Disruption

“I think it’s fair to say almost no one wants disruption. I think that what almost everyone does want is something better. And the art of disruption then is being able to figure out what is the likely path to get you from here to that better place with the least amount of appropriate fallout. So, you know, I spoke to the Newspaper Publishers of America 15 years ago and described in fairly startling detail, how the entire industry was going to fall apart and die. And that’s not a useful form of disruption because I wasn’t able to describe to them which boats they needed and which river they ought to start crossing right now. And if you want to be a leader, part of what you need to do is leverage the tools you’ve got, the people you have and the momentum you have to do something that might not be comfortable and might not be fun, but at least takes you to a new place in a way that’s productive and useful. ”

— Seth Godin

Thinking about leadership and how the role of leaders and how we define them is changing.  As Seth mentions, no longer are you required to be charismatic or charming. Rather, he suggests, that you become a leader and the charisma follows.  I find this empowering and resonating with the role of a user experience designer; your job is to lead change, or at least provide all the tools and persuasion to get people moving in the right direction, towards an impactful change.  You need not fit the typical mental model of a “leader”, but rather can lead by being informational and committed to honest research.  Leading a non-threatening disruption, driven by well-developed insights rather than hot-headedness.