Awhile back my friend Michael Josefowicz introduced me to the term “disruptive innovator.” The image with this post is Michael’s tweet which I’ve repeated below.
@toughLoveforx: @adaptivecoach So that is really cool cause -> @raffel is one my fav disruptive innovators on twitter…
So what is a disruptive innovator? My friend and editor here, Shelby Sapusek, defined it this way:
Someone who comes up with new ideas and is not afraid to put them out there as they come up with them. An unselfish sharer of ideas.
This definition left me with more questions than answers so I asked Shelby if she thought our friends Chris Brogan and Joe Sorge are disruptive innovators. Her answer was yes and I agree. The thing is they achieve the disruptive innovation in different ways.
Disruptive idea innovation
Chris Brogan is a thought leader and as such shares ideas all the time. Most of the time he’s sharing new ideas that lead others (like me) down different paths of thinking that we might not have otherwise found and explored. While not every idea Chris shares is new, his perspective on the idea or concept almost always is. He often shares ideas before he’s even sure what he’s going to do with them. The key is he gets others thinking and sharing the idea so that positive change can come sooner rather than later.
One of the beauties of blogging is that the vetting process is often limited to the author. So ideas that are raw and new get to see the light of day. Not all the ideas are fantastic but at least they get shared. Sometimes a post of Chris’s may resonate with you but not me. At other times the reverse might be true. The value is that the ideas see the light of day.
Disruptive business innovation
Joe Sorge is a doer. His company owns and manages many restaurants and one of those joints was an early adopter in the Milwaukee social media community a few years back. When Joe opened AJ Bombers, he took new approach (at least for Milwaukee) to promote the restaurant. He lived on social media, mostly Twitter, but you could also find him on Facebook and YouTube as well. He didn’t just promote his restaurant; he engaged and communicated with Milwaukee locals to encourage them to visit. Heck, this is how I got to know Joe.
I’d planned to visit the restaurant for lunch (partly so I could meet Joe and partly to try the food). I got tied up on several phone calls that morning and couldn’t make it to the restaurant until about 1:30 p.m. instead of noon. I kept him informed on Twitter that I was running late and he said, “No problem, I’ll wait for you.” At that moment, I knew I was dealing with someone different.
When I finally arrived, he asked if I’d like to sample some of the new burgers they were working on. Of course, I agreed and got to try three burgers on my first visit. Each was delicious and I’d found a new favorite place to eat and a peer in the business community at the same time.
Positive change by doing old things in a new way
Both Chris and Joe do old things but in new ways that result in positive change. Chris is a writer and writers have been around since man began drawing on cave walls. Chris found a new medium (blogging) early and used it to deliver his idea-filled musings in a different way. Restaurants have existed for a long time and yet Joe found a new two-way communication medium to promote his joints.
What old thing can you do in a new way so you can join the disruptive innovator class?
[…] lucky to be in the middle of some disruptive innovation right now. We spent three days last week sharing a message that many may not have wanted to believe […]