Moe and Whitney Johnson talk about how to put the power of disruptive innovation to work.
Design Your Life: Be Driven By Discovery
One of the more fascinating concepts that I learned about this year was the idea of approaching your life as a startup. It originated when I spoke to Stanford professor and Executive Director of its Design Program, Bill Burnett about the hugely popular graduate course “Designing Your Life.” Unlike any other course you’ve ever taken, this curriculum will use the design thinking mythology to help you understand why unique solutions emerge when you start by reframing the problem that you’re attempting to solve. Students are encouraged to learn the power of living intentionally; being grateful; being generous; being self-aware; and being adaptable. Not your typical computer science topics, but the very essence of what it takes to live a life that matters.
When I was preparing to speak with Whitney Johnson about her new book, Disrupt Yourself: Putting the Power of Disruptive Innovation to Work, I couldn’t help but wonder what would become of this generation, if they had spent a semester in Bill Burnett’s class. As you listen to Whitney describe her own experience with personal disruption, you’ll see the correlation between her ‘be driven by discovery’ discipline and Bill Burnett’s message.
Here’s what we discuss:
- The convincing moment when you’re called to change directions
- The mental shift required to make a successful transition
- How to incorporate ‘the job to be done’ philosophy into your personal disruption
- What to do when your strengths don’t correlate with something that can get you paid
- Why the very constraints that get in the way are the way
- What ‘they’ don’t tell you about failure
- What it means to ‘be driven by discovery’
- Resources: