Every company should have a Self Destruct button

They say quite of few people have self destructive personalities which are seen to lead to very negative behaviour from the individual. But what if you used a self destructive personality in a positive light to constantly evolve. What if your company constantly self destructed and started again.

I was recently in a meeting and we were discussing how to implement a new ethos and framework into the company. I made the comment 'we have to implement this process so everyone works to it, then start to pull it apart again'. I just kind of blurted it out. After everybody laughed and kept on with the meeting I realised that's now what companies have to continue to do to survive. 


I started reading Idris Mootee from Ideacouture's blog Innovation Playground quite a few years ago and forgot how concise and loaded with positive rhetoric his posts are. He made a great statement within his post How to forget creatively

'We all create our own environments and are then constrained by them'

The environment you create for big companies often works to that time, that place, that talent and that cultural context. But how do companies play to the speed and agility of the start up communities that could change their market in a matter of months.


We have all been there. Come up with an idea that worked in that particular situation. We got praise from the people around us, collegues, friends and maybe even the industry we work in. So if it worked, it made you feel good and everyone is happy. Why on earth should we change anything. Why ruin a good thing. Thats how we see it as individuals. Think about that on the scale of management to investors or shareholders. 'Yeah everything is swimming along great ... but we dont believe it anymore so we are going to completely change everything we do'... wouldnt go down well would it.

The speed of change (or velocity as people like to use to throw some drama in) doesnt play well with the consistent use of old techniques. But there is a fine line between when too and when not too. I believe 99% of innovation these days is just iteration. A slight change on something that everyone feels comfortable with and has quantifiable justification. Which I can understand from a company's perspective because most are run by people with economics background and feel their job it is really to mitigate risk. Dont lose what you already have. But what if their is a greater risk that isnt immediate but is still eminent.

To quash the immediate negatives of a self destructive behaviour (ruining what you currently have) You almost need to create a team within the company whos job it is to test the current model to destruction. The objective is very simple. 'If you wanted to ruin our business model, how would you do it'. Identifying the holes in their strategy or execution. It really plays to the first three R's of Idris's transformation model

It makes sense to completely separate the team from the process. Completely different talent, place and just leave them to it. Im sure there are many movies that have government black ops squads who are off the radar and there job is to pull apart the system. It could also work to evolve your systems, innovate into areas you never thought about and generally make your company better for the long run.

Like when you are a little boy. Destruction can always be fun in understanding that now you need to rebuild it in your own special way. But the more interesting bit for companies is how you deliver the final R from Idris's model