Archetype: Destructive Provocateurs

Driver: Motivated to shake things up; challenge the status quo.

Behaviors and Characteristics:
Provocateurs come in two flavors – those who focus on constructive change (Constructive Provocateurs) and those who are ready to ‘blow it all up and start over’, Destructive Provocateurs. The latter are:

• Not afraid to rile people up, be irreverent or challenge authority.
• Enjoy the spotlight and the microphone as a ‘bully pulpit’.
• May act precipitously and take the unexpected path which can lead to enormous change but also enormous pain.
• Willing to put themselves at risk, personally and professionally
• May support more than one cause or have less loyalty to a cause than to a point of view of how the world ‘should’ be.
• Can quickly break down barriers and open a path for others to follow.

Challenges:

• To share their ideas in a way that others welcome rather than reject.
• To avoid being defined by their controversial techniques rather than the cause for which they stand.
• To not be seen as controversial for the sake of being controversial, which might undermine their effectiveness.

Greatest Fear:

• Others will not take them seriously.

Must Avoid:

• Creating controversy just to see others squirm.

Call to action:

• Why not?

Example Destructive Provocateur Thought Leaders:

• Michael Moore (DP), filmmaker, social critic, and liberal activist
• Julian Assange (DP), editor-in-chief and founder, WikiLeaks
• Edward Snowden (DP), former National Security Agency contractor who disclosed top-secret NSA documents

• Maureen Dowd (CP/DP), a columnist for the New York Times, author of Are Men Necessary?
• Maya Angelou (CP/DP), author, poet, civil rights advocate
• Germaine Greer (CP/DP), feminist, author, The Female Eunuch

(c) 2021 Thought Leadership Lab
Do not distribute without permission.