The meeting had been going on for a few minutes, when a junior executive rushed in, late. The boss looked up and glared. The junior said “excuse me, I didn’t mean to disturb.”
The executive grinned and said, “No problem, I’ve been disturbed for quite some time.” There were uncomfortable chuckles.
What can you make from that? On one hand, there’s the obvious, which is a more literal interpretation. The boss admitting his deranged approach to people and life. Thus the chuckles and the squirms in the chairs.
I prefer to take another view to explain the statement; one which I favor a great deal. I like staying disturbed; in perpetual motion with a hunger for Growth and advancement of new ideas.
I Love being able to remain open to new ideas, fresh thoughts from sources you trust, or great books and programs.
Being disturbed is the opposite of being comfortable. Comfort zones feel good for a while, but they prevent sustained growth and performance. The world around us doesn’t sit still. Why should we?
Fresh ideas make for growth. There is nothing worse in a leader than the attitude “this is the way we’ve always done it.” I actually hate that mindset.
The global markets today like to talk about disruptive ideas. Uber disrupted transportation. AirBnB disrupted hospitality. Amazon disrupted Retail shopping. SO on and so on…
Think of comfort zones like your favorite old recliner. Sure, it feels great to sink into it after a long day, but what happens if you never get up? Your muscles weaken, your energy drops, and eventually, you can’t do the things you once could.
The same happens in business. When leaders settle into “the way we’ve always done things,” they’re essentially sinking into that comfy recliner while their competitors are out running marathons. Every day you spend in your comfort zone is a day your competition might be reinventing themselves.
Research shows that our brains actually form new neural pathways when we’re challenged – when we’re “disturbed.” Without that disturbance, we literally stop growing mentally. The same principle applies to organizations.
Being disturbed doesn’t mean creating chaos. It’s more like being the person who asks “why?” in a room full of people nodding along. It’s about creating just enough tension to spark Innovation without causing paralysis.
Think of it like stirring a pot of soup. Stir too little, and ingredients settle at the bottom and burn. Stir too vigorously, and you’ve got a mess on your counter. The sweet spot is that gentle, consistent stirring that keeps everything moving and blending.
As leaders, we need to be master stirrers – creating enough movement to prevent stagnation, but not so much that our teams feel unsettled and insecure. Ask the uncomfortable questions. Challenge assumptions. Invite differing viewpoints. But always within a framework of psychological safety where people know their value doesn’t depend on having all the answers.
Disruption causes disturbing ripples wherever it goes. The status quo gets disturbed in a big way. Henry Ford has been quoted as saying “I had no interest in asking people what they wanted in transportation. They would have said faster horse.” Ford’s “Quadricycle” that later became the Model-T disrupted the horse and buggy era.
At approximately 4:00 a.m. on June 4, 1896, in the shed behind his home on Bagley Avenue in Detroit, Henry Ford unveils the “Quadricycle,” the first automobile he ever designed or drove.
Ford was working as the chief engineer for the main plant of the Edison Illuminating Company when he began working on the Quadricycle. On call at all hours to ensure that Detroit had electrical service 24 hours a day, Ford was able to use his flexible working schedule to experiment with his pet project–building a horseless carriage with a gasoline-powered engine. His obsession with the gasoline engine had begun when he saw an article on the subject in a November 1895 issue of American Machinist magazine.
The following March, another Detroit engineer named Charles King took his own hand-built vehicle–made of wood, it had a four-cylinder engine and could Travel up to five miles per hour–out for a ride, fueling Ford’s desire to build a lighter and faster gasoline-powered model.
As he would do throughout his career, Ford used his considerable powers of motivation and organization to get the job done, enlisting friends–including King–and assistants to help him bring his vision to life. After months of work and many setbacks, Ford was finally ready to test-drive his creation–basically a light metal frame fitted with four bicycle wheels and powered by a two-cylinder, four-horsepower gasoline engine–on the morning of June 4, 1896.
When Ford and James Bishop, his chief assistant, attempted to wheel the Quadricycle out of the shed, however, they discovered that it was too wide to fit through the door. To solve the problem, Ford took an axe to the brick wall of the shed, smashing it to make space for the vehicle to be rolled out.
With Bishop bicycling ahead to alert passing carriages and pedestrians, Ford drove the 500-pound Quadricycle down Detroit’s Grand River Avenue, circling around three major thoroughfares. The Quadricycle had two driving speeds, no reverse, no brakes, rudimentary steering ability and a doorbell button as a horn, and it could reach about 20 miles per hour, easily overpowering King’s invention.
Aside from one breakdown on Washington Boulevard due to a faulty spring, the drive was a success, and Ford was on his way to becoming one of the most formidable success stories in American business history.
That was total disruption of a period in history. There have been many more since.
While we often think of disruption in terms of Technology, today’s most powerful “disturbers” are changing more than just products – they’re challenging entire mindsets.
Look at Patagonia’s approach to sustainability, actively telling customers “Don’t buy what you don’t need” – a completely counterintuitive stance for a retail company. Or consider how Spotify didn’t just deliver music differently but changed our relationship with ownership itself, helping us see that access can be more valuable than possession.
Even in traditional industries, disturbance drives progress. When chef José Andrés formed World Central Kitchen, he disturbed the entire disaster relief model by showing that chef-prepared hot meals could be delivered in crisis situations faster than conventional aid organizations could mobilize.
These leaders succeeded not by settling for incremental improvements to existing models, but by questioning the fundamental assumptions their industries had built upon.
How can you become productively “disturbed” in your own leadership journey? Here are some starting points:
Being disturbed starts as a choice before it becomes a habit. Much like exercising a muscle, the more you deliberately step outside your comfortable thinking patterns, the more natural it becomes to live in that productively disturbed state.
That executive who joked about being “disturbed for quite some time” might have revealed more Wisdom than they realized. In a business landscape that changes at an unprecedented pace, the leaders who thrive aren’t those with all the answers – they’re the ones comfortable with questioning everything, including themselves.
Being disturbed isn’t about being difficult or contrarian for its own sake. It’s about maintaining the intellectual humility to recognize that today’s solution will become tomorrow’s problem if we cling to it too tightly.
So the next time someone tells you to “stop rocking the boat,” remember that still waters become stagnant. The most vital waters – in nature and in business – are those with movement, with disturbance. Those are the waters where new life thrives.
Question: Are you disturbed enough to lead effectively in today’s world? If not, perhaps it’s time to disturb yourself.
The post The Value of Staying Disturbed: A Leadership Philosophy appeared first on Business Advisor and Executive Coach | Doug Thorpe.
