Disruptive Thinkers

We all know them, those types who just, can't, hold, it, in!

You know, the people that go to meetings and to hell with the agenda, they've got something to say and they'll hijack the entire meeting to get their point across.

We have all worked with these people from time to time, heck I've BEEN that person from time to time! And as much as everyone groans when they see that So-and-so the loud mouth has been invited to a meeting, I'm here to tell you that these people can actually be incredibly useful, if you approach them in the right way.

I call them Disruptive Thinkers, they are usually very passionate about what they do, often quite knowledgeable, and best of all, are prepared to share their thoughts on what's not working and how it can be fixed. Their brains operate differently to other people's and the way they think about issues can be viewed as disruptive. For them challenging the status quo IS the status quo.

BUT you need to work with them in order to get the best out of the relationship.

Firstly you need a strong Chairperson, in any meeting with a Disruptive Thinker you can anticipate when they might want to take the floor, and thus prepared you can allocate time for this to happen and politely shut it down when it's gone on too long.

"Thanks for that, I appreciate your input, now if we could just hear from some others at the table", is one way to keep things in a box.

I often promise to take that discussion thread offline and meet up with the DT later on and then make sure I do.

Another tactic is to invite the DT to form a sub-committee so they and some others can work on his particular hobby horse.

One thing I have found from the DT's of this world is that when asked to contribute, the good ones will do so readily, almost always reading and providing feedback on documentation in a prompt fashion, be willing to brainstorm solutions and the like.

They also like being leveled with, you can say "This project is a bit of a shermozzle but the CEO is pushing it through before the end of Fin Year", they'll usually appreciate your candor and will modify their input accordingly and swing into "Lets get this thing sorted quick" mode. Because paradoxically DT's are actually good team players. 

The worst thing you can do with a DT is to sideline them because they are too much like hard work, that will only make them fester and spread their dissatisfaction more widely. It's much better to grit your teeth and engages them so they can walk around the office saying "This thing is terrible but Ricky and I are working on a solution." than have them say "This thing is terrible and no body listens to me, so it's only going to get worse.".

Anyway if you have any disruptive thinkers in your midst, I encourage you to seek them out, engages them, you'll find the rewards will be much greater than the effort.