There are three simple ways that organizations can encourage intersections. The first is to bring together different groups inside the company. This might involve functions that don’t interact frequently, unusual business unit combinations, or bringing in perspectives from far-flung geographies. Modern collaboration tools can enable these kinds of intersections to happen at scale. For example, close to 50,000 Citigroup employees participated in a recent contest designed to identify innovative banking ideas.

A second approach is to interact with non-competitive companies. For example, a leading Singaporean company recently held its Board meeting in Silicon Valley. Even though the company has no U.S. operations, the meeting allowed leadership to visit dozens of startups working on technologies that could impact the industry. The first-hand exposure to the innovation energy in the Valley helped the team begin to re-frame the way that it thought about its own business. 

Finally, consider involving customers or other outsiders in innovation activities. Eric von Hippel’s research conclusively shows that in many industries customers innovate at a faster pace than companies. Consider all the post-sales modifications avid bikers do to their frames, or even recipes developed by inventive chefs. Procter & Gamble’s well detailed Connect + Develop program has helped the company tap into the world’s innovation energy, powering new ideas and substantial growth.

Source: http://www.theatlantic.com/sponsored/boeing-innovation/archive/2012/05/innovating-at-the-intersection-of-ideas/257308/

• The curse of desperation.  Failure to innovate organically leads companies to their only option - buy it.  So called “open” innovation isn’t cheap.  Jay Kim at INSEAD says companies overpay when they become desperate for growth.  The true cost is even higher because acquisitions are distracting.  Companies devote top talent and budget dollars to assimilate the acquired asset which, by design, weakens the core businesses that sacrificed those resources. 
• The curse of competition.  Great ideas draw attention and support in the form of budget dollars, usually at the expense of another project.  Unscrupulous employees have learned to be on guard.  They monitor innovation activities carefully so they can “nip ideas in the bud.”   They don’t wait for a great idea to develop. Instead, they “volunteer” to be part of innovation workshops so they can spot any threatening ideas as they emerge.  They make sure those ideas are seen as “tainted”.
• The curse of absurdity. “If at first, the idea is not absurd, then there is no hope for it,” said Einstein.  Great ideas occur when two previously unrelated ideas suddenly converge.  The suddenness takes us by surprise.  The convergence is odd, counterintuitive, even funny.  We laugh it off. We expect the absurd notion to die a quick death and never be mentioned again.
• The curse of novelty.  Innovation is its own curse.  Novelty is fleeting.  People have short memories when it comes to innovation.  Any idea is new only for a brief period of time.  After that, it becomes old news.  Smartphones are amazingly innovative, yet most people would have come to expect its functionality. 
• The curse of change:  Highly innovative products fail in the marketplace at significant rates.  J.T. Gourville at Harvard Business School argues “the typical consumer is endowed with the entrenched alternative and the typical developer is entrenched with their innovation. As a direct result, consumers tend to undervalue and developers tend to overvalue such an innovation relative to the existing option.” This “curse” systematically increases the likelihood of failure for a highly innovative new product.
• The curse of success. Success in the market weds companies to the status quo.  James Utterback at M.I.T. says, “As firms grow large, their top managers necessarily function more as conservators than as creators; they have income-producing products that must be nurtured and preserved to continue the benefits of shareholders and fellow employees.” Blackberry (RIM), Yahoo, Kodak…the list of cursed companies is getting longer.

Source: http://www.innovationinpractice.com/innovation_in_practice/2012/05/the-curse-of-innovation.html

• Your network can be too connected.When I talk with managers about the networks that John and I have mapped, and how their structures are (often) not very good for information sharing, their first inclination it to try to connect everyone up with everyone else.

  This is not a good idea. When they say this, I reply with: “Imagine if you had to read every single email sent and received by every other person in your organisation. That’s what you get when you connect everyone up.”

  Most interpersonal networks work best when they have somewhere between 3 and 10% of the total number of connections that they could have if everyone was connected to everyone. This leads to the best structures for sharing information, which is critical in getting your new ideas to spread.

• Strong Networks are Diverse. There’s no point in connecting up only with people that think the same way that you do. If you do this, you’ll just keep getting the same old ideas. You need to build links to people that are interested in different things that you are, to people that know different people than you do, and to people that view the world through a different lens than you do. That’s the best way to generate innovative new ideas.
• Connecting people that aren’t already connected to each other is very powerful. Check out this more detailed discussion of this idea. The basic principle is that if you build the network by connecting people to each other, you make the network stronger. You give up a little bit of power, because if they stay unconnected you can act as a broker. In exchange, you gain reputation and social capital.

Source: Tim Kastelle blog

Capítulo: ¿Por qué no nos sentamos y lo hablamos?

A los economistas les gusta pensar que hablar es “barato”. Lo que quieren decir es que cuando personas con intereses opuestos hablan entre sí, si no se vinculan mediante un contrato en el que se hacen promesas y el dinero cambia de manos, comunicarse no vale absolutamente para nada.”

Autor: Yochai Benkler

1. Slow down.  Insist on multiple problem definitions before moving towards a choice. This doesn’t need to be a time consuming process – just ask yourself or the group, “How else might we define this problem – what’s the core issue here?” This should become a standard part of every project scoping conversation you have, especially when the issue is new or complex.

2. Break from the pack. Actively work to buck conventional wisdom when facing new challenges or slowly deteriorating situations. Don’t settle for incremental thinking. Design ways to test deep held assumptions about your market. Of course, different is not always better so seek to understand the wisdom inherent in conventional wisdom as well as its blind spots.

3. Encourage disagreement. Debate can foster insight, provided the conflict is among ideas and not among people.  Increasingly, we live in a world where people can choose to interact only with those who agree with them, through Facebook friends, favorite news sources, or our social cliques. To escape from these cocoons and echo chambers, approach alternative views with an open mind. Don’t become a prisoner of your own myopic mental model.

4. Engage with mavericks. Find credible mavericks, those lonely voices in the wilderness who many dismiss, and then engage with them. It is not enough to simply be comfortable with disagreement when it happens to occur.  Critical thinkers seek out those who truly see the world differently and try hard to understand why. Often you will still disagree with these mavericks, but at times they will reframe your own thinking for the better.

Source: http://www.inc.com/paul-schoemaker/4-secrets-of-great-critical-thinkers.html

(1.) believe you can make a difference

in case you were wondering if this is only touchy-feely, look at howDana White built a UFC empireout of his desire to connect with fans.

(2.) think knowledge as a service

it’s an overused expression, it really does apply. We live in a remix culture, where individuals, industries, and media will thrive by allowing the exchange of ideas. That’s where new connections are made.

(3.) take risks

they can be small ones. This was one of my points when Italked about passionas well. Creating new habits involves exploring new territory.

(4.) have a point with your view

in other words, put substance behind the approach. Do your homework, be prepared to defend and discuss a topic intelligently and willingly.

(5.) keep your promises

this is valid at individual and organizational level. Coming through, following up helps you maintain integrity of purpose and build credibility.

(6.) say it another way

if at first it doesn’t work, assume it’s because your question, request, or inquiry were not clear to the recipient. Look for an example, a story, some other way to make it easier to understand.

(7.) show it

whether it’s support, empathy, or active listening, actually demonstrating it is a faster route than a few well-practiced words. Non verbals work wonderfully here.

(8.) connect actively

if needs be, do it then and there. Forward the message, make the introduction, help people see what they have in common, draw them together.

(9.) write it down

inevitably, you will get ideas in the course of connecting. Make sure you have a way to capture them - I still do it the 1.0 way, on notepads.

(10.) let them know you thought of them

this is the nice touch that takes very little time. Depending upon your relationship stage and communication channels open, find ways to show you noticed or thought of someone habitually.

(11.) be present to opportunities

really, you don’t need to build Rome in a day, as the expression goes. It’s sufficient to be willing to see an opportunity when it presents itself.

(12.) think beyond your close circle

now that we’re talking more about circles, as many experienced professionals know, it is often the people your contacts know who are most interesting to connections because they are removed from your day to day.

Source: http://www.conversationagent.com/2012/04/12-habits-of-highly-connected-people.html