Disruptive change: When change doesn't need consensus

Sometimes I feel that change is a concept that we only accept when it is served to us in small, easily digestible doses. Step by step, with meetings, workshops and soft communication. But reality does not adhere to our change management manuals.

It seems to me that change now has a completely different dynamic – one that does not ask whether we are ready. It happens. Sudden. With force. Companies, industries and entire societies are facing upheavals that are no longer the result of a planned process, but the product of pressure, crises and unpredictable developments.

Since January 2025, I have been experiencing this change with new intensity: political decisions are made in a hurry, markets change overnight, technologies overturn old business models. The idea that change is slow and consensus-oriented seems increasingly naïve. Instead, we are seeing more and more disruptive change – change that does not wait for everyone to agree.

But is that always a bad thing? Does disruption necessarily mean chaos, or can it also be an opportunity for real innovation?

Disruption as a driver of real change

Perhaps you as a company will also have to be disruptive in 2025. You have to focus on speed instead of consensus, your corporate decisions meet with unexpected resistance or old structures are abruptly called into question. As we are currently observing in the economy, legislation or geopolitical developments: change no longer happens gradually, but in leaps and bounds. Traditional mechanisms of coworking and stability are under pressure.

You want and need to change. However, change is no longer a controlled process, but increasingly a reaction to disruptive forces from outside. My question here is: Does right and essential change have to be disruptive in order to have an impact? And then on: Can such forced change also have a positive side?

Businesses and the Need for Disruptive Change

• Disruptive change forces companies to adapt – not because they want to, but because they have to. There are many examples of this:
• Digitalisation forced traditional industries to transform, often under massive pressure from tech start-ups.
• The pandemic accelerated the shift to remote work, even though companies made arguments against it for years.
• Artificial intelligence is currently changing entire professional fields – not slowly, but with force.

Disruption is inconvenient, but it ensures efficiency, progress and innovation. Companies that try to resist disruptive change often disappear from the market faster than those that embrace and use it.

Can disruptive change also be positive?

Disruption is often perceived as a threat – but it can also create opportunities. New business models, more efficient processes and a fresh mindset often only emerge when the old no longer works. Those who view change only as a gentle transformation may miss the momentum that brings real innovation.

The challenge for companies and leaders is to find a middle ground: to design change processes in such a way that they are not blocked by endless coordination loops – while using disruptive pressures to enable real change.

Conclusion: Disruptive change as a reality – but not as a new ideal

In the corporate context, change is often understood as an evolutionary process – with change workshops, change agents and long communication strategies. But practice shows that many change processes fail due to resistance, bureaucracy or simply the convenience of the status quo.

Change sometimes needs disruption to really happen – but that doesn't mean disruptive change is always the better way. It can bring about innovations, break up old structures and force us to act faster. But it also leaves chaos, resistance and losses in its wake.

Change is not an end in itself.

Perhaps the real challenge lies not in accepting disruption as the new norm, but in shaping change in such a way that it does not fizzle out in paralyzing sluggishness or blind radicalisation. We as companies and leaders should not wait for the market to force us to act. Let's actively put ourselves in a position where we can shape change – before it overwhelms us. Not fatalistically according to the motto: "s'chunnt wies s'chunnt" but courageously, take advantage of the opportunities and actively shape them!