Brant Cooper is the New York Times bestselling author of “The Lean Entrepreneur,” and the CEO of Moves the Needle. With over two decades of expertise helping companies bring innovative products to market, he blends agile, design thinking, and lean methodologies to ignite entrepreneurial action. Brant’s new book, “Disruption Proof,” explores the three drivers of leadership and organizational disruption, and how leaders today can use this power to embrace uncertainty for maximum effect.

Key Takeaways

[3:35] When we are successful, we want to take credit. When we fail, we retreat and examine why.

[4:10] Disruption creates the opportunity for the entrepreneurial mindset.

[6:15] Brant defines disruption.

[7:00] The pandemic was brutal for many businesses, but this is just a small learning lesson for what’s to come. We will see multiple bubbles of disruption.

[8:25] When it comes to disruption, Brant uses the acronym RAD = Resilient, Aware, Dynamic.

[11:55] When faced with uncertainty, create as many small experiments as you can to gain a better understanding and bring more unknown information into the known.

[12:55] Jim shares an example of how Rockefeller innovated in times of uncertainty and disruption.

[15:30] The biggest setbacks in business are when businesses don’t explore and illuminate assumptions.

[16:25] Brant shares his thoughts on how you can cultivate a RAD mindset throughout the entire organization.

[20:45] Managers’ new role isn’t to micromanage and be “on top” of their people, it’s to cultivate a learning environment.

[24:55] Brant breaks down how you can test out your riskiest assumption first in a safe way.

[31:00] A good team doesn’t just depend on one leader. They depend on each other and even team members might switch between being the leader themselves, based on their expertise.

[35:25] Companies are always focused on being under budget and on time, which leaves gaps in developing their talent.

[40:00] Brant shares examples of how companies of the past have empowered their people to solve tricky problems in the moment.

[43:00] Not everyone understands what it means to be “empowered.” Leaders need to set an example of what that actually looks like.

[45:55] Listener challenge: Put an expiration date on the calendar to explore uncertainties.

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Quotable Quotes

“Failure is where the wisdom comes from, not from your successes.” Share on X “I don’t think this is the last major disruption that’s going to roll across our economy.” Share on X “We are living in this interconnected mesh network world with the speed of information. It’s this connectedness that makes us more fragile to disruptions.” Share on X “Our first inclination is that everyone wants to be empowered and everyone knows how to be empowered, and it’s really not that way.” Share on X

Resources Mentioned

• Sponsored by: Darley.com
• Brantcooper.com
• Movestheneedle.com
• Brant on LinkedIn