Disruption. It’s one of the most popular words in business, and even society right now. It is interesting that this word, which at one time was far more regularly used in a negative context, has now become the ultimate complement for a business or even an industry. In many cases we are “disrupting” with a purpose, but we need to be careful in the spaces where we are not.
The change in the connotation has largely come via the tech industry. The phrase, “move fast and break things” was made popular by Mark Zuckerberg as he was becoming one of the richest men in the world. It epitomized the “swagger” of Silicon Valley. It was synonymous with success. The people who were “moving fast and breaking things” are the ones who made disruption cool.
But let’s not forget the full definition. Disruption is an interruption of the normal flow of things. No one is terribly excited about the current disruption of global energy that has many paying north of $5 for a gallon of gas. The supply chain disruption that came at the end of the Covid pandemic didn’t do our bank accounts any favors either.
The new face of disruption is artificial intelligence. There are definitely positive things to take from this. We can execute many tasks more quickly and efficiently than ever before. Here at Chemistry PR and Multimedia, we are using these tools to re-invent our own internal business system. (Link Chris’s blog on this here) This new, somewhat homemade application will save us money and address our specific needs as a company with the ability to more efficiently serve our clients. It is disrupting a pattern of wasted time and resources that should make us a better company.
At the same time, some companies have disrupted the lives of employees a little too quickly by assuming that AI could replace them and letting them go. Nearly thirty percent of the companies that have executed AI-related layoffs have already begun hiring some of those people back.
They disrupted things, all right. They made a bunch of people miserable, harmed company efficiency by assigning AI tasks that it couldn’t handle, then likely paid quite a bit more than they were spending to begin with to get people to return.
Then there are the industries that have been disrupted over the past several years by AI, social media, and the internet. I’ve written quite a bit about journalism in this space. Technology has changed how most of us consume our news. As I write this, a combination of that technological shift, an assumed need for drastic change, and a sprinkling of politics has CBS News disrupting 60 Minutes, the most iconic and impactful news program of the television age.
The jury will be out for some time on whether or not this works. 60 Minutes is a top 30 program in 2026 when rated with broadcast and streaming content. It is in the top 15 among broadcast shows. No other news programming shows up anywhere in these lists. And those are just numbers. They don’t speak to the importance of some of the stories the show produces. Is this broken? Does it need disrupting at all?
In PR and communications, we are currently operating in a world where AI can write (though not particularly well), emails have replaced phone calls as a primary mode of contact, and a quality campaign has to touch audiences across more platforms than I have room to list here. Those emails can be sent automatically, you may have something published without ever speaking to the reporter, and the quality of individual platforms is wide open to debate.
I won’t call any of it good or bad. It just is. These are facts. These are disruptions. Whether they are in the “technology is changing my life” or the “I can’t afford a tank of gas” context of the word is up to you.
“Move fast and break things” probably needs to be amended. After all, Facebook dropped it as a slogan years ago. A more lucid approach might be “be open to the new, test all that you can, and apply what makes things better.”
My quote isn’t nearly as catchy, but it does take into account the need to be intentional about the work you do and the changes you make. I am a big fan of technological advances, and, as someone whose early memories include a home with no microwave, no cable, and no remote control for the TV, I love many of the disruptions we have seen. But the ones that have lasted have had true purpose. They were improvements. No one breaks things just for the sake of destruction.
