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We-Think: Collective innovation and change
In our last post we explored how information technology, and in particular the Internet, has significant implications to those managing change in organizations. In this post we focus specifically on the topic of innovation and how the Internet facilitates mass creative activity - what Charles Leadbeater describes in his latest book as “We-think”*.
Leadbeater argues that the conventional approach to innovation is like a pipeline: ideas come only from special people, such as inventors or researchers, and are passed down through the organization where they are developed and packaged for release to the world. The Internet has turned this process upside down and inside out, fueling the emergence of great ideas outside of formal organizations, and providing a basis for users to influence the design and delivery of products and services (see our post on Mass Customization). Most critically, the Internet has made it possible for people to collaborate on a scale previously unimaginable, and in ways that make traditional “innovative” organizations look irrelevant.
In order to understand these dynamics, Leadbeater reviews the success of Linux, an open source software program, the implications of which go far beyond an interest in how new ideas emerge to fundamentally challenge many “normal” working practices.
“How can a group of 7000 people share out tasks, build up a common knowledge base, develop a set of tools and provide valuable services without having an office, a management hierarchy, a human-resources department, a knowledge-management program, 360 degree career reviews, corporate away days and embarrassing Christmas lunches with the boss?”
Leadbeater describes “We-think” as a different approach to innovation. It is about freely sharing ideas from a wide range of sources, and creativity as a collaborative endeavour rather than the result of an individual flash of insight. The web is a key tool to harness this collective potential and generate creativity as a mass activity engaging millions of people. Look no further than everyone’s favourite contemporary cheat-sheet, Wikipedia – a global resource with over 6 articles written in just 6 years with virtually no staff or funding.
The Linux Community: We-Think unpacked
Leadbeater uses the Linux community as his principle example of “We-Think” and identifies what he believes are core elements of successful collaborative innovation including:
- A small core – Linux has a small band of trusted programmers that coordinates the work of its thousands of registered users. We-think is not about egalitarian self-governing democracies but a small group leading a very, very large group.
- A puzzle – a challenge that requires the efforts of people with different skills.
- The right mix of people - with different ideas, outlooks and access to tools to enable them to contribute.
- Attractive to a crowd – people less intensely engaged with the project than the small core (Linux has 150,000 registered users to help 400 key programmers).
- Connection – the importance of “neutral” spaces for creative conversation.
- Modularity – people work on separate modules that enable a mass of experiments to proceed in parallel.
- More than open source - more than just giving away intellectual property, it is an invitation to participate and collaborate in creating something.
We-Think implications for the “entrenched”
So how do organizations deal with the mass creativity embodied in “We-think” models? Leadbeater points to Goldcorp – a Canadian Mining Company – as an example. Frustrated by its geologists inability to locate substantial gold reserves at a mine in Red Lake, Goldcorp posted its maps, reports and surveys on the web and invited the online community to locate the gold for a $500,000 prize. 1400 participants , 140 submissions and half of the 28 winners identified sites that insiders had not spotted, transforming Red Lake into one of the richest mines in the world. Leadbeater argues that:
“The most exciting business models of the future will be hybrids that blend elements of the company with the community, of commerce and collaboration: open in some respects, closed in others; giving some content away and charging for some services; serving people as consumers and encouraging them, when it is relevant to be participants”.
For those of us involved in managing change, the “We-Think” model offers both great potential and threat.
- It emphasizes the importance of engaging those within and outside of our organizations, offering a promise to solve complex problems by the connecting of thousands of minds.
- But it is also potentially destabilizing – managers and professionals within organizations may feel undermined, for good reason, as large groups of amateurs can appear to freely offer solutions on subjects previously outside the public domain.
- And, a We-think approach may not always be appropriate or effective. The success stories, Linux and Wikipedia, may blind us to the reality that most online collaborative initiatives (like most offline ventures) fail, as evidenced by the many dormant online chat rooms and forums.
That said, with all types of organizations seeking to engage audiences in collaborative projects, from Ashoka’s competition to end global slavery to car companies such as BMW inviting new designs for their vehicles, incorporating a “We-Think” element of participation into your next change initiative is likely to be expected and possibly crucial.
*Leadbeater, C. 2008. We-think: The power of mass creativity. London: Profile Books Ltd. In the spirit of open collaboration you can download for free the first three chapters of “We-Think”.
Some examples of collaborative innovation….
- Instructables – online directory of DIY design projects.
- Crowdspirit – open design standards for creating new household and electrical goods.
- Zipcars and GoLoco – create your own personal public transportation network.
- US Teragrid – distribution infrastructure for scientific research.
- Meetup – easy for people of like mind to meet up.
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Some years ago we were all amazed to hear about the well oiled and organized machinery of the open source movements like Linux and Firefox. What is even more surprising is the centralized nature of such a distributed effort !