Chance Favors the Connected Mind….& Leadership Network

For the past several years Leadership Network (100X) has structured our gatherings… Leadership Communities, Innovation Jump-start Labs, etc.) around the premise that there is exponential creative value of bringing leaders into a single space over an extended period of time. It is through the cross-polinization of people and ideas where the breakthrough ideas happen. Good ideas rarely emerge in isolation. To these gatherings we bring people and resourses from outside the domain of the church, with the expectation that through another lens we will see things differently and perhaps get a breakthrough insight. We use a lot of metaphors. Aristotle noted there were two kinds of metaphors–associative metaphors–where we use something known and clear to explain something unknown or unclear, and cognitive metaphors–where we use something obtuse or difficult to give us insight into that which we think we know. But it is by connecting to different people, systems, ideas, experiences that will give us the most insight into our own domain.

Steven  Johnson is the best-selling author of six books on the intersection of science, technology and personal experience. His  most recent  book examines “Where Good Ideas Come From.”  To watch a great animated version of his thesis, go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NugRZGDbPFU. Steven talks about the necessity to form “liquid networks.” To watch Steven Johnson’s TED presentation to to: http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/steven_johnson_where_good_ideas_come_from.html

Here’s the big idea: Chance favors the connected mind. Rarely does a good idea emerge from a vacuum. Interestingly, for those coffee aficionados, Johnson says that the modern coffee shop changed everything  because up until that time the only beverages people drank were alcoholic. Around 1650 people began to congregate around coffee houses and with stimulating company and stimulating beverage…new ideas began to emerge. Facinating huh?

Interaction Before the Coffee House