Do you remember your first mobile phone?

Mine was a Sony – it was known as the ‘MarsBar’ phone, as it was the shape of a popular chocolate bar. And I loved it! It was uber uber cool, and when I used it so was I!

If you are of my vintage (I’m a very young 50), you too might have had a Nokia, Ericsson or Motorola. That was back in the day when a phone was a phone: but I’ll bet you don’t have a Nokia, Ericsson or Motorola today.

Disruption a new normal

Apple disrupted the mobile phone market with the iPhone and today the kings of the mobile phone industry circa 1990 are largely extinct or insignificant.

The budget airlines disrupted the established players like British Airways – back when airports used to be airports not shopping centres.

Google disrupted Yahoo (and everyone else).

And don’t mention Uber to a London Black cabbie.

You get my point? The nature of markets and innovation is that people come along with better ideas. New ways of giving the market what people want with more value or less cost. And the incumbents become the followers.

Disruption happens

To the LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® communities longer standing members our new book, Serious Work might be seen as disruptive in the world of LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY®. The book offers new models and points to new possibilities.

And if that is so, then it can only be a good thing. For now more than ever professionals at work need new tools and new ways of communicating and hearing each other. Organisations need much better ways to explore the consequences of their ambitions.

We are trying to legitimise a process that for those who know its power can surely only agree as being a good thing – non?

Threats to Grandad

Recently I’ve thought about my long-since-dead lovely Grandad. I’ve thought about the kind of meeting he attended. I imagine a rather victorian meeting culture dominant in his era.

You know what? I imagine a flip chart and a marker pen would have been unthinkable in his meetings.

– Standing up in a meeting?
– Holding court?
– Expressing opinions?

Unimaginable! Yet today the flip charts are ubiquitous communication tools. So maybe in 20 years the LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® method will be equally as acceptable and looking back, our book might be seen as having played a role in unlocking the mighty power of the humble brick.