Myth: “Brilliant inventor delivers EXPLOSIVE idea from his basement.”
All The guys I know; Terry, for example, gets half his ideas explaining what’s NOT working to other entrepreneurs.
My “insights” usually come by sleeping on the problem – after talking though them with Angelina, and then asking myself a great question and expecting overnight delivery. Terry claims his insights happens by spotting examples that “point the way”; like a cartoon character or by observation of a failure. It’s as if Terry stumbles on manure while cleaning his horse barn and see’s THE answer on his boot– rather than being fixated on the problem in his office for days on end.
When Thomas Edison was sixty-seven years old, his factory was destroyed in a fire. This was his response the next morning:
“There’s value in disaster. All our mistakes are burned up. Thank God, we can start anew.”
An urban legend has it that Thomas Edison saw an answer he was looking for in the ashes of his former factory. Where the fire had burned everything to the ground, he spotted some film acetate melted in the ashes. Peeling it off the ground, he studied the impressions on the misshaped plastic – and had an insight on creating talking moving pictures. “Hey, everybody, get to work on this!”
Dishing For Insights:
A great deal of NEW ideas emerge from sessions in which people present their ideas, and skeptics ask heated questions. An intellectual mix of ‘feedback’ generates a distinct type of interaction in which we are forced to rely on metaphors and analogies to express ourselves. These abstractions prove essential for problem-solving, as they encourage us to reconsider our assumptions. Having to explain the problem to someone else forces us to think, like someone from the outside, filled with skepticism.
Edison had over 5000 people employed. He had six personal assistants, whom he thought were smarter than himself. No wonder he had so many patents.
GROUP Intelligence:
When a GROUP can come up with the best answer, it’s called Group Intelligence. A popular example of group intelligence was the TV game show, "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire." Contestants were asked questions from history and popular culture, and when stumped, could query the audience. When audience members were POLLED for answers, they were correct 91% of the time.
Natural examples of Group Intelligence include bacteria, ants, birds and fish. How do those with tiny brains overcome challenges? Colonies. Flocks. Schools. Herds. What about humans? We have Tribes!
The reason the right Tribe can be so helpful is that they shock us out of our psychological scotomas. When we translate our idea into an analogy and talk to a colleague, we are much more likely to catch ourselves with an oversight, to glimpse the meaning in our mistake, or to see things from another perspective.
COLLECTIVE Intelligence:
Collective Intelligence is the result of mass collaboration. Ant exhibit more intelligence than any other animal except humans. Ant societies have different forms of agriculture and farmers that care for fungi and delivery drivers that carry leaves to feed the fungi. Some colonies keep livestock such as aphids for "milking". With humans, the Internet demonstrates collective intelligence clearly with Wikipedia, an encyclopedia that can be altered by virtually anyone at any time.
In order for collective intelligence to emerge, four principles need to be shared by the tribe.
Openness
- In the early stage, people are reluctant to share ideas and contribute because of fear based on resource scarcity. Ideas, unlike resources are abundant and cost next to nothing to share. Over time, members begin to share ideas when they realize that significant improvement can emerge through collaboration.
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Peering
- This is a form of horizontal organization where members modify and develop information that becomes available for others. Participants in this form of collective intelligence have different motivations for contributing, such as recognition, satisfaction, esteem by being part of a group. “Peering succeeds because it leverages self-organization – a style of production that works more effectively than hierarchical management for certain tasks.”
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Sharing
- With an emerging global economy, companies are realizing that by limiting ALL intellectual property, they are also shutting out opportunities. Sharing allows the companies to expand their market and bring out products faster. Individual contributors also benefit, in that the payback is often by way of respect, recognition and opportunities which are opened by the expanded peer network.
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Acting Globally
- The advancements in communication technology allows individuals and businesses to attract markets that are sufficient for decent sized enterprises, and helps micro-enterprises flourish within niche markets. When entrepreneurs begin seeing the global reach of their enterprise, a shift from scarcity to abundance can often occur, simply by the realization of the scale of the opportunity.
Network Effect:
Network Effect is the term used to describe what happens to the value of a product/service as more people use it. The first person to buy a fax machine paid the highest price for the least possible value. Who else could they fax? As people bought fax machines, the value increased, while the cost declined. The same is true of the power of human networks, where the initial cost of creating a network is greater, and declines as the network expands by the efforts of many.
Conclusion:
So, hiding in your cave will work for a while, as I’m doing at the moment, leaping from one career to another, but a far better pattern to follow is through intermittent contact and contribution to the Tribe rather than isolation. I just spoke with Terry. He’s been given permission (by me) to inconvenience me with calls more often, and not hide out so much when the matrix of demands and responsibilities gets overwhelming.
He knows I care. I know he does to. He’s a peer, openly sharing his challenges to bring to market:
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a medical invention
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a pharmaceutical product
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pedigree miniature horses
…while resolving a legal issue with a former business associate, and untimely health issues - likely brought on by all the stress.
Moral:
Fight alone; die alone. Affiliation with a Tribe, and contribution to that Tribe reward us with hope, because we’re reminded that were not alone.
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