Disrupt! Think Epic. Be Epic
Bill Jensen
Net Minds (2013)
How-to-Figure-It-All-Out
I have read and reviewed all of Bill Jensen’s previously published books and think Disrupt! is his most valuable — thus far — because it will have the widest and deepest impact. Bravo!
Now more than at any prior time that I can can remember, change really is the only constant and the nature and extent of disruptions yet to come will have no precedent. He has identified 100 “heroes of disruption” and obtained from them information, insights, and counsel he now shares in this book. His focus is on how and why to develop 25 habits that will enable almost any person and almost any organization to survive and perhaps thrive in an “extremely disruptive world.”
As I began to work my way through Jensen’s narrative, I was again reminded of Tom Davenport’s latest book, Judgment Calls, in which he and co-author Brooke Manville offer “an antidote for the Great Man theory of decision making and organizational performance”: organizational judgment. That is, “the collective capacity to make good calls and wise moves when the need for them exceeds the scope of any single leader’s direct control.”
All that said, collective judgment can soon become the foundation of a status quo whose defenders are hostage to what James O’Toole so aptly characterizes as “the ideology of comfort and the tyranny of custom.”
I also agree with Jensen about the unreliability of benchmarks established by others. Many (if not most) of them today have either become obsolete or will soon become obsolete because of disruptions that relentlessly occur with increasing speed and greater impact.
He devotes a separate chapter to each of the habits, each in the form of an admonition best viewed as a call to action. These are the seven of great interest and value to me:
o Kill what you cherish most…before others do (#3, Pages 32-37)
o Be a triage by mastering the one skill that rules all others (#6, 54-61)
o Fail more, fail faster, and iterate, iterate, iterate (#7, 62-68)
o Simplify constantly because we are all in the business of friction reduction (#11, 89-88)
o Don’t knock down, build anew, because kindness, optimism, and caring trump brute force (#18, 139-144)
o Disrupt yourself: do unto others before they do it to you (#22, 170-175)
o It’s not about you…take on the world, humbly (#25, 191-195)
I commend Bill Jensen on his skill use of reader-friendly devices that include “Getting Started” and “Key Takeaways” sections at the conclusion of each chapter. They facilitate, indeed expedite frequent review of key material later. Then in a Coda that will disrupt the thinking of those who read and then reflect on it with sufficient rigor, “As far as how to survive and thrive and get stuff done in a disruptive world…If you take away only one thing from this book, it will be this…
Everything is figureoutable.
No matter how disruptive things get: Take one step at a time, then figure it out as you go.”
So here’s the challenge: Be a Disruptor or be an Anchor that supports Disruptors. Both roles will be important, indeed essential in a world that was never more dangerous than it will be months and years to come. Fortunately, most of our limits are self-imposed. Game on!
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Bill Jensen makes it easier to do great work. He is today’s foremost expert on work complexity and cutting through clutter to what really matters. He has spent the past two decades studying how work gets done. (Much of what he’s found horrifies him.) He is an internationally-acclaimed author and speaker who is known for provocative ideas, extremely useful content, and his passion for making it easier for everyone to work smarter, not harder.
His first book, Simplicity, was the Number 5 Leadership/Management book on Amazon in 2000. His next best seller was Simplicity Survival Handbook: 32 Ways to Do Less and Accomplish More. His latest books, Disrupt! Think Epic. Be EpicThe Courage Within Us, reveal the secrets of 100 great disruptive heroes on how to thrive and take advantage of continuous disarray, disorder and change. Bill holds degrees in Communication Design and Organizational Development.
He is CEO of The Jensen Group. Among his clients are Bank of America, Merck, Pfizer, GE, L’Oréal Italia, Genentech, NASA, The World Bank, BBC, Philips Lighting, the US Navy SEALS, the government of Ontario, Singapore Institute of Management, Guangzhou China Development District, and the Swedish Post Office. Bill’s personal life fantasy is to bicycle around the globe via breweries.