Here's an excerpt from a recent Wall Street Journal Online Article that describes why the "collective brain" of a group of Chief Executive Boards International members meeting regularly to help and advise each other results in both innovation and extraordinary outcomes. It underscores several ideas from Alvin Toffler's book Revolutionary wealth. First, that knowledge is promiscuous. Secondly, that a piece of knowledge alone is trivia -- its value exponentializes when combined with other knowledge. And, finally, it confirms that "innovation is a contact sport".
"Trade is to culture as sex is to biology. Exchange makes cultural change collective and cumulative. It becomes possible to draw upon inventions made throughout society, not just in your neighborhood. The rate of cultural and economic progress depends on the rate at which ideas are having sex.
"Dense populations don't produce innovation in other species. They only do so in human beings, because only human beings indulge in regular exchange of different items among unrelated, unmated individuals and even among strangers. So here is the answer to the puzzle of human takeoff. It was caused by the invention of a collective brain itself made possible by the invention of exchange.
"Once human beings started swapping things and thoughts, they stumbled upon divisions of labor, in which specialization led to mutually beneficial collective knowledge. Specialization is the means by which exchange encourages innovation: In getting better at making your product or delivering your service, you come up with new tools. The story of the human race has been a gradual spread of specialization and exchange ever since: Prosperity consists of getting more and more narrow in what you make and more and more diverse in what you buy. Self-sufficiency—subsistence—is poverty."Note also the "dense population" idea. Two or three people talking about an idea or problem are one thing. 6, 8 or 10 knowledgeable, thinking people talking about it are a completely different thing. And the results are amazing. If you haven't spent a day recently in the company of a number of thinking people knowledgeable of your field, figure out a way to do so. You'll be glad you did.
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Terry WeaverCEO
Chief Executive Boards International
http://www.chiefexecutiveboards.com/
TerryWeaver@ChiefExecutiveBoards.com
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