Are Networks Leading Indicators for Innovation?

As some of you know, I am passionate about networking, leading indicators and innovation from new combinations of existing things. I’ve been wondering how networks can be leading indicators for innovation!  Sarah Beaulieu reminded me about LinkedIn’s Maps, so I took a look at mine:

I won’t go into detail, but it’s interesting to see the clusters of my clients, the communities I “belong” to (geographic, education, career, faith, etc.) and the intersections (or not) between them.  In some cases, I’m the key connector, in others I’m one of a few. 

How is this a leading indicator? I see a few connections between a manufacturing/prototyping client and regional biomedical device companies.  Could this be a leading indicator of increasing medical device manufacturing in the region? If I look further, I can see what if the companies are focused on orthopedics, pediatrics, cardiology, etc. and start watching for more in-depth developments.  The Venture Capitalist in me finds this very interesting.

What if we look at the changes in my map over time: new connections between existing people in my network through me or without me; increased connection density between different “communities”; outliers – one-off connections that develop? 

I’m going to regularly update my map and see how it grows.   Many of you are in it!  Thank you! So take this challenge with me:

• Check out your own map and share what you see and learn with us; and
• See what you can do to increase the connections you have in “my” network – who you can reach out to do learn something new, who you can connect to each other and who you could innovate something with.

Let us know! Please share – and have fun – I know you will!

The Anti-Recommender

You know how Amazon, Netflix, and everybody else have a ‘recommender’ service? Based on what you’ve bought, browsed, read, listened to, they suggest things you may like. 

But if I’m always being told about things that are “like” what I like, how will I discover new and different things?  It could constrain opportunities for serendipity and luck (which I’m pretty dependent on).

I’d like an Anti-Recommender Service! 

Do you remember playing the “which of these is not like the other” when you were a kid? That’s how we learned and developed preliminary pattern recognition skills.  Somewhere along the way, it switched! We were taught to look for “which of these is like the other” (the old “don’t compare apples & oranges” routine).  Having been raised in a home that thrived on cognitive dissonance, I find this incredibly frustrating.

My ideal anti-recommender service will tell me about ideas, concepts, books, music, art, sites, bloggers, periodicals, tweeters, etc. that don’t fit into the ‘nice neat stereotype’ that’s been created about me.   It will point me to:

• Blogs that may disagree with my viewpoint making me think and question assumptions;
• Music I wouldn’t necessarily listen to but end up liking (from Massenet to Kevin Chesney) opening new harmonies and stories in my mind;
• Books that wouldn’t have picked up but am now a sucker for (e.g., Nordic/Swedish crime novels) making me use my brain differently; and
• People I wouldn’t normally cross paths with who bring new experiences, viewpoints, tastes, flavors, cultures, and ideas that greatly enrich my life, and others.

There is nothing inherently wrong with recommender services – except for lack of a counterbalance.  We need both to learn and grow – ourselves, our people, and our organizations.  We need both to innovate.

So, who among you would like to build an anti-recommender service? I’ll sign up to be an alpha, beta, whatever customer and I’d be willing to pay for it!  Or, if you know of one, please please share it! Thanks!

The Paradoxical Gift of Paradox

This is just a quick post on something that hit me yesterday.  In preparing for a strategic planning session this week, I realized that no matter how many of these I do, there is always a paradoxical feeling of being nervous about doing an excellent job for my client and being confident (hopefully not arrogance) in being great at what I do.  After all, the stakes are pretty high: people’s livelihoods, families, safe working environments, taxes paid to schools, police, etc. and the rest of a business ecosystem to say the least. 

It’s that paradoxical feeling that keeps me on my toes, asking dumb questions, challenging the status quo and trying to draw out the client’s wisdom and courage to grow.   This week, the client’s leader is the epitome of paradox!  He is one of the most innovative, creative, ‘out-there’ thinkers I’ve ever met and one of the most dependent on routine and habit.  That paradox is the reason they have more than doubled growth in 3 years - paradoxically in an industry that is shrinking! 

As some of you know, I love paradoxes.  They make us think, explore, reflect, discover, search, question. Innovation is found in new combinations of existing ‘stuff’.  Paradox is crucial to making that happen – it leads us to revisit and question assumptions, to combine things in ways we didn’t or couldn’t have imagined, to take the best of both and discard the worst.  Paradox makes us ask Why and Why Not repeatedly. Paradox puts us out there at the edge (per John Hagel), where new things are happening, even if it’s not always ‘safe’.

So this week, as a few of us will be intensely embracing paradoxes, why don’t you too?  Look for just one area in your business, organization, environment that seems counterintuitive, that is an oxymoron and question why, and why not.  Please share what you discover.