Disruptive Conversations

At Accenture, one of the world’s largest business consulting firms, there 45000 people who have volunteered to take a 50% pay cut so they can volunteer in a developing country. It all started with Gib Bulloch this week’s guest. It all started when Gib read an article in the Financial Times that inspired him to volunteer, as a business consultant, in a developing country. Until then, he had always thought of international development as being outside the purview of someone with an MBA. He had always thought of it as work that was done by doctors and nurses. When Gib returned from his volunteer experience, he had bitten by purpose. He now needed to convince one of the largest consulting companies in the world that they should allow their employees to volunteer for six-twelve months at a time.

How was he going to sell the idea?

Most people walk into their bosses office to ask for raise. Gib went into his bosses office and asked him for a salary cut. He wanted to convince his boss that Accenture should take on non-commercial clients in underdeveloped markets. Gib decided to write a fake press release, two years into the future. The release read, “Accenture launches a new business.”

Gib created a business model that allowed consultants from one of the largest consulting firms in the world to work with non-profit organizations. He created a talent magnet for Accenture. The organization found that its most talented employees were the most eager to take a salary cut, they had found a way to bake purpose into their business model.

Today, Gib sees the intractable problems of the developing world as business opportunities in disguise. His experience creating what he calls a “Not for Loss” business model has convinced him that doing good is not dichotomous from doing well. Gib has recently published a book,“The Intrapreneur: Confessions of a Corporate Insurgent”, that details his journey. In this episode, we hear part of his story and many of his insights after a career of disruptive conversations.

His experience volunteering gave him a sense of purpose

Investment from employees.
Investment from the employer.
Investment form the NGO.
In life following that voice that is pointing you in the opposite direction of the heard is scaring and can be off-putting, but following that voice can take you to in the right direction.

Life is defined by the ordinary.

How would the UN build a Tesla? Look for solutions rather than pilots and projects. Purpose and social outcomes are the names of the game. Purpose-driven employees will understand the need.

One of the ways to ensure that your best talent stays is by bringing purpose to the forefront. Often it is the best innovators and most talented that leave as they seek more purpose-driven opportunities. When you get something that is purposeful it is a lightening rode for talent.

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Tendayi Viki is one of my favourite innovation thinkers, authors, and educators. In this episodes, we hear his wonderful insights on innovation and strategy. One of the comments that stood out for me in this episodes was, “it is that it is better to be lucky than to be smart.” I suspect that Tendayi love of this quote is driven by his observation that the moment you start winning, you start losing.

It is insights like these that make Tendayi one of my favourite innovation thinkers.

Another example is his observation that disruptors are not rebels without a cause. They are people who set out to create value in a specific way, and along the journey, they learned that in order to create the value they wish to create, they need to change the sector or system. Disruption is never really the main goal. It is a consequence of trying to change the world.

Tendayi spends his days supporting disruptors. The fundamental questions that seem to guide him how might we:

Create the right environment to support innovation?
What are the right tools for supporting innovation?
How do we make the right investment?
What is the right decision making frameworks?
How can managers ask the right questions at the right time?
I love questions. If people were better at asking questions we would see more innovation. Too often our organizational structures stifle innovation and pull disruptors way from the things they should be focused on if they are to generate innovation.

Throughout this episode, we explore several aspects of disruption and disruptive conversations. One example that stood out for me was the challenge of creating a sense of urgency among managers. Especially among managers who are well paid and sit in the leading positions of successful companies. For Tendayi, innovation is about doing finding new things to succeed at. Convincing managers that the bridge is burning before it starts burning is a difficult task. It is what I call a disruptive conversation and it takes great skill to navigate these conversations. Managers need to help create the conditions for innovation.  

Tendayi offers another insightful when he explains that he does not make a distinction between an entrepreneur and intrapreneur. For him, innovation and disruption succeed when you create value and there are people out there in the world who are willing to pay for that value. This value creation can come from an entrepreneur or an intrapreneur. The goal is to create value for others.  

I hope you enjoy this episode with Tendayi Viki.

Links:
http://www.tendayiviki.com/

In this episode, you will learn about some of the challenges of the future of work. This episode has a lot of great content and is hard to summarize. The future of work is full of possibility and there are new ways of collaborating that can be transformative for future workers.  This episode is a recording of a panel I attended earlier this year. Below I took some time to capture all the organizations mentioned throughout the episode. There are many examples of innovation throughout this episodes. 

Organizations and Apps mentioned in the episode. 

Dave helps people facing income volatility: https://www.dave.com/
And Co is an App for invoicing: https://www.and.co/
An example of platform community: https://enspiral.com/
Urban Workers project: http://www.urbanworker.ca/ 
Free Lancers Unions: https://www.freelancersunion.org/
Green Taxi - an alternative to UBER: http://www.mygreen.taxi/
UpAndGo - for home cleaner professionals: https://www.upandgo.coop/
National Domestic Workers Alliance is the largest network for domestic workers: https://www.domesticworkers.org/
Coworking Movement: http://coworking.com/ 
CommonWealth in Canada is high-quality retirement plan for independent workers: https://www.cwretirement.com/
Tradey is a company in Spain - an App helps freelancers prove trust to banks and traditional institutions. Uses your online data to help you go to a bank to prove you can be trusted. 
Bread Funds started in the Netherlands and was a group of people who created their own disability insurance: http://breadfunds.uk/
Coworking Toronto is community members in Toronto: http://coworkingtoronto.ca/
A coworking space in Vancouver: http://312main.ca/
GCUC is the largest coworking conference series in the world:  https://gcuc.co/
One of Toronto's first Coworking communities: http://foundery.is/
Perco Lab is an international co-creation and co-design firm: http://www.percolab.com/en/
Smart Eu is a cooperative dedicated to the needs of all freelancers. http://smart-eu.org/

What does it mean to live in a world where we struggle to find funding for programs that help children find their humanity? After my Disruptive Conversation with Mary Gordon, founder of Roots of Empathy, this is the question I was left with.

If you have never heard of Roots of Empathy, it is a nonprofit organization whose long-term goal is to build the capacity of the next generation for responsible citizenship and responsive parenting. In the short term, Roots of Empathy focuses on raising levels of empathy, resulting in more respectful and caring relationships and reduced levels of bullying and aggression.

In this episode of Disruptive Conversations, I dive into conversation with Mary Gordon. We have a candid conversation about the Art of the Disruptive Conversation. One of the many things that stood out to me was when I asked Mary to describe her most disruptive internal conversation, her answer had to do with finding herself. Her most disruptive internal conversation centred around the question who is Mary Gordon. This stood out to me for a number of reasons, for one thing, I am publishing this podcast the day after it was announced that Mary was awarded the 2018 Governor General's Innovation Award. It is a reminder that no matter how successful we are, we all seek to be comforted in knowing who we are and that we belong. It is a fundamental part of being human.

What I heard in that comment, was someone stepping into their whole humanity. Through her work, Mary’s question to the world, as I understand it, is why don’t we educate the whole child? Why do we focus on academic scores and scores in scales of humanity? Even a woman with accolades, like the Governor General's Innovation Award, can express publicly, on a podcast, that she sometimes searches for herself.

She too can be vulnerable.

I think we can all agree that empathy, vulnerability, and belonging are all integral to the human experience. If we agree with this, then how is it that teaching empathy in a classroom can be considered a radical idea? To learn more, tune into this episode of Disruptive Conversations with Mary Gordon, founder of the Roots of Empathy program.

(Chapter 5) In this mini-series, we explore how patient-generated data is being used to redefine the patient experience. This mini-series if funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and is a partnership between Reos Partners and Disruptive Conversations. In this mini-series, we explore three examples, or use cases, of how patient-generated data is being used to redefine the patient experience.

Patient-generated health data refers to data that is collected by a patient. A patient can collect this data in a number of ways, they can record data throughout the day, they can use wearable devices or data can be passively collected through a number of different kinds of technology.

In this mini-series, we explore how one team, Reos Partners, helped facilitate Disruptive Conversations in three examples. Each example explores how innovators are rethinking, reimaging, and repurposing traditional ways of working.

In these episodes, you will learn how data is being used as a medium through which patients and providers can collaborate on decisions that improve health outcomes. This new approach is not without its challenges. For example, many providers have concerns about the validity of the data. Other approaches place too much burden on the patient. Too much responsibility for them to collect data without being clear on if and how that data will be used. Perhaps most concerning of all is how can the data be used or misused?

I this mini-series, we explore many of these concerns. In each episode, we reveal how the patient can be an innovator when thinking of solutions in healthcare. We explore unlikely players and partnerships to demonstrate how some providers are inventing novel solutions to common healthcare problems.

This mini-series was funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the United States’ largest philanthropy dedicated solely to health. The foundation is focused on building a national “culture of health” that looks beyond the healthcare system to the wide range of powerful personal, cultural, and socioeconomic factors that influence health.

(Chapter 4) In this mini-series, we explore how patient-generated data is being used to redefine the patient experience. This mini-series if funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and is a partnership between Reos Partners and Disruptive Conversations. In this mini-series, we explore three examples, or use cases, of how patient-generated data is being used to redefine the patient experience.

Patient-generated health data refers to data that is collected by a patient. A patient can collect this data in a number of ways, they can record data throughout the day, they can use wearable devices or data can be passively collected through a number of different kinds of technology.

In this mini-series, we explore how one team, Reos Partners, helped facilitate Disruptive Conversations in three examples. Each example explores how innovators are rethinking, reimaging, and repurposing traditional ways of working.

In these episodes, you will learn how data is being used as a medium through which patients and providers can collaborate on decisions that improve health outcomes. This new approach is not without its challenges. For example, many providers have concerns about the validity of the data. Other approaches place too much burden on the patient. Too much responsibility for them to collect data without being clear on if and how that data will be used. Perhaps most concerning of all is how can the data be used or misused?

I this mini-series, we explore many of these concerns. In each episode, we reveal how the patient can be an innovator when thinking of solutions in healthcare. We explore unlikely players and partnerships to demonstrate how some providers are inventing novel solutions to common healthcare problems.

This mini-series was funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the United States’ largest philanthropy dedicated solely to health. The foundation is focused on building a national “culture of health” that looks beyond the healthcare system to the wide range of powerful personal, cultural, and socioeconomic factors that influence health.

(Chapter 3) In this mini-series, we explore how patient-generated data is being used to redefine the patient experience. This mini-series if funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and is a partnership between Reos Partners and Disruptive Conversations. In this mini-series, we explore three examples, or use cases, of how patient-generated data is being used to redefine the patient experience.

Patient-generated health data refers to data that is collected by a patient. A patient can collect this data in a number of ways, they can record data throughout the day, they can use wearable devices or data can be passively collected through a number of different kinds of technology.

In this mini-series, we explore how one team, Reos Partners, helped facilitate Disruptive Conversations in three examples. Each example explores how innovators are rethinking, reimaging, and repurposing traditional ways of working.

In these episodes, you will learn how data is being used as a medium through which patients and providers can collaborate on decisions that improve health outcomes. This new approach is not without its challenges. For example, many providers have concerns about the validity of the data. Other approaches place too much burden on the patient. Too much responsibility for them to collect data without being clear on if and how that data will be used. Perhaps most concerning of all is how can the data be used or misused?

I this mini-series, we explore many of these concerns. In each episode, we reveal how the patient can be an innovator when thinking of solutions in healthcare. We explore unlikely players and partnerships to demonstrate how some providers are inventing novel solutions to common healthcare problems.

This mini-series was funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the United States’ largest philanthropy dedicated solely to health. The foundation is focused on building a national “culture of health” that looks beyond the healthcare system to the wide range of powerful personal, cultural, and socioeconomic factors that influence health.

(Chapter 2) In this mini-series, we explore how patient-generated data is being used to redefine the patient experience. This mini-series if funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and is a partnership between Reos Partners and Disruptive Conversations. In this mini-series, we explore three examples, or use cases, of how patient-generated data is being used to redefine the patient experience.

Patient-generated health data refers to data that is collected by a patient. A patient can collect this data in a number of ways, they can record data throughout the day, they can use wearable devices or data can be passively collected through a number of different kinds of technology.

In this mini-series, we explore how one team, Reos Partners, helped facilitate Disruptive Conversations in three examples. Each example explores how innovators are rethinking, reimaging, and repurposing traditional ways of working.

In these episodes, you will learn how data is being used as a medium through which patients and providers can collaborate on decisions that improve health outcomes. This new approach is not without its challenges. For example, many providers have concerns about the validity of the data. Other approaches place too much burden on the patient. Too much responsibility for them to collect data without being clear on if and how that data will be used. Perhaps most concerning of all is how can the data be used or misused?

I this mini-series, we explore many of these concerns. In each episode, we reveal how the patient can be an innovator when thinking of solutions in healthcare. We explore unlikely players and partnerships to demonstrate how some providers are inventing novel solutions to common healthcare problems.

This mini-series was funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the United States’ largest philanthropy dedicated solely to health. The foundation is focused on building a national “culture of health” that looks beyond the healthcare system to the wide range of powerful personal, cultural, and socioeconomic factors that influence health.

In this mini-series, we explore how patient-generated data is being used to redefine the patient experience. This mini-series if funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and is a partnership between Reos Partners and Disruptive Conversations. In this mini-series, we explore three examples, or use cases, of how patient-generated data is being used to redefine the patient experience.

Patient-generated health data refers to data that is collected by a patient. A patient can collect this data in a number of ways, they can record data throughout the day, they can use wearable devices or data can be passively collected through a number of different kinds of technology.

In this mini-series, we explore how one team, Reos Partners, helped facilitate Disruptive Conversations in three examples. Each example explores how innovators are rethinking, reimaging, and repurposing traditional ways of working.

In these episodes, you will learn how data is being used as a medium through which patients and providers can collaborate on decisions that improve health outcomes. This new approach is not without its challenges. For example, many providers have concerns about the validity of the data. Other approaches place too much burden on the patient. Too much responsibility for them to collect data without being clear on if and how that data will be used. Perhaps most concerning of all is how can the data be used or misused?

I this mini-series, we explore many of these concerns. In each episode, we reveal how the patient can be an innovator when thinking of solutions in healthcare. We explore unlikely players and partnerships to demonstrate how some providers are inventing novel solutions to common healthcare problems.

This mini-series was funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the United States’ largest philanthropy dedicated solely to health. The foundation is focused on building a national “culture of health” that looks beyond the healthcare system to the wide range of powerful personal, cultural, and socioeconomic factors that influence health.

Andreas Demichelis is as an entrepreneur as you can find. Simply put, he is going up against Google. He is trying to use a search engine as a way of funding water projects in the developing world. The idea is simple, each time you use his search engine, Elliot for Water, you will help him bring safe drinking water to developing countries!

Although I could not see this project as not being in competition with Google, one of the world’s largest companies, Andreas reframed this for me. He point out that he only needs to get 1 million people to use his platform and he could be doing a water project each week. That is less than 0.06 percent of the Googles current searches. Additionally, what they are doing is collaborating with existing technology and are an official partner with Bing, the second larest search engine in the world. So they have partnered with people like Microsoft.

The motivation for Andreas is that he wanted to make something that did more than just make money. He wanted to make a difference. The insight for Elliot for water came little by little, bit by bit. He sees the challenge like working out, he will only grow and get stronger from the process. Whatever happens he will be learning.

For Andreas, his life is a continuous series of aha moments. He is always learning. What he really want to change is the idea that doing humanitarian work is or has to be disconnected form entrepreneurship. It shouldn’t be that if you want to help other people you have to be poor, but if you want to serve yourself you can be wealthy.

His goal is to give people the best service possible. His biggest challenge is that Google is verb. People do not search the internet they Google. From his experience people do not make a distinction between the internet, search engines, and a browser, they see it all as one thing.

His advice to other people working to disrupt a sector or system is to be patient. Things do not happen overnight. Enjoy the process and learn from it. Each mistake you make is a chance to learn and grow. Perhaps most importantly, you are exactly where you are supposed to be, you are right on time.

Links mentioned in the podcast:
http://www.elliotforwater.com/
https://twitter.com/Andrea_e4w
https://twitter.com/elliotforwater
https://elliotsway.com/


Bitcoin explained: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4g1XFU8Gto