During a conversation with Magdalena Mook, CEO of the International Coaching Federation (ICF), Whitney shared insight on the power of disruptive thinking in the workplace. She believes disruption isn’t just about products and services—it’s also about people. A company cannot disrupt unless its people do.
This deliberate process of self-innovation and personal development can be easily mapped to an S Curve—identifying the experience of growth in the fluid progression from Launch Point, through Sweet Spot, and into Mastery. This model for growth informs the S Curve Insight Tool, Disruption Advisors’ business tool that helps leaders understand and leverage these stages in their employee engagement. When a company recognizes people as their most valuable resource and seeks to unlock the potential of each individual, they unlock new potential in their business.
Read more about how Whitney and Magdalena unpack the principles of disruption and disruptive thinking, ways the Smart Growth tool elevates workforce engagement, and how one event can influence our entire life.
For Whitney, it was a day in Spain.
Whitney Johnson: I happened to be born there. But what’s interesting is that even though it’s a bit happenstance, . . . throughout my life, [I] always studied Spanish. . . . Later, coincidentally, [I] went on a Spanish-speaking mission for my church when I was 21 to Uruguay, so I actually got very good at Spanish at one point. And my children laughingly say that I think I’m part Spanish, even though I’m not at all. But that one little event of where I was born has, in many ways, influenced my entire life because I am deeply passionate and love the Latin and Spanish-speaking culture.
Magdalena Mook: Let’s talk disruption, because for many, when they hear the word, it’s probably associated with maybe a fear, maybe a little bit of a negative connotation, while you take disruption into an art of fun and joy, innovation, [and] creativity. Tell us a little bit more where it’s coming from, and how do you harness the obvious energy of disruption?
WJ: I had the wonderful experience of being able to connect with Clayton Christensen at Harvard Business School, and he is the father of disruptive innovation. And what I learned from him, of working with him for the greater part of 10 years, is this theory of disruptive innovation. And what it says is that a silly little thing can take over the world. So, like what the phone did to the telegraph, like . . . Netflix did to Blockbuster, like we’re seeing Amazon do to Walmart. . . .
But the ah-ha that I had as we were thinking about this idea of products and services and companies and countries and our investing was that disruption isn’t just about products and services: It’s also about people. That a company cannot disrupt unless its people do. And that disruption, if we distill it to its basic, most fundamental essence, is a deliberate process of self-innovation. It’s a decision that we make to teach, to step back from who we are and into who we want to be. . . .
If we can approach the process of change as an opportunity to unfold to our highest self, then that decision to disrupt ourselves is a fundamental act of agency and of coming forth, of stepping back from who we are to slingshot into who we want to be.
MM: So do we mostly get disrupted, or are we a source of disruption as well?
WJ: It’s a “both, and.” . . . External events are happening all the time that are disrupting us. The most recent big wide one was the pandemic, where we were all disrupted. But what’s interesting is that the only way to move through an external event of disruption is for us to make that decision to disrupt ourselves when we’re making the decision to change in order to be able to respond to it. And so, I’d say frequently we are disrupted and then we choose what to do in response to that. . . .
Our company is called Disruption Advisors, so we obviously think about disruption all the time. There are all sorts of “Big D” disruptions that we can enact in our lives. We can change jobs. We can move to another country. We can get married. We can have children. . . .
But if you think about the deliberate process of self-innovation, . . . those are “Little D” disruptions. . . . I’m going to take the right risk to play where no one else is playing. I’m going to not only know what my strengths are, but value and lean into my strengths. I’m going to be willing to step back in order to grow. . . . Those are Little D behavioral-led changes that seem small but in fact are very difficult because behavioral change is difficult.
MM: Talk to me a little bit about the famous S Curve?
WJ: It’s been around for decades, and it was used for most of that time to understand how groups change over time—how do they adopt a new technology? [We learned that] you could use the S-curve to help you understand how individuals grow and how they change. And when you understand that, you had this way to make meaning of that process of what it looks and feels like. . . .
There’s three stages: There’s that launch point when you’re doing something new and you feel awkward and uncomfortable and oftentimes like an imposter. And so that can be very helpful in coaching someone through a new job, a new role. Then there’s a sweet spot. . . . That’s a place where everything’s working. . . .
But then you get to this very interesting place, which is the top of that S-curve. . . . Your brain has figured a lot of things out, but it’s no longer learning. . . . The dilemma is, “I like being here, . . . but if I stay here, I’m no longer growing.” . . .
As a coach inside of an organization, . . . you can diagnose it with the [Smart Growth] tool, and you can see where people are. And then, once you have that data-driven insight, you can have that conversation. . . . It helps you solve retention issues, . . . and it also helps you deal with succession-planning.
Audience Question: What’s your advice for as coaches in order to enhance the culture of coaching?
WJ: A few of the things we measure in our tool as we’re thinking about an ecosystem is, [first], is it conducive? . . . Conducive is . . . giving people the tools so that you can be successful as a coach. . . .
[Second] is making sure that you feel connected to the mission of what it is you’re doing, but also connected to the people around you. . . .
[Third] is a sense of resilience. . . . We can help increase that resilience by being willing and open to having people who are willing to master coaching and oversee our coaching. . . .
And then the final way is through a sense of nurturing. And do we look at other people, and when we see them do really good stuff and really good work and coach well, do we call it out?
MM: Where I would take it [in a different way] is to model the coaching approach in everything we do. . . . You learn patience, ask different questions, allow space for ideas to be shared. Just bring that safe space in whatever we do. . . .
MM: What are the tools that Disruption Advisors is offering?
WJ: The Smart Growth tool helps you look at the growth readiness of the people on your team to figure out how you’re going to improve those team dynamics so that they can deliver on business outcomes. . .
And our Smart Growth certification allows you to become certified in these ideas, to be able to give people these containers that they want and need, so that they can reach that potential, both individually and collectively.
Listen to the entire conversation here.
