The Rebels at Work story started in October 2010 at Business Innovation Factory conference when I (Lois Kelly) heard Carmen Medina, the just-retired deputy director of intelligence for the CIA, talk about how she was part of an informal Rebel Alliance of employees at the CIA, and how challenging assumptions helped two rebels at the agency create the Intellipedia, a groundbreaking approach to intelligence that was awarded a Service to America national medal.
Celine Schillinger, Dany DeGrave, Lois Kelly, and Carmen Medina at a BIF innovation conference, where the idea for Rebels at Work emerged.
As a lifelong rebel, I was immediately struck that an executive would have the guts to help rebels.
I also began wondering how innovation and change happens in big organizations. You hear about innovators in start-ups all the time. Rebelliousness and restlessness are accepted qualities of entrepreneurs. But what about people on the inside of big organizations? How do they blaze new trails and find ways to change business as usual. What are their characteristics? What makes them tick? How do you find them? Could they be an untapped resource for creating more innovative, engaged corporate cultures?
I did a quantitative research study in 2011 to try to find some answers to these questions. The research found that rebels provide huge value to organizations, but most corporate cultures make it difficult for rebels to provide that value. Then I wrote a presentation -- Free Your Rebel Thinkers -- that people downloaded more than 100,000 times, confirming a hunger for practical ideas on how to navigate bureaucracy, challenge the status quo and introduce new ideas without getting thrown under the bus.
From there Carmen and I started writing about and talking with Rebels at work around the world -- and sharing what we're hearing and learning on this site and through our social media channels and in our book, Rebels at Work: A Handbook for Leading Change from Within. We hope you find some useful ideas and would love to share YOUR ideas with the community.
Change is uncomfortable. Change is necessary. Thanks for being willing to take risks to improve how work works.
Lois Kelly: lois@rebelsatwork.com
Carmen Medina: carmen@rebelsatwork.com
FOR new ways
Rebels are for positive change vs. troublemakers. And they don't go it alone.
