Disruptive thoughts...

Disruptive thinking, disruption, getting to sleep at night...

Years ago I had a boss who looked like Lenin - but with much bigger muscles.

When he travelled around the world strangers would come and tell him ‘you look like Lenin’. Or ‘Are you Lenin?’.

He would say ‘He is my little brother’. As far as I know it was not true.

Source Unknown, presumably official - [1], date attested from http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/photo/1920/015.htm

My other strong memory of him was that he would often sit in his glass cubicle, feet up on the desk, eyes closed. If anyone knocked on his door he would open his eyes and say ‘never forget - thinking is also working’. He was the boss so could get away with this.

At the time this was unusual - he was in charge of a £25 million water and sanitation project. Our team was mostly male engineers, and ‘presenteeism’ and long hours were the (macho) norm (as was smoking in the office. Even drinking beer in the office). Freestyle thinking was not actively encouraged.

disrupting disruptive thinkers

I remember ‘Lenin’ when I am thinking about ‘work’ - while running, gardening, drawing, sleeping. Scrolling on twitter. We are now better at making time for it - and doing activities that help foment or crystallise ideas - even during working hours. (Is this true…?).

I think this is good (do you?). I think better when doing something else. Positive disruptive thoughts about how we might do things differently - and better. Also lots of crazy impractical thoughts to sift through and discard before sharing with anyone else.

My problem is disruptive ideas that come when I need to be doing something else with my brain. Like sleeping.

normal services may be disrupted

My other problem is needing to share these half cooked thoughts with others as soon as I have them. Thank you, and sorry, friends on WhatsApp (and old Twitter) for the disruption. (and Substack…)

There is a fine line between ‘disruptive thinking¹’ and just being disruptive. (I borrowed this line from a friend who is a brilliant disruptive thinker - thank you - you know who you are).

no conclusion

So, do you have enough ‘feet up on the table²’ time for thinking - disruptive or otherwise?³

I am aware that as a 50 something white male working-from-home freelancer this piece may be oozing with self satisfied privilege - I’m sure that many of us have, or have had, jobs where there is/was no freedom for this kind of stuff.

But I do remember my old boss who looked like Vladimir Ilyich Lenin and am really grateful for his enabling vision: ‘thinking is also working’.

1. that zeitgeisty innovation special sauce

2. or other culturally appropriate variation.

3. or too much!