Creative Disruption has long been used in the marketing world to break existing patterns of behavior of a target audience, and smart CEO’s are now using this technique to change the pattern of behavior in their leaders.
National business consultant Lorraine Grubbs along with CEO Frank Granara of Boston-based General Insulation recently used creative disruption to address a lack of honest communication among their high-potential team.
The team consists of 10 individuals selected to participate in the company’s high-potential program. They had been together through four development sessions and, as expected, some individuals embraced the opportunity to learn, while others were not giving it their all. Although the higher-performing team members knew some were coming up short, they weren’t doing anything to encourage the lower-performing members to step up their game.
Lorraine and Frank gathered the team together and introduced a creative disruption technique based upon the TV reality show “Survivor.” Each member of the team was asked to submit the name of an individual who they thought had contributed the least and explain why. Not surprisingly, out of the 10 team members, three people were “voted off” (the same three people Lorraine and Frank had identified).
After collecting the names, the team was asked to tell the individuals the group had voted off why they were chosen. The intent was to have them identify the weakest links, but further, to have them communicate honestly with the lower performers, and finally to come up with a way to help the low-performers improve their performance. It was a great way to teach the leaders how to conduct difficult conversations, while addressing individuals’ vulnerabilities.
Although no one was eliminated from the high-potential program, it was a tough exercise for all participants. Still, ultimately, this creative disruption technique taught a critical leadership lesson about the need for open, honest communication, even when it is uncomfortable.
What do you think of this activity? Would you be comfortable participating in something like this? Would you ask your team to? How can you utilize creative disruption techniques to enhance communication among your employees?
Frank Granara and Lorraine Grubbs are co-authors of Beyond the Executive Comfort Zone: Outrageous Tactics to Ignite Individual Performance. Granara is CEO of General Insulation Co. and has a bachelor’s degree in business from Northeastern University. Grubbs is president of the consulting firm Lessons in Loyalty. As a former 15-year executive with Southwest Airlines, she takes principles and practices she helped develop to companies that strive for better employee engagement and loyalty.
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