Being innovative through disconnected connections

Being innovative means that you have thought about an issue in an other way than somebody else. In order to get these different thoughts, it is important to promote diversity. However, we are using social networking platforms like Twitter and Facebook around the clock to share with networks of so-called friends your ideas. The more you are connected with people, the more you are re-using the thoughts of somebody else.

Bas Haring also spoke about this on TedXRotterdam:

All the thoughts that we have in the world now, are shared immediately. I see people twittering now. Sharing thoughts with other people. Who read their thoughts, and have their own. We continuously share all ideas. So there are hardly any islands anymore (the specialists). Our mind are getting more and more connected, which causes less diversity. Which means less ideas. 

Yes, you should take the opportunity to use the ideas of others, because it is helpful and good for you. If two people share each one idea, then you each end up with two ideas; a growth of 100 % which is in market-economics a good argument to proceed with that type of work. However, it is also true that you sometimes should disconnect yourself and make your own ideas.

Knowledge should first be produced before it can be transferred and shared. So, my question is, in what kind of knowledge process should we focus on the connecting power of the latest technologies. Should we use these technologies to produce uniquely, innovative and diverse knowledge. No, as Bas Haring also said, you should produce knowledge alone, isolated from anything and disconnected from anyone. Use a weblog where you put down your ideas or if you have more money travel to an island. After that, you can ask for feedback when you think the time right. And yes, then you can use the latest technologies such as Twitter and Facebook.

So, don't include social networking in your organisation for the sake of it. You should know what it is and what it will give you. The same statement can be placed when talking about opening or closing to the outside world. Also in this discussion 'diversity' is seriously being threatened. And diversity is what we need when we want to become innovative; when we want to compete with global players; and when organisations want to attract the best people.  

Thus, the new governance mechanisms for innovation should give people the possibility (1) to disconnect from others so that they can experiment with their own 'crazy' ideas and produce unique knowledge, and (2) connect inside and outside the organisation to transfer and share the unique knowledge 

Bas Haring - TEDxRotterdam 2010 from TEDxRotterdam on Vimeo.

Rethinking Organisational Structures and Cultures in a Networked World

Some days ago I read and saw Ton Zylstra's closing key-note at the SHIFTconference. He smoothly ran through a 114-slide presentation about our networked society. What strucked me most in this presentation was slide number 44. On this slide he mentioned the following numbers:

60%, 9%

Ton argues that 60% of all businesses in the Netherlands are now one-person businesses. This equals to 9% of the total workforce in the Netherlands. Additionally, Ton mentioned that the number started to rise when Internet and mobile communication reached 75% and 67% in their penetration respectively.

I am really interested in this information, because what will happen when this rise continues? How will this effect the structure and culture of organisations?

If people can really start to benefit from the networked world through the latest communication technologies like we see in the rise of one-person organisations, and organisations are hesitated to invest in dedicated people because they need to save money in these uncertain economic times, I do believe organisational structures and cultures should change dramatically in order to bring in 'external' expertise.

Based on Ton's information I argue that organisations will not anymore exist of professionals who'll work in between the walls of the organisation, but become more a brand that is connecting to 'external' professionals. If this will happen in the near future - a loosely coupled network of external professionals - organisations should change their whole way of thinking and designing. Rather than to focus on macro-events (creating a long-term strategy with goal-driven tasks) it becomes more important to focus on micro-events (maintaining relationships with individuals). In other words, by ignoring individual differences and deviant behaviour and forcing to a common stable standard to reach a goal, organisations are creating common entities and their interactions. Because of their standardised behaviour, these entities cannot spontaneously generate anything new and that is negatively effecting the organisational ability to be innovative.

So, the movement we are now already witnessing (increase of one-person businesses) will result in a perfect opportunity for organisations to focus on individuals who will help the organisation - which is becoming more a brand - to become unique, innovative and capable to move through unpredictable and fast-changing environments. But this change has massive effects on the organisational structure and culture. We need to rethink the system we are in in order to embrace this development. For example, think about most of organisation's reaction on Facebook or other social media *BLOCK*. If organisations - or lets refer to a brand as from now - want to focus on micro-events, they should become superb in creating, maintaining and working in a network in order to use the diversity of all the professional individuals. So, the first step is: open up your firewalls to social media!

Learn to Innovate in the 21st Century

Today I wrote a blog post for and on the Mindjumpers in which I explain why organisations should adopt to social media as way to enhance organizational learning. I have copied the same message in this post:

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Success of business lies in flow of information and knowledge through learning

The world is changing around us. Faster than ever before. On one side, Internet and mobile communications are connecting the world as a whole. As a result, most people can easily get knowledge for 0,00 Ddkk, where it used to take a lot of efforts to get this. On the other side, businesses are encountering the effects of our current demographic situation. China and India both have many people who will soon retire, but they also have many young people who can take over vacant jobs. Europe and North America also have many people who will soon retire, but they do not have a new workforce to fill in the empty spaces.

This means that businesses should focus on the thing that cannot be captured through algorithm as the transaction costs on knowledge are nearly anything. It also means that businesses should find ways to work with a limited workforce; a workforce that is no longer constrained to the location of the business. The workforce is now spread all over the world.

As a result, businesses as well as professionals are increasingly dealing with more and more complex situations rather than simple situations. To make sense of and decide over these new situations, it is no longer a case of ‘business-as-usual’. In these complex situations, predictability is absent and only a limited recollection of cause and effect is clear. Through human interaction, culture, innovation and trust, businesses can make sense of and decide over these messy situations.

Organisations can become more innovative – and thus more competitive – when staff members can make sense and decide over new problems or opportunities in a fast and creative way. In this respect, staff members should have the newest information and knowledge to adapt to changes and move forward in fast-changing and highly competitive environments. That’s why the future growth and success of businesses lie in processes and initiatives that improve the flow of information and knowledge through learning.

Social media as an organisational learning tool

One way to establish this organisational learning is through social media. Social media stands for the tools and techniques designed to disseminate information and knowledge through social interaction. Businesses should embrace the opportunities of social media, because through these tools and techniques businesses can form or join online communities of interest around issues of relevance. As a result, the business and its staff members become more informed, responsive, innovative and client-focused.

However, to seize the opportunities of social media, the existing business culture of hierarchical control and direction must change sufficiently to encourage and reward engagement; engagement that should be impartial, proper and professional. As a result, I believe that we should aim at rolling out internal and external initiatives. Internal initiatives are – for example – required to teach staff members how to use social media as a tool and technique to share information and collaborate, but also required  to assist top management in change management practices. External initiatives could aim on engaging and collaborating with stakeholders surrounding the brand by co-creating given tasks with the ambition of creating a desirable and valuable output. To realize this, businesses should become open and transparent – and thus trustworthy – to encourage external stakeholders sharing their knowledge