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Whitney Johnson started as a secretary on Wall Street while taking business classes at night. She worked her way up as a successful investment banker. She later co-founded an investment firm with Harvard Business School’s Clayton Christensen. She is an accomplished author of several books, Dare, Dream Do, and Disrupt Yourself. Her newest book coming out this May is called, Build An “A” Team: Play To Their Strengths and Lead Them Up The Learning Curve. Whitney grew up in San Jose California. She also served a mission in Uruguay for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. She attended Brigham Young University and received a B.A. in music. While at BYU she met her husband and they were married in the Temple. They currently live in Lexington Virginia and have two children, a son and a daughter. Whitney and her husband have been married for 31 years.

Podcast Highlights:

• 10:35 In her twenties Whitney asked herself, “Do I believe” While she took a step back her husband fasted for her on and off for two years.
• 13:13 While serving in her current calling she realized, I don’t need to save them just love them.
• 18:20 Early in her career she started a blog to help her discover what her dreams were.
• 19:30 Every man and women needs to learn how to be a ship and a harbor.
• 21:00 Her first book came out in 2012 Dare Dream Do: Remarkable Things Happen When You Dare To Dream.
• 22:30 She later wrote the book Disrupt Yourself: Putting The Power Of Disruptive Innovation To Work.
• 23:00 A disruptor is a silly thing that takes over the world. When you disrupt yourself you take over your world.
• 24:13 Disrupting is managing change.
• 26:08 How do you disrupt yourself or your ward?

Seven Levels of Change

#1 Take the right kinds of risk 28:05

• 28:05 Serve the Lord the way you need to using your talents.
• 31:25 Ask yourself what I want to accomplish in this calling.

#2 Play to your distinctive strengths in your calling. 32:42

• 34:40 What am I bringing to the table in regards to my calling.
• 36:26 Think about the things that make you feel strong.
• 36:46 Think about what exacerbates you. That is one of your strengths.
• 37:08 What compliments do you get all the time? That is your super power.
• 37:21 Read your patriarchal blessing. Look for your spiritual gifts while reading it.
• 38:30 Are you using your strengths and your super powers deliberately in your calling?

#3 Embrace Constraints 38:51

• 39:08 How do we turn those constraint into a tool of creation?
• 40:20 Elders Bednar’s 2017 General Conference address Bear Up Their Burdens With Ease is a great example of how our load is what gets them out.
• 42:04 Elder Carmack’s address about the Powers of the Priesthood is a great example to use your Priesthood Power at its fullest.
• 42:19 Be prayerful and listen to the Lord.
• 43:59 Communicate and be open about your constraints with your Bishop.
• 45:19 Extend callings and invite them to pray about it first.

#4 Battle Entitlement 45:56

• 46:57 The Church helps battle entitlement by the way it is organized, and callings change.

#5 Give Failure its Due 48:45

• 48:52 Reframe your failures.
• 49:29 We believe we can change, but we don’t always act like we believe it.
• 50:11 Be open about the things that are hard for us.
• 51:45 Ask yourself, “how can I make meaning of this?”
• 51:39 Shame limits disruption, not failure.

#6 Step Back in Order to Grow 53:51

• 54:20 In church we step back to grow as we get new callings.

#7 Be Driven By Discovery 55:03

• 55:47 With each new discovery, alter your plan.
• 56:27 We are driven by discovery in our church when new information is shared in callings.
• 57:01 Deal with ambiguity. Work with the unknown. Alter your plan.
• 57:52 The sin of Certainty. We battle entitlement when we feel like we have it all figured out. When we feel like we have no questions, but the questions are what we need to guide us to discovery.
• 58:55 Those seven principles move you along the learning curve.
• 60:00 Heavenly Father helps us jump to a new learning curve.
• 60:02 Studying the learning Living Christ helps to remind us that Jesus Christ is the foundation.

Links

• Whitney Johnson’s Website
• Whitney Johnson’s Disrupt Yourself Podcast
• Dare Dream Do: Remarkable Things Happen When You Dare To Dream
• Disrupt Yourself: Putting the Power of Disruptive Innovation to Work
• Build An “A” Team: Play To Their Strengths and Lead Them Up The Learning Curve
• Elders Bednar’s April 2017 General Conference address, Bear Up Their Burdens With Ease
• The Sin of Certainty: Why God Desires Our Trust More Than Our “Correct” Beliefs