Diplomatic rebels

Two guys from the internet wanted to help companies drive innovation and needed a quiz. They tried a few and almost succeeded with Typeform, but even the world’s most sophisticated form builder couldn’t handle what they needed to build. The two entrepreneurs have built a typeform competitor to help employees at large corporations avoid burnout and depression. 

The Diplomatic Rebel.

Landing your dream job at Amazon, Google, or Meta, might not turn out exactly as you’d hoped. For some life at big corporations is the best thing that could happen, but for many, it’s quite the opposite. If you're an entrepreneurial soul it might lead to burnout and even worse, depression.

Corporations are designed to enforce internal processes that make companies what they are. Unfortunately, this design is a defense mechanism against innovation, something corporations need to drive change. Anders, a fellow at LEGO’s radical innovation unit: Future Lab, has spent almost a decade studying this behavior. He explains that we need people who aren’t made for corporate life to be part of it to ensure innovation. 

Internally at LEGO, they call them “Diplomatic Rebels,” a term coined to describe employees who challenge the status quo as they navigate the complex politics of corporate structures.

For Anders Møller, this concept would become more than an internal buzzword. It would evolve into a mission, a business, and a tool to help countless others navigate the treacherous waters of corporate innovation.

How to navigate a schizophrenic task.

Anders’ journey began at LEGO where he worked with the radical innovation unit. His internship was the first encounter with the concept of a diplomatic rebel.

"Within Lego, especially in the radical innovation unit, we often talked about this fairly schizophrenic task of trying to make change happen in big organizations," Møller explains. "It’s typical in large legacy organizations that are value-based and family-owned. These organizations often come with a lot of baggage, different values, traditions, and ways of work."

The concept of a diplomatic rebel resonated deeply with Møller. He saw how it applied not just to Lego, but to most large organizations. A diplomatic rebel is a person who strikes a delicate balance between change-making and diplomacy. They challenge enough to drive change and use diplomacy to navigate corporate politics to avoid ejection by the organization's "immune system."

Innovation and process don’t always go hand in hand. Innovation typically means breaking or changing progress, something that’s incredibly dangerous in a well-oiled machine where small changes may lead to large losses. As such, most large organizations are designed to weed out process blockers. This mechanism often comes at the cost of innovation.

During his research, he quickly found that this wasn’t unique to LEGO. Most large organizations operate and function like this and as a result, many diplomatic rebels are unnecessarily ejected. They need support to thrive and drive change in organizations and most fail without it. LEGO spent a lot of time identifying how these support systems could become a part of their system as they recognize the need for innovation and change.

This realization led to the birth of Diplomatic Rebels, a spin-out from LEGO's radical innovation unit: Future Lab. The mission was clear: Build a community and support tools, to help these change-makers strike the right balance, and ultimately, help them survive and thrive in large organizations.

Build tools that help diplomatic rebels thrive.

Anders set out to explore how he could support diplomatic rebels, but different profiles need different support systems. To identify the profiles he built a quiz that could help Diplomatic rebels self-identify and later use that knowledge to improve. 

"I needed a way for people to identify which kind of diplomatic rebel they were," Møller explains. "I played around with different archetypes of diplomatic rebels and looked into how to make a personality test."

Despite the plethora of tools, none fulfilled the specific requirements for his needs. He needed a tool that could assign points across multiple variables based on each answer - a level of complexity that existing solutions couldn't provide.

Enter Lucas Giraldo and the toddle community. Anders had explored various tools and found toddle, a tool for professional developers that abstracted code to a visual development environment. It gave him the powers of a developer without knowing how to code, it was the flexibility he needed. While he could get far he didn’t have the skill set to complete the project. He asked for help in the community and partnered up with Lucas Giraldo from the toddle community. Lucas, a skilled developer within the toddle community, took on the challenge and brought Anders' vision to life.

Lucas quickly iterated on Anders’ initial build and delivered an MVP that they could use to iterate on. The MVP is already live on Diplomatic Rebels .

The five archetypes.

At the heart of the Diplomatic Rebels quiz are five distinct archetypes, each profile drives change in unique ways:

1. The fighter: Resilient and confrontational. The fighter fearlessly challenges the status quo head-on.
2. The pathfinder: Analytical and curious. The pathfinder finds new ways forward and creates business cases for change.
3. The tribe leader: Passionate and charismatic. The tribe leader gathers people around a cause and builds community.
4. The bridge builder: A skilled communicator. The bridge Builder connects different beliefs and helps people come together.
5. The gardener: Self-confident and nurturing. The gardener helps others grow and develop within the organization.

Each archetype has its strengths and weaknesses, and most people exhibit a combination of these traits. The quiz helps individuals understand their dominant tendencies and where they might need to develop.

When you identify your persona, you build your journey from there," Møller explains. "What am I good at right now, and how do I grow from here?"

Technical challenges and solutions

Creating a quiz that accurately maps an individual's tendencies across five archetypes has significant technical challenges. Lucas explains the complexity: "I needed to assign specific values to each answer, not just for one archetype but all of them."

To meet the requirements, Lucas built a custom quiz module using toddle. The module allows for complex scoring across multiple variables and gives users a nuanced picture of their diplomatic rebel tendencies.

The result is a web component that’s easily embedded in other websites. The quiz is live on Diplomatic Rebels, which is built on Squarespace. This solution allows for easy distribution and integration of the quiz across various platforms.

Lucas added a basic backend to the system, that saves results and later allows him to add more advanced features. "I put it together so it's a little easier for Anders to make changes to the quiz or even create new quizzes down the line.," Lucas says, referring to the admin interface he built to manage the quiz.

Make change, not resistance.

The quiz quickly became a valuable tool for Møller in his work. "Whenever we do keynotes, people want to learn more," he explains." They can scan a QR code, take the quiz, and identify their diplomatic rebel."

This provides immediate value to audience members and is a gateway to deeper engagement with the Diplomatic Rebels concept. For those who want to dive deeper, Møller offers master classes and sparring sessions, where he uses a more in-depth version of the quiz for personal leadership development and team dynamics.

Anders uses the quiz to help individuals navigate the complex landscape of large organizations and drive meaningful change.

"Most rebellious folks are either kicked out or end up with a depression or worse," Møller says. "It's a tough business, and our role is to find ways to help them thrive."

We provide a framework that helps them understand their strengths and weaknesses. Diplomatic Rebels help rebels find their place in organizations and guide them on a path that will help them make change, not resistance.

Find the right balance.

Find the right balance: Challenge enough to drive change, but not disruptive to the point that you will get ejected. This dilemma is a challenge for diplomatic rebels everywhere. Anders wants to help rebels navigate this delicate balance.

"At the executive level, and the core of the company, you don’t want to shake the boat too much," Møller explains. "There's only room for rebels and diplomatic rebels because there is an engine that runs smooth, and that should be there, and you need to respect and appreciate that."

Lucas and Anders found each other through toddle and now want more. They have explored several paths to delve deeper. 

• Turn the quiz into a product, that organizations can use to create similar personality quizzes.
• Build a more in-depth version of the quiz for leadership development and team dynamics.

The goal is to create tools that help organizations identify and nurture their diplomatic rebels.

The power of community.

Lucas reflects on the journey with Anders: "One of my favorite things about toddle is that you have a lot of really cool people with cool ideas. They all have different skills, come together, and build together. It's not necessarily your project or my project."

This collaborative spirit extends to the diplomatic rebels themselves. They create a framework and a community where change-makers can support each other and share strategies for success.

"We help organizations identify rebels, and teach them how they foster a healthy environment such as creating room for failure and acknowledging that everything should not be perfect" Anders explains.

One concept that Anders is particularly excited about is the idea of "safe houses" within organizations. It’s a concept used by SWAT teams. These are spaces where diplomatic rebels can recharge, cry out if needed, and prepare for their next challenge.

"You must learn to connect with people and understand them deeply. This process demands much from you emotionally. You need a place to recharge your energy and sometimes to express your frustrations openly. Remember, you face a challenging task that requires perseverance" Anders explains. 

Key takeaways from years of research.

Anders has learned valuable lessons about innovation, organizational change, and the power of personality insights:

1. Respect the core: Challenging the status quo is important, and it's equally crucial to respect the core functions and values of an organization. "You need to respect the core, the mothership," Møller emphasizes. "What you're building from, because that is the DNA you need to acknowledge to find its future path."
2. Balance is key: The most effective change-makers balance their rebellious tendencies with diplomatic skills. Don’t be a pure rebel or diplomat. Find the right mix for each situation.
3. Provide immediate value: Diplomatic Rebels is successful because it provides immediate value. The insights into tendencies create immediate connection and open the door to deeper engagement.
4. Leverage technology wisely: No-code tools like toddle enabled Anders and Lucas to build a sophisticated quiz system without a large development team. It allowed them to iterate quickly and create a product that met their needs.
5. Foster a community: Bringing together like-minded change-makers is magical and you unlock levels far beyond your imagination.

What’s next for Diplomatic rebels?

Diplomatic Rebels continues to evolve, and the two entrepreneurs are excited about the possibilities. Whether it's a new set of tools for organizational change, a new quiz builder to compete with typeform, or a support network for diplomatic rebels, the future is bright.

The story of Diplomatic Rebels is more than a tale of a successful spin-out or a clever personality quiz. It's a testament to the power of ideas, community, the importance of balance, and the ongoing need for those brave enough to challenge the status quo - diplomatically.

Are you a Fighter, Pathfinder, Tribe Leader, Bridge Builder, or Gardener? Take the quiz and find out!