Steven Johnson – Where Good Ideas Come From

I really enjoyed listening to Steven Johnson’s talk at the LSE tonight. He had some fascinating things to say on the architecture that might provide ripe conditions for a fast flow of innovative ideas in society, government and business. His new book centres on idea eco-systems and in particular the ways in which slow hunches – many of which can lay dormant for years – often times collide with the hunches of others to provide the fertile groundwork for fresh thinking.

In the latter stages of my own teaching career, it is fun to have one’s mind opened up with this kind of approach and I want in this blog to pick out one or two aspects of Johnson’s talk that resonated with me.

First is the importance of diversity within communities and organisations.

Economists are rightly attaching increased emphasis on the role that good “social capital” can have in generating and nurturing good ideas and bringing them to fruition. Plenty of recent research of the most dynamic and innovative entrepreneurs and senior corporate executives point to the value of them being connected to diverse social networks (no…Not their Facebook accounts) but links to people from wholly different socio-economic backgrounds. The many positive spill-overs from diversity can be seen in many of our most vibrant and successful cities and also in universities such as the LSE that are truly global and not some old fashioned shrine for un-ambitious public schoolboys!

The economic and social benefits of diversity from open migration are an area that Philippe Legrain has written about extensively in his recent works. Steven Johnson’s talk helped me to reconnect with the Legrain viewpoint.

Second – the importance of open-source as a platform for collaboration and sharing of ideas. Hiding away ideas within government or businesses and protecting ideas (and associated IP) through the veil of patents, digital rights management and other technical barriers is a old-fashioned approach that acts as an implicit innovation tax on the rest of society. The open data revolution – described here with passion by Tim Berners-Lee – offers so much to us as a way of driving innovation of a type that does not necessarily need commercially driven investors to bring to wider use.

Releasing the data and lowering barriers for developers of new apps can provide terrific momentum to local communities.

Two super examples were given – Nike’s Green Exchange project (a lovely connection was made between Nike and tyre producers as a way of finding new ways to make rubber production more sustainable. Second the Kick Starter web site which seeks to offer a platform for micro-patronage of the arts and other creative businesses. This innovative decentralised approach to funding the arts offers a different approach from heavy reliance on top-down government grants.

The third theme I took away from the talk was the importance of giving employees time off at work to pursue their own ideas, hobbies, interests and passions. Google’s innovation time-off strategy – granting many of the employees twenty per cent of the working week to invest in their own interests has been a successful incubator of lots of new ideas, some of which have worked, others less so. But it is the approach that matters and one elucidated by Dan Pink a few months ago when I heard him speak about his book “Drive”.

So I left the LSE tonight determined to broaden the range of people that I follow on Twitter but also keen to work more collaboratively with many of the wonderful teachers who are already on Twitter from a range of subject domains, all of whom share a passion for what they do and who are prepared to take a few risks in the classroom because they know that by doing so, some of their wackier ideas might turn into really effective teaching tactics.

A quick final thought.

In recent weeks I have attended lots of talks, seminars and conferences and it has been wonderful CPD at every turn. There is a common thread behind some of the hugely impressive people I have met – they are switched on digitally (naturally!) – Part of the no fear generation when it comes to embracing what the web and networks have to offer. But almost all of them have carried around a personal notebook (yes… old technology) for jotting down ideas, thoughts, comments, contacts, lists ..... ..And their slow hunches! I’ll be getting plenty of my friends new Moleskin for Christmas .... To go with their iPads!

Nike Green Exchange

Steven Johnson - Where Good Ideas Come From

Tim Harford interviews Steven Johnson here