WE ALL SUFFER from the curse of knowledge, although most of us
don't know it.
Like many afflictions,the curse of knowledge can manifest itself
in a variety of forms and is one of the most insidious and
challenging of all barriers to our capacity to collaborate and
innovate.
When we know something, it is difficult for us to imagine not
knowing it or to understand why others also don't know it. As a
result, we often find it hard to communicate and collaborate
effectively with others. Equally, it is often difficult for us
accept that there are things that we think we know that in fact we
don't know.
The unstoppable emergence of the knowledge economy is driven by
the speed with which the three core ingredients of economic growth
can now move around the globe. Today skills, capital and knowledge
can be shuffled from one country or market to another with
lightninglike speed. We only have to witness the fallout of the
global financial crisis, the emergence of the BRIC economies and
convergence of areas such as ICT and transport or health and food
to begin to realise the implications for us all.
It was only a few years ago that we were being urged to
"innovate or die", but the global marketplace has changed so much
so quickly that to survive in today's environment we must have the
ability to collaborate successfully across organisations, sectors
and borders. Any individual, company or economy that believes it
can do it all by themselves is doomed for natural extinction. There
is a need for speed and a sense of urgency for Australia to build
an open, productive, sustainable and competitive economy through
developing our capacity to innovate collaboratively. In the words
of Jeffrey Immelt, chairman and CEO of GE, "We are all just a
moment away from commodity hell."
I believe the emergence of this new environment for innovation
(where constant reinvention and collaboration is a simple
imperative) demands a new definition of innovation itself. Almost
every government, industry association and academic report we read
tends to use a variation of what I regard as an 'industrial or
manufacturing age' definition. It is usually described as "doing
something new or different to add economic or social value".
I commend to you a new definition of innovation for these new
times of the knowledge economy: "Innovation is the novel
application of shared knowledge to add economic or social value".
The point is that while innovation is actionbased delivering
practical economic or social value, it is fundamentally
collaborative. It generally requires shared knowledge and/or
capabilities, most likely to be multidisciplinary and often sourced
externally. Individually, we are capable of being creative and
inventive but it is through collaboration that we innovate.
In striving to build an open, productive and competitive economy
in the context of the emergence of the global knowledge economy and
our response to it as a nation, we must be alert to the curse of
knowledge and the dangers it presents. It would seem to me that
there are broadly two extremes of those of us afflicted with the
curse: those who are 'blissfully ignorant' and those who 'know it
all', and then of course there are those in between.
While ignorance may be bliss to most of us from time to time,
there is no doubt it is also a major barrier to our capacity to
collaborate and innovate. Locking ourselves away in silos and
ignoring the rest of the world around us is one sure fire way to
catch the curse of knowledge; we have all come across companies and
other organisations that are so insulated from the rest of the
world that they are almost dysfunctional within the context of the
modern knowledge economy.
These 'blissfully ignorant' organisations and their staff are
simply incapable of capturing external opportunities through
collaboration. They are unable to look outside their current
sphere, to see opportunities that may exist across sectors and
boundaries. A small university spin-out that IXC has worked with
was focussed on providing its enzyme technology to the mining
sector. IXC discovered a multinational food company seeking an
enzyme solution for a product and introduced the two organisations.
This relationship brought the spin-out a new source of revenue and
provided the food company with a solution that did not jeopardise
its IP.
No particular type of organisation or individual is immune to
the blissfully ignorant strain of the curse of knowledge. It can be
found strangling the growth potential of major multi-nationals
along with well-known Australian companies and can be particularly
contagious within public sector organisations. Third sector groups
and charities are not immune and, of course, there is more than one
entrepreneurial type who has 'blissfully' re-invented the
wheel.
Aware of these risks, the managing director of a leading
Australian manufacturer commissioned IXC to carry out a three-month
review and analysis of external policies, market trends and
emerging technologies that could affect its future. With this type
of leadership, it is no wonder the company is highly profitable and
much loved by the markets.
At the other end of the scale is the 'know-it-all'. We think we
know so much about the subject at hand that it is almost impossible
for us to understand that others don't share this knowledge. We
assume that because something is so obvious to us it is
inconceivable that others don't share the same knowledge. It is a
no-brainer to me and "you just don't get it!" In many ways this is
an especially destructive and particularly wasteful barrier to
collaborative innovation.
One of most common areas where the know-it-all form of the curse
of knowledge is to be found is among the entrepreneur, start-up and
SME communities. Experience the tragedy often described as
'founders syndrome' where a completely viable new enterprise with
much commercial or social promise is torn apart, often with great
personal and financial consequences for the collaborators involved,
because the inventor, creator or founder simply cannot accept that
others can't see things the way they do. It can sometimes be a case
of my way or the highway.
Another all too common waste is all the great ideas that never
make it to social or commercial application because the 'ideators'
think that the idea in itself is so important and obvious that
others will get it eventually. Here the curse of knowledge can be a
major barrier to collaboration between research, academia and
industry.
Then there are know-it-all organisations and individuals that
are simply conceited about the depth or breadth of their knowledge
and capabilities and believe that they already know or have access
to all the knowledge they need to innovate. This group has no idea
"that they don't know what they don't know" and tend to see
collaboration as being something to be done on their terms
only.
This attitude can often be found in larger companies with strong
research and development budgets and in well-funded public research
institutes. Not only do they miss out on valuable collaborative
opportunities for new business growth but they run the very real
risk of being blindsided by what they don't know. To avoid this
predicament, a large international manufacturer approached IXC to
find a technical solution to a problem with a new product it
couldn't solve itself. IXC introduced them to an Australian
university whose research could be applied to the problem. This
willingness to look outside the company saved them valuable product
and market development time.
To protect ourselves as a nation from the curse of knowledge we
must commitment ourselves to three equally important courses of
action. We must improve the capacity of our business managers to
collaborate. We must educate our workforce from the days of early
schooling on the important dimensions of human relations, including
respect for the knowledge and ideas of others and the value of
sharing knowledge with each other. And we must build a national
collaborative platform that integrates the use of both people and
technology for connectivity.
There is a need and an opportunity for our policy makers and
education leaders to encourage the development of management
courses and training programs for business men and women that focus
on collaborative innovation. Organisations, such as the Society for
Knowledge Economics, the Australian Business Foundation, Innovation
& Business Skills Australia and others, are making promising
progress in this direction and I have long promoted the need for an
Australian Institute for Collaboration.
Traditionally, young people have not been formally taught the
importance of human relations as part of preparing for work life.
Yes, we were all encouraged by our parents and teachers to share
our lollies, to play nicely and to respect others but this has
generally been within a societal context and not as a formal part
of preparing people for the workplace. When it comes to thinking
about work and careers, young people are still more likely to be
encouraged to be competitive rather than collaborative.
There is a compelling need to develop school-based
pre-university courses in human relations that prepare our
workforce for a world where collaboration is based on the
application of shared knowledge. There should be no reason why
young people can't study the impact of human relations on their
potential for a successful career while also studying
economics.
It is equally important that as a nation we build the internal
and external connectivity that is needed for businesses and the
workforce to be competitive. This requires more than simply
leveraging or connecting the myriad of research, education,
industry support and innovation programs that already exist or the
creation of some new web portal or database.
In order to build a national collaborative platform to drive
both our productivity and our international competitiveness we need
to combine the power of technology and people with new processes
and systems for 'on demand' access to knowledge and capabilities.
This will require new thinking and cultural change on the part of
government, research and business as we seek out how to quickly and
safely access, move and share knowledge across traditional legal,
organisational and national barriers.