Word of the Month: Disruption

​It is easy to accept a system simply because it is the system.
Because it has always been done this way.
Because the process already exists.
Because changing it feels harder than working around it.

But sometimes, the most responsible thing we can do is refuse to work around what is not working.

disruption: (n.) the courageous refusal to accept systems that fall short while challenging the structures, assumptions, and processes that have failed communities, nonprofits, and small businesses so that something more equitable, more effective, and more human can take their place

Yes, it's a long definition, but at Lionbear Ventures, we believe disruption is not destruction for the sake of change.

It is the courage to question what we have been told is fixed.
To ask why a process is complicated when it could be accessible.
Why resources are difficult to reach when they are meant to serve people.
Why organizations doing essential work are forced to navigate systems that make that work harder.

Disruption begins with a simple question:
Does this still serve the people it was built to serve?
​
And when the answer is no, we believe there is an obligation to imagine something better.
Not different just to be different.
Better.

More equitable.
More useful.
More sustainable.
More human.

Because communities should not have to become experts at navigating broken systems.
Nonprofits should not have to waste their capacity fighting unnecessary barriers.
Small businesses should not have to fit themselves into structures that were never designed with them in mind.

Sometimes progress means building something new.
Sometimes it means rebuilding what already exists.
And sometimes it begins with having the courage to say:
This is not working. We can do better.
​
That is disruption.
Not breaking things apart.
Making room for something better to take their place. ∎