Collaborationin the era of

Crowdsourcing

Hutch CarpenterVP Product, Spigit@bhc3

Are We Doing Enough with This?

project deadline

17th meeting

research

43rd meeting

write report

64th meetingclient call

Cognitive surplus: organizations barely scratch the surface

115th meeting

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What’s in Our Cognitive Surplus?

Knowledge Perspectives Heuristics

Facts, experiences, processes we know

Maps from reality to an internal language

Methods of searching for a solution

* Scott Page, The Difference3

Our Cognitive Toolkits Create Local Optima

solutions landscape

utilit

y of

idea

s

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21 Individually, each of us

applies our knowledge, perspectives and heuristics to arrive at the best solution we can…

…but that’s likely not the best solution overall.

* Scott Page, The Difference4

Tough Challenges Need Cognitive Diversity

difficulty of problem or opportunity

cogn

itive

div

ersi

ty re

quire

d

location of company outing

reduce logistics expense by 15%

unmet needs in an adjacent

market

• Different local optima

• Build on others’ local optima

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Case Study: Raytheon Supply Chain Groupid

ea a

sses

smen

t

diverse connections insular

* Prof. Ron Burt, Structural Holes & Good Ideas

1 Social network analysis on 673 employees in supply chain group

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3

Asked each: “What is the one thing that you would change to improve supply chain management?”

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Each idea was rated by two executives

Access to more diverse connections generated higher quality ideas

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Case Study: InnoCentive Challenges

* The Value of Openness in Scientific Problem Solving7

But We Don’t Seek Out Diversity

* Prof. Andrew McAfee, How to Hit the Enterprise 2.0 Bullseye* Gruenfeld, Mannix, Neale, Group Composition and Decision Making8

So We Operate on Cognitive Redundancy

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Usual Collab Practices Don’t Foster Diversity

Water Cooler Project Work Knowledge Creation

• News updates• Information sharing• Ambient awareness

• Tactical deliverables• Status sharing• Project team focus

• Context specific• Knowledge only• Explicit, not tacit

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Break the Tyranny of Strong Ties

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What enables this?11

Communities of Purpose

• Interest graphs

• Social objects

• Focus

• Interactive

• Results orientation

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Signals of Trust

How do you address the lack

of trust and appraisal without

strong ties?

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#fow online reputation will become a key driver defining knowledge work for everyone thanks to social tools18 hours ago

Crowdsourcing Is an Attitude

* Photo: Stephane Lam (Flickr)

• Source beyond titles and buddies

• Fearless engagement with strangers

• Cast of thousands

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Thank you

Hutch CarpenterVP Product, Spigit@bhc3

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