Origin
Diplomatic Rebels is born out of the work of LEGOs radical innovation department Future Lab. A legendary unit made with the cause of developing the future of LEGO. Instead of thinking about which bricks should be on the shelves next season the unit had to think beyond bricks, in making sure LEGO would be relevant for kids five to ten years from now.
Over time Diplomatic Rebels turned into an approach and a methodology. We are here to help intrapreneurs survive within large organization and succeed in challenging and changing the organization for the sake of the organization.
Intrapreneurs are battling the immune system of the organization and we offer to help them succeed based on our hard-earned insights into the do’s and dont’s of making change happen.
Manifesto
We are here to make change happen. We are up for the challenge and strive to keep companies viable. We challenge what doesn't work, but with a care for the past, the people, and the world. We build tribes, we make alliances and we form partnerships. We are value driven and when we see unreleased potential we act on it. We have walked the talk and know how challenging innovation is. But we are ready. Ready as a community across companies, industries, disciplines and continents.
We are Diplomatic Rebels.
Mindset
To be a diplomatic rebel is about embracing the ambidexterous feeling of both being a rebel and a diplomat. You are both the one challenging the status quo and the one creating support throughout the organization. It is not easy, but essential if you want to make change happen in complex organizations.
A great place to start for embodying this mindset is taking a look at our Top 5 Habits of Diplomatic Rebels, which are the habits we believe are the most important to learn to be an impactful intrapreneur.
Academic foundation
As we are based on experience rather than academia we do not build upon any specific academic framework. We are however children of our time and are influenced by major schools of thinking. This was very well deducted when Anna Rabe and Hanna Bogner made their master thesis at Copenhagen Business School on the relation between the diplomatic rebels, design thinking and change management. Here they where able to show how the diplomatic rebels methodology build upon both schools of thought and are to be found in the intersection between them.
