Home > Work > The Chaos Imperative: How Chance and Disruption Increase Innovation, Effectiveness, and Success
1 " Our theory,” explained Fried, “is that we’ll see better results when people have a long stretch of uninterrupted time. "
― Ori Brafman , The Chaos Imperative: How Chance and Disruption Increase Innovation, Effectiveness, and Success
2 " They were more a new set of ways of looking at the universe, supported by the math, than a set of complex mathematical formulas. "
3 " adaptive thinking, being flexible, and encouraging innovation. "
4 " Having a goal is very different from having an agenda. You want to focus people without constraining them, something that is equally true in a corporate environment. "
5 " Information doesn’t change behavior,” quips Lisa. “If it did, none of us would smoke and we’d all floss. "
6 " Lisa’s philosophy is that instead of trying to enact change from the top down (i.e., print a lot of posters telling people what to do, or attempt to enforce rigid guidelines), we’re actually much better off creating little pockets of chaos. The idea is that in this chaos, solutions can emerge. "
7 " Planning serendipity is about engaging as many parts of your organization as possible. It’s about listening to people when they tell you that there’s a problem and then empowering them to discover the solution. After all, the solution may very well be sitting in the room. "
8 " These three elements of contained chaos—white space, unusual suspects, and planned serendipity—can help both large businesses and small start-ups to introduce more innovation, drive growth, and propel excellence. "
9 " But in the information age, the paradigm for managers has shifted from managing bodies to managing minds. It is true that a body at rest is a body that is not producing. But a mind at rest could be a manager’s, and a company’s, greatest asset. Employees who are working ceaselessly on a problem may not be giving their brains the space they need to synthesize information and come up with insightful solutions. Think "