Some reflections on innovation made by Steven Johnson

Following up on so many blog posts about the new way of thinking, working and designing, I just want to share another quote from Steven Johnson in a recent New York Times article about innovation:

Why has the fourth quadrant been so innovative, despite the lack of traditional economic rewards? The answer, I believe, has to do with the increased connectivity that comes from these open environments. Ideas are free to flow from mind to mind, and to be refined and modified without complex business development deals or patent lawyers. The incentives for innovation are lower, but so are the barriers.

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The choice shouldn’t be between decentralized markets and command-and-control states. Over these last centuries, much of the history of innovation has lived in a less formal space between those two regimes: in the grad seminar and the coffeehouse and the hobbyist’s home lab and the digital bulletin board. The wonders of modern life did not emerge exclusively from the proprietary clash between private firms. They also emerged from open networks.

Change management practices of leaders

Departments within organizations are often rolling out the knowledge sharing initiatives. However, it is also believed that these knowledge-sharing initiative can only be successful when top management allows staff members to experiment and spend time on informal conversations/learning. Some are thinking the complete organizational culture should be changed, others do think changing the management practices is sufficient. Please listen to Stephen Billing who is arguing that it makes more sense to change management practices of managers than to launch a culture change initiative.