Innovation

Exaptation & managed serendipity: II

By Dave Snowden  ·  April 2, 2012  ·  Innovation, Science, Reflections

In this second of three posts on exaptation I am going to continue to build on reporting discussions and ideas that came out of the Durham conference.  In the final post I'll pick up on what I presented (and what I wish I had thought of presenting at the time) on managed serendipity.

Probably the most difficult thing for people to grasp about exaptation is that it means that many things did not evolve for a purpose; survival of the fortuitous not survival of the fittest (which goes a long way to understanding the British Class...

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Exaptation & managed serendipity: I

By Dave Snowden  ·  April 1, 2012  ·  Innovation, Interdisciplinary, Science, Reflections

The feather original evolved for regulation of temperature, but then evolved for flight.  In 1942 a scientist at Raytheon was testing a magnetron, a key component of radar, and noticed that a candy bar melted in his pocket.  The next day he experimented with a egg which burst and spattered hot yolk over his face; thus was the microwave oven was born.  Scientists at Pfizer's Sandwich research establishment (I was within 24 hours of working there during my IBM days but that is a story for another day) were able to synthesise the...

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Architecture not application: an opportunity

By Dave Snowden  ·  January 19, 2012  ·  Innovation, Knowledge Management, Intranet Technologies, News

Around two decades ago I was arguing that object orientation was not just a way of creating reusable code, but was a more profound shift to enabling architectures that could combine people and technology in evolving systems. The first part was generally accepted, the second more controversial. I then seemed, in the words of Mark 1:3 to be The voice of one crying in the wilderness. Mind you I have been there a few times before and plan frequent visits in the future.

Around a decade later having left IBM I sketched out a text based...

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Working with the Front-line

By Gary Wong  ·  October 9, 2011  ·  Innovation

Front-line managers and supervisors practically spend their entire working day on the Ordered Side. I surmise that the time split between the Complicated and Simple Domains is in the 20/80 range respectively. Everyday operational decisions primarily require Management by Intuition - relying on established habits and past experiences to get the job done. As we know, in the Complicated Domain an expert is called upon to sense, analyze, respond. The first-line manager can play the role of an expert, in particular, when he is a key...

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Serious Creativity

By Gary Wong  ·  October 4, 2011  ·  Innovation

One of my most profound and enjoyable memories was being taught by Edward De Bono.

Edward is regarded by many to be the leading authority in the world in the field of creative thinking and the direct teaching of thinking as a skill. I first met Edward in Chicago in April 1993 when I became a certified Six Thinking Hats instructor. A year later I received my trainer certification in Lateral Thinking. When Edward visited Vancouver, a bunch of us would gather to have dinner with him and catch up on his latest exploits. On one...

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