Punk production means striving for legitimate goals in illegitimate ways: making the space for and pursuing reliable disobedience by defying conventions in order to produce radical and highly original ideas.
Tips for practice
- Skunk work: Allow for countercultural ideas by establishing groups within the organisation that have a high degree of freedom and that work outside the usual rules in order to achieve unusual result. Threat of urgency and competition can be useful.
- Call on affiliations and sidetracks: Keep strong ties and spend time with radical individuals, communities and groups outside your organisation for sources of information, resources, emotional support and empathy. Invite radical outsiders to attend internal meetings.
- Small wins: Reduce large problems to a manageable size. Start with small experiments that lead to bigger “packages” of change. Pick those battles carefully.
- Don’t be punk poseurs: Express own beliefs, feelings and identities directly to create resistance to authorities and to minimize feelings of self-doubt, fraudulence or guilt. Don’t be a punk “poseur” who pretends to be something that he’s not. DIY.
- Jujitsu language: Jujitsu is a Japanese martial art in which the defender uses the energy of the attacker against itself. Use rethoric of your opponent or those in power to get your idea through.
- Slack: 3M had 15 %, Google 20 %. Trust employees with time to work on individual motivated topics.
- The Punk Award: Keep record of punk production caused idea work. Award the best norm breaking ideas.
Readings for inspiration
Brown, Terrence E. (2004) “Skunk works: A sign of failure, a sign of hope?”, in Brown & Ulijn (eds) Innovation, entrepreneurship and culture. Cheltenham, UK Northampton, Mass.
Mainemelis, C. (2010) “Stealing fire: Creative Deviance in the Evolution of New Ideas”. Academy of Management Review. Vol. 35. No.4
Meyerson, D. (2003) Tempered Radicals: How People Use Difference to Inspire Change at Work. Harvard Business School Press.
Thompson, S. (2004) Punk productions: Unfinished business. State University of New York Press.