Whitney Johnson was one of the top analysts on Wall Street. Yet when she met Clayton Christensen, she realized her fate path would lead somewhere else. As she would later write in a landmark in Harvard Business Review, she would disrupt herself and leave her top job at a Wall Street firm.

Today, Whitney is regularly ranked as one of the top 50 business thinkers in the world and is one of the most widely sought after executive coaches. Where she once climbed the ladder as a woman in the male-dominated world of Wall Street, now she focuses on empowering others to climb their own s-curve from novice to mastery.

Yet she also learned something else along the way: To truly embrace disruption, you must first find safety. It is only from a sense of security and well being that you can embrace the risks you need to reach your full potential!

Whitney’s Website: https://thedisruptionadvisors.com/

Whitney’s “Disrupt Yourself” article in Harvard Business Review: https://hbr.org/2012/07/disrupt-yourself-3

Whitney’s “Thinkers 50” profile: https://thinkers50.com/biographies/whitney-johnson/

Whitney’s latest book: https://www.amazon.com/Smart-Growth-Grow-People-Company/dp/1647821150/

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We are in the midst of an upskilling crisis. Rapid industrial changes and an increasingly competitive global environment, with countries like China and India emerging as technology superpowers, mean millions of workers need to upskill to remain economically viable.

Community colleges play a crucial role in this transformation. Aspen Award winner Russell Lowery-Hart, Chancellor of the 50,000-student Aspen Community College system, believes educators must move beyond being mere gatekeepers.

He believes that educators need to love their students to success.

If this sounds idealistic or naive, consider Russell’s impressive track record. As President of Amarillo College, he boosted completion rates from 19% to 62% in just five years. Now at Austin, he faces an even greater challenge: preparing the workforce to meet the skill demands of one of the world’s leading technology hubs.

Russell’s Biography: https://offices.austincc.edu/chancellor/biography/

About the AustinCommunity College system: https://www.austincc.edu/about-acc/

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As a professional rugby player for Europe’s top team, Aidan McCullen knew the value of showing up. He wasn’t born with the most talent, but he made sure he had the most discipline.

Yet his biggest challenge was to overcome the disruption of ending his career, to shed his rugby identity and become something else.

Today, Aidan helps some of the world’s top organisations to do the same—overcome disruption by shedding old identities to allow them to do something new and different, increasing their competitiveness and tackling new challenges.

Aidan McCullen’s website: https://aidanmccullen.com/

The Innovation Show: https://theinnovationshow.io/

Aidan’s book: https://www.amazon.com/Undisruptable-Permanent-Reinvention-Individuals-Organisations/dp/1119770483

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