Working with ‘I don’t know’
How do we work on something when we don’t know what to do? Where do we start? How do we start? How do we keep going? I had some useful first-hand experience with this earlier this week. Some while back, I’d…
Day: January 27, 2013
Expert Generalists and Innovative Organizations
What do the great innovators have in common? Looking at examples from Picasso to Kepler, Art Markman calls these men expert generalists. They seem to know a lot about a wide variety of topics, and their wide knowledge base supports their creativity.
Markman identifies two personality traits that are key for expert generalists: Openness to Experience and Need for Cognition. Can we also expect to find these traits in innovative organizations?
Openness to Experience entails a willingness to explore new ideas and opportunities. Obviously many organizations prefer to stick with familiar ideas and activities, and have built-in ways of maintaining the status quo.
Need for Cognition entails a joy of learning, and a willingness to devote the time and effort necessary to master new things.
In his post on the origins of modern science, Tim Johnson compares the rival claims of magic and commerce. He points out that good science is open whereas magic is hidden and secretive; he traces the foundations of modern science to European financial practice, on the grounds that markets are social, collaborative, open, forums. But perhaps it makes more sense to see modern science as having two parents: from magic it inherits its Need for Cognition, a deep and passionate interest in explaining how things work; while from commerce it inherits its Openness to Experience, a broad fascination with the unknown. Obviously there have been individual scientists who have had more of one than the other, and some outstanding individual scientists who have excelled at both, but the collective project of science has relied on an effective combination of these two qualities.
Expert Generalists and Innovative Organizations
What do the great innovators have in common? Looking at examples from Picasso to Kepler, Art Markman calls these men expert generalists. They seem to know a lot about a wide variety of topics, and their wide knowledge base supports their creativity.
Markman identifies two personality traits that are key for expert generalists: Openness to Experience and Need for Cognition. Can we also expect to find these traits in innovative organizations?
Openness to Experience entails a willingness to explore new ideas and opportunities. Obviously many organizations prefer to stick with familiar ideas and activities, and have built-in ways of maintaining the status quo.
Need for Cognition entails a joy of learning, and a willingness to devote the time and effort necessary to master new things.
In his post on the origins of modern science, Tim Johnson compares the rival claims of magic and commerce. He points out that good science is open whereas magic is hidden and secretive; he traces the foundations of modern science to European financial practice, on the grounds that markets are social, collaborative, open, forums. But perhaps it makes more sense to see modern science as having two parents: from magic it inherits its Need for Cognition, a deep and passionate interest in explaining how things work; while from commerce it inherits its Openness to Experience, a broad fascination with the unknown. Obviously there have been individual scientists who have had more of one than the other, and some outstanding individual scientists who have excelled at both, but the collective project of science has relied on an effective combination of these two qualities.
Application Management Pricing – Not Easy Ground
The challenge of pricing – for an IT service provider While an end-to-end management approach provides a competitive service advantage, it can carry a substantial additional – and often unforeseen – cost and risk. The challenge is that it’s difficult … Continue reading →
Application Management Pricing – Not Easy Ground
The challenge of pricing – for an IT service provider While an end-to-end management approach provides a competitive service advantage, it can carry a substantial additional – and often unforeseen – cost and risk. The challenge is that it’s difficult … Continue reading →
Leveraging Social Media at The Open Group Newport Beach Conference (#ogNB)
One way to maximize the benefits is to make technology work for you. If you are attending The Open Group Conference in Newport Beach next week, we’ve put together a few tips on how to leverage social media to make networking at the conference easier, quicker and more effective. Continue reading →
Welcome to the Operational Governance Blog
If you have stumbled upon this site, chances are you have an interest in Governance, in Operations, in ways to make business better. You have ideas, opinions on those issues, and you are welcome to share them here. The recent … Continue reading →
How To Understand The Difference Between Value-Proposition and a Product or Service
One of my startup heroes Steve Blank wrote in a blog post that “value proposition is the fancy name for your product or service” It is with some trepidation that […]
Information and Affirmation
@timrayner01 points out that so-called information-sharing is never neutral, disengaged – it is a positive act of communication.
“Don’t think of what you share as information. Even if what you share is information, by sharing it, you are telling the world that it is information that you affirm in some way. It is the affirmation that counts. We share what we love. Even when we share details about things we despise, they are things we love to hate. Love is the key to understanding how we contribute to social media commons. We populate the commons with expressions of love.”
Tim Rayner, The gift shift: what’s social about social media? (August 2012)
So even scorn is a form of affirmation. The comedian who devotes his spleen to the latest reality show is thereby contributing (in a complex post-modern fashion) to the show’s success. Daniel Smith describes this as alternative consumption, and sees Charlie Brooker as a modern version of Baudelaire.
Daniel Smith, Spleen and Modernity: Baudelaire and ‘alternative’ consumption (July 2010)
The Royal Television Society may pretend that Charlie Brooker represents the high-brow alternative to Simon Cowell. But Brooker’s material is basically the same as Cowell’s, it just has a different sentiment. They obviously need each other.
Jonathan Harwood, Cowell and Morgan beaten by Brooker and Theroux (The Week March 2010)
Information and Affirmation
@timrayner01 points out that so-called information-sharing is never neutral, disengaged – it is a positive act of communication.
“Don’t think of what you share as information. Even if what you share is information, by sharing it, you are telling the world that it is information that you affirm in some way. It is the affirmation that counts. We share what we love. Even when we share details about things we despise, they are things we love to hate. Love is the key to understanding how we contribute to social media commons. We populate the commons with expressions of love.”
Tim Rayner, The gift shift: what’s social about social media? (August 2012)
So even scorn is a form of affirmation. The comedian who devotes his spleen to the latest reality show is thereby contributing (in a complex post-modern fashion) to the show’s success. Daniel Smith describes this as alternative consumption, and sees Charlie Brooker as a modern version of Baudelaire.
Daniel Smith, Spleen and Modernity: Baudelaire and ‘alternative’ consumption (July 2010)
The Royal Television Society may pretend that Charlie Brooker represents the high-brow alternative to Simon Cowell. But Brooker’s material is basically the same as Cowell’s, it just has a different sentiment. They obviously need each other.
Jonathan Harwood, Cowell and Morgan beaten by Brooker and Theroux (The Week March 2010)