Creating the conditions for groups to innovate. How to share & test ideas?

Continuing with ideas that were inspired by a “Where Good Ideas Come From” by Steven Johnson. In my previous post, I explained the idea behind getting everyone on my team to brainstorm and implement an important change in the way that we trained new faculty. This leads me to another interesting idea that Johnson discusses starting on page 58 of his book.

Johnson discusses the book by Arthur Koestler titled “The Act of Creation.” Koestler looked at innovation primarily as it occurred inside individual minds. Johnson is more interested in how ideas and innovation occur because those minds are in a certain context or in a network. Johnson summarizes research done by a psychologist named Kevin Dunbar. One of Dunbar’s conclusions was that scientists often achieved breakthroughs when they discovered their work with other researchers. According to Dunbar, “The Ground Zero of innovation was not the microscope. It was the conference table.”

On page 62 Johnson cites Dunbar’s research and Johnson concludes, “when you work alone in an office… Your ideas can get trapped in place, stuck in your own initial biases.” I like this idea very much because it emphasizes the importance of working with other people and testing your ideas, not only according to your own logic but to get feedback from a different perspective.