Differentiation, selection, multiplication
I recently finished reading a terrific book called The Origin of Wealth which looks at how organisations affect the ability of a country to improve their standard of living. Lots of fascinating ideas.
One chapter looked at how the principle of evolution applies to ideas within an organisation. According to the author, evolution is about differentiation (finding different ways to solve a problem/address and opportunity); selection (finding which new way is the most effective); and multiplication (getting that new idea out as widely as possible).
I asked how these fit with EWB? I think that we are great at differentiation – there are constantly new ideas being hatched for most parts of most programs.
It seemed to me, however, that we might find better processes for selection and multiplication. Do the best ideas get identified, and do they spread throughout the organisation? Are there mechanisms that we could put in place to facilitate or accelerate this?