Arie de Geus, known for his seminal work in “The Living Company” and often as the father of the concept of the learning organisation articulated insightful metaphors in the context of Biomimicy – a field of study I am hugely passionate about for it is about taking inspiration from Nature and transplanting these models into our everyday existence! Embracing this model in todays network economy is important for it enables cross pollination of ideas and reverse mentoring – something that was (or perhaps still is) absent in enterprises of all shapes, sizes and forms!
To introduce it briefly, citing Ken Thompson, founder and author of www.bioteams.com, the nomenclature and exchange between the author and Professor Alan Wilson identifies, describes and expands on the following observations which are universal truths across all species that inhibit the universe. For brevity and ease of reference, I include it below
When you appreciate these three principals of innovation, social propogation and mobility – you learn that “innovation does have many faces and can come from many places” and it is therefore prudent that enterprises and virtual communities of practice nurture these modalities internally and externally in order to drive a) competitiveness b) self-sustainability and especially c) team work (as the saying goes, there is no ‘i’ in team)!
So how can enterprises (regardless of nature, composition and purpose) entertain all of this on top of their own critical core activities without distractions?
The answer lies in how you create and implement innovation feedback loops – something that is lacking in my historical experience across various corporate domains. To do this effectively, you basically need to understand that innovation capture is accidental and one may simply be carrying a note-book around to write their ideas or using a phone note program etc! Regardless of the device or modality, the methodology is important. I covered this in detail in my article here of which I include the relevant parts in brief below by means of a screenshot. I hope this gives forward guidance to enterprises, economies and governments of all scales to take innovation seriously for the world’s problems can only be solved through unity, collaboration and operating with a unilateral mindset without biases and emotion – something that is not human but can be if nurtured correctly!
