Outsmart Chaos 097: Disrupt What Doesn’t Serve

The Simple, Yet Effective Art of Leadership

Leadership isn’t control.

Leadership is clarity—and the courage to disrupt what no longer serves.

Disruption as a Strategic Tool

Leadership is about identifying the essence of a problem and strategically disrupting what stands in the way. If you’re in leadership, you’re in the disruption business.

You’re charged with understanding two things:

• The outcomes you’re driving toward

• The friction, inefficiencies, and broken norms standing in the way

Disrupt not with chaos—but with surgical precision.

Not to sow chaos but to carve a path to what counts.

The best leaders constantly refine. Strategic disruption is not about breaking things for attention but thoughtful intervention to remove drag. Without intentional disruption, teams settle into mediocrity, and systems break down.

Disruption becomes the essential lever that keeps growth alive.

Understand Before You Break

Strong leaders know the terrain before they move. They ask:

• What’s working?

• What’s not?

• What should be challenged to drive progress?

This is where the principles of Lean Six Sigma become invaluable. Particularly the concept of muda—a Japanese term meaning "waste"—and the Seven Mudas, which are specific types of inefficiencies that quietly kill momentum inside teams and systems:

• Transport – Unnecessary movement of materials or information

• Inventory – Excess products or materials not being processed

• Motion – Unnecessary movement by people

• Waiting – Delays between steps or decisions

• Overproduction – Making more than needed

• Overprocessing – Doing more than required

• Defects – Mistakes requiring rework or correction

Left unchallenged, each of these wastes becomes a silent tax on effectiveness. The leader's role isn’t just to spot these issues but to decode their root causes and eliminate them with intention.

This requires

deep listening,

a bias for simplicity,

and the humility to admit when processes need to evolve.

Your Role as a Targeted Disruptor

The goal isn’t to burn it all down. The goal is intentional subtraction.

• Challenge the status quo not for visibility — but for impact.

• Uproot inefficiency not to obstruct — but to empower.

• Pose tough questions to unlock your team’s brilliance.

That’s what clarity does. That’s what strength in leadership looks like.

Leadership is a craft, not a crusade. The strongest leaders know when to create stability and when to stir the waters. Effective disruption has a rhythm—it respects context, balances pressure with care, and focuses energy where it will create the highest return. It’s a leadership muscle that grows stronger through repeated, intentional use.

Chaos Challenge

What part of your system needs to be challenged?
Where are you tolerating waste that’s hurting your impact?
This week: identify one form of muda, name it, and then name how you’ll disrupt it.

Begin by observing your week without judgment. Where are things slower than they should be? Where are people confused, duplicated, or waiting unnecessarily? Name one source of waste, share it with your team or peer group, and disrupt it visibly. This act of courage will sharpen your leadership and model what it means to lead on purpose.