29 October 2019 | Münster
Neele and Alexander were invited by the organizers of the Business Unusual Forum 2019 to facilitate a workshop on "How to manage disruptive change". Drawing on their scientific expertise, the two members of S2BMRC created a cognitive, temporal, and physical "Space to Play" for 30 participants from different industries.
The workshop environment intended to enable the participants to get in touch with the phenomenon of disruptive innovation, to learn about the underlying dynamics and factors, and to understand how to perform a disruption in an incumbent organization. After a very quick theoretical input, participants were guided along a "Board for Designing Disruption". This self-developed tool is based on scientific findings and draws on design thinking methods including empathy to ground the innovation in the implicit needs of people, building up by imagining potential social, political, technological, and/or economic drivers, and enabling the participants to envision a future by using the flash fiction method. Thus, within 30 minutes, four working groups engaged in gaining empathy, understanding the status quo and people's needs in two selected cases (Disrupt the playground & Disrupt the parking space), and crafting and developing prototypes of potential disruptions. Finally, these prototypes were pitched and discussed, and the participants provided feedback on the perceived usefulness and inspirational qualities of the applied tools.
With this new workshop format, Neele and Alexander showed that disruption should not only be regarded as a threat but rather as a phenomenon that bears several opportunities for all stakeholders involved. Ultimately, the highly interactive workshop format facilitated discussions and created new promising relationships within the Münsterland region and beyond.
About Business Unusual Forum
The Business Unusual Forum 2019 brings HR executives, entrepreneurs, promoters and multipliers together as a highly interactive and entertaining exchange platform. It invites discussion and inspiration about Culture Change, HR Management, and HR Controlling in the digital age. It offers a meeting place for people who think differently, who have found good answers to the burning questions of human resource managers and the ability to reflect innovative HR solutions with experts, thought leaders and like-minded people. The mix of handpicked science speakers, our PLAY series and experienced practitioners from Continental, Deutsche Bank, Shopware, Persis and others, make the big picture of digital change tangible for HR.