UNEDITED: Defense Acquisition University’s “Think Differently” Series: Disruptors and Innovators in National Security
On Wednesday, May 6, Defense Acquisition University (DAU) hosted their latest in a series on “Think Differently,” moderated by Marina Theodotou. Panelists for this session, which recognized and celebrated the work of “Disruptors and Innovators in National Security,” were Bryon Kroger of Rise8, Molly Cain of GovCity, and Jonathan Springer of Tactical Nav.
We’ll let you give it a listen here, but here are a few takeaways before you begin, because this call was a truly disruptive one and we like it.
You are about to listen in on a home recording of this very well planned event, by DAU. Having hosted over 30 of these sessions already, make no mistake, the DAU team is well familiar with tech tools, WebEx, moderating, muting, unmuting, etc. And this event has been planned for weeks in advance, we know this because Molly was involved from the beginning as a panelist. So why the home recording for such a professional situation?
A DISRUPTIVE EVENT. For the first time ever, a webinar hosted by DAU crashed their system as everyone logged in. That’s because over 680 people dialed in to this particular event — and that is a lot — we’ve been told the most they’ve ever had. So evidently, like all good ideas and reliable systems, sometimes the boundaries are stretched.
A lot of people get disruption confused with “being disruptive.” Some weave these concepts together because they hate disruptive banter and individuals who suggest changes to the workplace so much, they consider them disruptive. That’s their fault. To be sure, a disruptive event (especially this one), is NOT disruption. It is simply disruptive to plans.
Having a contingency plan to move toward when experiencing a disruptive event, means there is actually no disruption at all. Yes, the sound quality of this renegade recording isn’t professionally captured, and yes, you’ll hear 10 minutes of bumping and bruising to get things going (we think you can also hilariously hear someone belting out the F word in someone’s unmuted phone as well, but you be the judge), but right before this recording began, Marina of DAU watched the webinar system crash and the video and sound fail her, and sitting next to her was the dial-in number and code for the contingency plan.
It bears extra highlighting that the DAU organization first drew in over 680 people to a webex for this event in the first place. That alone is incredible and speaks to the quality of their events and discussions. But the amazing thing is that all 680 people took an ADDITIONAL STEP and dialed into the new phone line, an inconvenience for sure (and one that would typically lose the interest and loyalty of participants), and showed up in the new space to attend the event.
This wasn’t disruption. It wasn’t even innovative. It was an agile mindset, a plan in the event of disruption, for a call highlighting the power of disruptors. The combination of this blend of irony and serendipity thrilled many who witnessed it.
You’ll also hear absolutely no one freaking out, in this call. Granted, we’re not peeking behind the curtain to know the innerworkings of the DAU team (if it were us, we’d be running a circus behind the scenes to lock down the solution, so we assume they were equally as on point), but public-facing, it was handled beautifully. For the panelists, it was just another day.
No, that’s not the desired energy or happening for anyone, and no, not even known “disruptors” want that kind of disruption in a business setting. In fact, “disruptors” don’t dabble in building the plane on the way down around systems, process or the knowns they trust. It is in the reliability of those systems and the known “knowns” that allow disruptors to focus their attention on problems and opportunities that are ripe for change or modification to improve something in some way.
One of the most common misconceptions of someone who calls themselves an innovator, disruptor, maverick, change agent (there are many names because none seem appropriate and all are misunderstood), is that they don’t appreciate process, that their loopholes are threats to legal or ethical guidelines, or they swim around seeking things to shake up. The real secret innovators rarely share (because who would listen anyways), is that having a standard way of doing things, having formal agendas/protocol, respecting and requiring certain traditional approaches, honoring many of the systems that came before them — these are frameworks that disruptors live within happily and often. But the difference between someone who embraces the practice of disruption and someone who is skeptical of it, is that a disruptor is more committed to the output, the goal, the mission than they are to the plan to get there. Like anyone going into something that’s never been done before (which is just about any new project, battle, or conversation with someone), a plan is great to have. Disruptors are just the ones willing to abandon a plan (including their own) the minute it proves to be leading down the wrong path, or opens a new unidentified but better path. The gift of strategic and critical thinking, with a heavy splash of bold humility and willingness to edit themselves from start to finish, is why you need innovators on your side.
We appreciate DAU hosting this event and the accidental case study on why it matters to prepare for anything, and accept it when it shows up.