I’ve often talked about the white spaces between disciplines – a place in which you can discover new insights 
because you can see the world from another perspective. I didn’t invent the term. It was John Seely Brown who did when he said, “Innovation occurs in the white spaces between disciplines.”
In a recent article in the New Yorker magazine, Jim Lord, author of What Kind of World Do You Want?, called my attention to an article in the January edition entitled Groupthink: The brainstorming myth. In this article, the author, Johah Lehrer, relates the scientific evidence that shows that traditional brainstorming techniques are not the best for discovering new ideas. This was interesting, but then the discussion shifted to the success of teams that include ‘newbies’ in the mix and then on to what happens when people from many disciplines are co-located. The creativity that comes from the simple juxtaposition of people doing different things and how being together forces people to talk to one another. And that’s where the magic begins to happen. Suddenly someone working in one area is stimulated to see a new idea as they talk with someone working in another – perhaps totally different – area.
I’ve always known that reading in another discipline offers whole new insights and alternative ways to examine and see your regular discipline of work. I’ve always known that learning is done in conversation, especially when the group is varied. What I wasn’t aware of was the amazing power of continuous exposure to other disciplines to produce unimagined results. One example, the Bose speaker came from a graduate student, Amar Bose. Bose was interested in listening to great music, and while working on his dissertation in one area, invented the first Bose speaker because he was able to frequent “the Acoustics Lab, which was just down the hall.”
If you are interested in bringing fresh knowledge into your life and work, here is a new insight – find a place where you can be with others who are working on very different things. If you can find that place, you will discover not only fresh knowledge, but you can expect to have breakthroughs that can lead to unexpected but real results.
So, what can you do to join the conversation with people working on very different things or create that place yourself? I’m looking for solutions that go beyond simple networking.
So, please take a moment and comment.
4 Comments
“Looking for solutions that go beyond simple networking” is a statement that doesn’t conger up much understanding for me. I have problems with new ideas that I haven’t had a lot of experience with. Solutions I know about. Networking seems to be subsumed under the term dialogue possibly. etc. This was to illustrate my interest in language. Having concepts that are clear and shared must be a starting point for mutual solution collaboration. I have not been able to create that place you are talking about. I appreciate the space to talk about this void. Thanks for a great blog.
I’m not sure that what was happening in the co-location was “concepts clear and shared.” I think the juxtaposition of different disciplines has more to do with seeing things from a slightly different perspective — even if the perspective is unclear and unshared. I think it suggests new metaphors, as well.
We share the same first name as well as its rather unusual spelling – so I took that as a sign to spend some time investigating when I read Jim Lord’s recent brainstorming newsletter mentioning your visit to Columbus (close to Cincinnati but, alas, behind us temporally).
Your work intrigues me, yet I, like Bruce, am stymied by the concept of “beyond” networking, from a different vantage point. Perhaps because I consider myself the ADD Poster Girl and have rarely done anything “inside” anything resembling “the box,” your urging to go “beyond” is as puzzling as asking me to double infinity. I will continue to noodle it subconsciouly, I’m sure, to see what I come up with that might be of value.
A rapid and voracious reader of non-fiction from a large variety of fields and topics, I have always lived in the “white space.” I have yet to find a book that didn’t expand my thinking about the attentional spectrum (my niche).
My love of words does not extend to “Cliff Note” approaches like Twitter, which I find distracting; I prefer a bone with enough meat to chew for an evening before adding my own flavoring to the mixture. (Although I do adore pithy quotes and find them excellent jumping-off places around which to organize budding trains of thought.)
I’ll be back.
Madelyn Griffith-Haynie, SCAC, MCC – (blogging at ADDandSoMuchMore and on ADDerWorld – dot com!)
“It takes a village to transform a world!”
Madelyn, how nice to meet another Madelyn even with the same spelling. Welcome.
Ah, that phrase “beyond simple networking” — it was so clear to me when I wrote it. And you have already answered my intended question when you said that you read non-fiction from a large variety of fields and topics. I was trying to prompt readers to think about all the many ways in which they can stand in a different place and look back at the usual way of thinking. Reading in different disciplines is a great place to do so. Thanks so much for your extended comments. I sincerely look forward to seeing you back again. And, I’ll just have to check out your blog as well. Perhaps it will lead me into new white space.