DISRUPTIVE THINKING YOUTH LEAD

The recent Junior Achievement Eswatini National Expo and Company of the Year Competition was a brilliant platform to show off Eswatini’s next business leaders. Most are vibrant, optimistic, focused and seem to be effortlessly solutions-orientated.

This competition’s theme ‘Activating Disruptors’ also introduced many congregated at the showcase to the new, yet seemingly old concept of disruptive thinking. The word disruptive may rub one the wrong way at a glance. However, there is good disruption, as I have reluctantly learnt as well.

As the world continues to evolve, especially technology wise, the theme for this year’s competition is aligned with the global developments and refreshed thought processes.
The competition was encouraging the young competitors to come up with ideas that disrupt existing industries or products and improve the way they function.

concepts

What keeps entrepreneurs awake at night is not that they must come up with fresh concepts and business ideas regularly but how to apply disruptive thinking to existing concepts.
This is to make them better and align them with the times the world is in. There is no profit in stagnancy. Stagnancy profits no one.

The various business ideas displayed by the participating schools show that Eswatini’s future is bright and they are on the move, not stagnant.
And they are disruptive. From ideas of mobile phone applications to monitor a student’s school work to portable saunas.

These are all the fresh ideas the youth shared with captains of industry just two weeks ago. The contest was won by Manzini Nazarene High School.
And I must declare my interest in all this because I was among the judges so I also had the privilege to get a close up view of some of the innovative businesses.

This was a heartwarming experience because it shows that there is a hope for the country’s future.
Before attending this event, or even gaining an interest in JA issues I never had an idea about who they are, what they do and why we, as a nation should care about them.

learnt

But over the past 18 months I have learnt more about them. I would love to share a bit on them before we continue and discuss disruptive thinking.
This is basically an NGO that aims to provide entrepreneurship education to young people through training, mentorship, resource mobilisation, financial literacy, job shadow with the aim of improving their social and economic success.

Back to disruptive thinking. This is described as a way of thinking that produces an unconventional strategy that leaves competitors scrambling to catch up.
A way of thinking that turns consumer expectations upside down and takes an industry into its next generation.

This is what the various schools that participated during the National Expo were encouraged to do.
And it is such thinking that will create fresh solutions for our economy.
So of late I have been reading more about this disruptive thinking.

power

I caught on an online feature titled ‘Five ways to harness the power of disruptive thinking.”
One of these ways is choosing to colour outside the lines, get out of your comfort zone, forget what people think, welcome failure and be bold with wild ambition.

The feature questioned what makes thinking disruptive?  And quotes an article from Forbes.com in which a certain Lisa Bodell, CEO of futurethink, advised that disruptive thinking is characterized by a line of questioning that awakens the mind, rather than puts it to sleep. Perhaps like some of those creative adverts we see on television these days that make you marvel at the creative thought process. Most importantly after drooling at this creativity you are also sold to love the brand.

Bodell says disruptive thinking has questions that usually begin with ‘how,’ ‘which,’ ‘why’ or ‘if’ and are specific without limiting imagination.” 

explanations

“They focus on generating solutions rather than begging long-winded explanations and place blame, as often-asked ‘close-ended’ questions always do.”
For example, traditional, linear thought would easily lead to this question: “Who has an idea for improving our product/service?”
Disruptive thinking, however, would go something like this: “If we hosted a forum called ‘How Our Products and Services Suck,’ what topics would be on the main stage?”

An equally effective version is “Which two things could our competitors do to render our product/services irrelevant?” Make sense? It’s the powerfully divergent shift in perspective that makes this process so effective.

As a personal development and social commentator I love the rallying line within this feature on disruptive thinking that states; “if you want to overcome barriers to reaching your goals this year, saddle up and learn to harness the power of disruptive thinking.”

presentation
Indeed to bring the process closer to home and in particular the JA Eswatini example, winning the young students started off their presentation showing an old woman sitting in her community wondering how she could monitor her child’s school performance.

It then goes on to show the solution to be their product. The introduction of the old woman is catchy, inviting and disruptive.
If you want things to happen differently for you, you need to start going about your life differently. And perhaps also take a leaf from the disruptive thinkers. After all they are the present and the future.

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