You know the kids I’m talking about. Of course you do. You might have even talked about one of them at the dinner table last night. I have no doubt I was the topic of a dinner table conversation or two myself when I was a little guy. And not in a good way. “I heard that Monge kid got a bunch of kids at recess to run the wrong way around the parking lot for their excercises. Where did his parents go wrong?”
But enough about my childhood; if you want to know more about that you’ll have to get with my therapist, and he’s not talking.
There are those kids in our schools or Sunday schools or whatever that are just…well…a little stubborn. They cause problems sometimes. Issues. Disturbances. They lead nerf gun rebellions at recess. They may even act outside the lines so often and with such gusto that they have to have a note pinned to their shirt every day after first grade to take home to their parents (true story, by the way).
These kids are all over the place, and have been for years. Wouldn’t it be funny–and maybe sadly ironic–if the very thing that got these kids into so much trouble growing up is the very thing that makes them able to have a positive impact on their team, their organization, and even their world?
Humans that are wired this way, whether they’re kiddos or adults (or a delightful combination of the two), desire to change things. Sometimes that’s a good thing; other times it may not be. But the point is that these sorts–these ruckus-makers–are out there. Some of them are in plain view and others are in hiding, chased into seclusion by families, churches, organizations, schools, and whoever else thought it’d be a good idea to try to make everyone look and act like what they perceived good and normal humans looked and acted like.
The thing is, we need those ruckus-makers. Your team does. Your organization does. The world does. You see, these are the people that aren’t as concerned about coloring in-between the lines as they are about creating something beautiful. They tend to see things others don’t. They look at people and situations from unexpected angles. They want to cause a stir, and in a good way. They want to shake up the way you and I look at things, and after the dust settles, we’re usually glad they did.
Some call them heretics. Others call them disruptors. You might even think of them as organizational crusaders. Catalysts. Creators. Initiators. Ruckus-makers.
Wouldn’t it be funny if the very thing that got kids into so much trouble growing up is the very thing that makes them so valuable to organizations and the world today?
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