Problem
We tend to assume the ‘in here’ of the ASE environment is not the same as ‘out there’ of ordinary corporate (or E&Y) life. Dilbertian things don’t occur ‘in here,’ but ‘out there,’ well . . . This may be a collaborative space, but all that happens here happens in the context of the participants ‘out there.’
People are more alike than otherwise.
Solution
Trust that the idea you need or the help a group needs will be there when it is needed. Create the collaborative space by creating ways for individual or groups to have inspiration strike and to recognize important ideas as such when they appear. This may be ways to speak the truth and avoid suffering political consequences, or ways to shield embryonic ideas long enough to survive.
There is no ‘backstage’ at the ASE. No place to go laugh at the client.
“A company is creative when its employees do something new and potentially useful without being directly shown or taught” –Alan Robinson in Corporate Creativity
From the same book: “Serendipity occurs when fortunate accidents happen to sagacious people. There are three approaches a company can take to promote it:
1. Increase the frequency of accidents that could turn out to be fortunate.
2. Increase awareness of the accidents that do occur.
3. Increase the company’s domain of sagacity to turn more accidents into fortunate ones.”
The issues a knowledgeworker team is facing are quite often related—or identical—with those of a participant group. When the KreW and the participants are connected or entrained with each other, movement though the blocks by one party will stimulate movement in the other party.
Synchronicity—“Chance favors the prepared mind.”
