Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.
Søren Kierkegaard – Philosopher

Several years ago, there was an ad for Putnam Investments:

“You think you understand the situation, but what you don’t understand is the situation just changed.”

Amen! This seems to be a fundamental Disruption Rule: When I think I’ve just got it, ‘got’ and ‘it’ both seem to have changed. This could be on a global, business, and personal level.

And, it’s scary! For example, I don’t like sudden and disruptive change.

Story: The challenge is disruption and change are inherent in all paradigm shifts. Disruption distorts our perceptions of our life and work. Disruption can distort our reality – the ‘is’ of what is happening around us. COVID work disruption is distressing. You react according to your perceptions of the ‘is’, which can be distorted by old career assumptions or work rules and how you or react or respond to your work, career, and job disruptions. This results in a vicious cycle.

For example, I follow good and prescribed COVID safety practices. Can I assume others will do the same? If you believe that work disruptions and risks are the new normal, then a critical issue is how will businesses and people cope, sustain, and compete in these disruptive times.

This will be a critical issue for all people.  George Bernard Shaw, the philosopher, offers the following wisdom. He said the world is populated by three kinds of people:

1. Those who make things happen.
2. Those to whom it happens.
3. Those who wonder what happened?

Work Lesson Earned: If there’s one thing I want you to walk away with from this piece , is that it is better to be clued in rather than clueless. And, I want you to be in the first Shaw category: 1. Those who make things happen.

Or in other words, you want to be a disruptor, NOT a disruptee. Got it? Do it!