having a good cry and stress-eating a whole carton of ice cream.
If you're a disruptive weirdo by DNA like me, a woman in a male-dominated industry (also like me), a person who comes from a different socioeconomic background than most of your peers (yep, like me), or someone who's experiences marginalization due to race, sexuality, gender expression, body size, immigration status, or any other dimension of who you are, then you've got to have a sensitive radar for companies that know how to treat the #disruption you naturally bring to the table as an asset, not a terrifying liability to be minimized. Here are some concrete tips to help you identify them:
Disruptive Weirdo Tip #1
Interview for companies and managers that effectively foster diversity, equity, and inclusion
So this is the obvious one, yeah? The proof is really in the pudding when it comes to equity. If you have enough privilege and safety to do it, start by looking directly at how and what they do about diversity, equity, and inclusion:
- What is their current company composition? And what are their goals?
- How do they track diversity within the company? Do they have stats for representation of minorities by level of seniority? Do they track who gets promoted? Who gets stretch assignments? Pay equity?
- What policies do they have in place to ensure equitable promotions (not just hiring!)
- How do they handle conflicting opinions and viewpoints on the team about equity issues?
- What did they do internally (not just publicly) the last time a major diversity, equity, and inclusion issue was in the news? How did BIPOC, LGBTQIA2+, neurodivergent, and/or disabled folks inside the company feel?
Pay special attention to what a company does and not just what they say to get a clear picture of what'll happen when the rubber hits the road for disruptive weirdos like you.
Disruptive Weirdo Tip #2
Interview for companies and managers that effectively manage complex, disruptive change
Let me make an assertion: Companies that struggle to manage disruptive change will also struggle to manage equitable workplaces. They require the same competencies and fall over for the same reasons. So think about the following things when you interview:
- Has the company (or manager!) previously set out a bold vision that required large-scale changes? How did it go?
- What concrete actions has your manager taken to support change makers when they've faced dissent, pushback, or passive-aggressive tactics?
- Is the manager adept at making unpopular decisions when necessary?
- How much is stability and certainty valued (vs the results they'd get from disruptive change)? Do they consistently compromise on their bold vision for change to soothe employee, manager, executive, board, or shareholder worries?
Red Flags & Green Flags
Looking at these two elements -- how companies handle disruptive change and diversity, equity and inclusion -- will give you a good picture of whether a company's management has the skills to support you so you can excel.
If you want to have a fighting chance as a Disruptive Weirdo, you need companies that can do both of these things well or else you'll end up with The Problem™ stamped on your forehead -- and maybe a big therapy bill too.
Good luck out there, all you disruptive WIMDIs! I'm so excited for you to use these new tools to improve the accuracy of your red-flag spotting operations and get yourselves into companies that will appreciate -- and can use! -- your amazing talents.
