Ever feel like you’re on a merry-go-round that’s accelerating, but you can’t get off?
In the latest episode of Daily Creative, I sat down with innovation expert Scott Anthony to explore the patterns, perils, and playfulness of navigating epic disruptions—those seismic shifts that upend industries and rewrite the rules of success. Drawing on stories from the past and insights from Scott’s new book, Epic Disruptions, we explored how to develop a sharper lens for distinguishing fleeting fads from genuine, market-shaking transformations and equipping ourselves to ride the next big wave rather than get wiped out by it.
Here are a few principles from our conversation:
1. Disruption rewards those who balance imagination with discipline, not just the first-movers or status-quo keepers.
Chasing every shiny object or clinging to what’s always worked are equally risky moves in times of rapid change. The sweet spot? Leadership teams who boldly experiment, adapt quickly, and stay disciplined about what actually delivers value. Breakthrough business models rarely look impressive or important at first, but those who blend creative risk with smart process put themselves in position to win as the landscape shifts.
Question: Where in your current projects are you too cautious—or too reckless—when you should be running smart experiments?
2. Listening only to your best customers can steer you straight into irrelevance.
The Innovator’s Dilemma, as uncovered by Clay Christensen, shows us that great firms often fail not because they’re lazy, but precisely because they are doing everything “right”—serving their most valuable customers. But these customers rarely see the coming shift, and clinging to their feedback can blind you to fringe innovations that will eat your lunch. The rise (and fall) of BlackBerry is a powerful example here.
Question: Who are you listening to right now that might actually be encouraging you to preserve what’s about to become obsolete?
3. Disruption always casts a shadow, sometimes leaving chaos before progress arrives.
Major change doesn’t shower only winners with confetti; there are real losers, messy transitions, and fierce turf wars over what’s safe or fair. In our conversation, we compared the rise of the automobile to today’s AI battles—both created confusion, collateral damage, and the need for new norms before finding their place. Anticipating and actively working through this “disruption shadow” is essential for responsible leadership.
Question: What shadow is falling over your team or industry right now, and are you brave enough to wrestle with its uncomfortable realities?
4. The future is at the edges, not in the mainstream—look to outliers and the overlooked.
Game-changing innovations usually start out serving overlooked or underserved groups—the hearing aid market before transistors went mainstream, or AI being hacked together by everyday users for off-label solutions. The lesson: the “weirdos,” the ignored, the market’s marginalized are often the earliest signals of what’s next. Leaders who proactively listen and learn from the edges gain a preview of tomorrow’s center.
Question: Which fringe behaviors, hacks, or communities are you genuinely curious about (but perhaps haven’t engaged with) in your ecosystem?
5. Innovation is always collective, never a solo act, no matter how seductive the lone genius myth may be.
Every disruptive story has heroes—plural—not just a single visionary. While history books like their protagonists, Scott urges that breakthroughs happen when networks of talent share, tinker, hand off, and build together (often across years or even decades). If you want more innovation within your team, make it less about individual genius and more about fostering the messy collective magic.
Question: What’s one habit (personal or organizational) you could tweak to encourage more “productive messing around” and cross-pollination of wild ideas?
No one expects you to decode disruption alone.
As William Gibson reminds us, “The future is already here—it’s just not very evenly distributed.”
Spend time this week seeking out those future pockets: play with a new tool, talk to someone younger or farther from the center, and create a little space not just for work, but for collective play. You just might find the next epic disruption before everyone else does.
