What I Learned from Trying to Innovate at the New York Times
I think we can draw some very useful lessons for our #CLMOOC renewal this summer from John Geraci’s stint at the NYTimes, one that perhaps will lead to the continuous renewal that we all seek for ourselves.
Companies with the organism mindset are too slow to adapt to survive in the modern world. The world around them changes, recombines, evolves, and they are stuck with their same old DNA, their same old problems, their same old (failed) attempts at solutions.
Ecosystems, by contrast, are boundless, constantly able to grow, absorb new entities, adapt, react, and transform. They don’t acquire new elements by ingesting them, but by absorbing new components at the edges of the network. And when they do that, they create new value for the whole ecosystem.
Organizations that pursue strategies like these have what I call the Ecosystem Mindset. All startups have it, while almost no big companies do. It’s an understanding that your organization is not a bounded entity, complete unto itself, but part of a wider ecosystem. It comes with an implicit understanding that the solutions to your key challenges are not all inside the building, but are out there — and that you must locate and interact with them to thrive.
Are we already an ecosystem at #CLMOOC or are we going to become one in #CLMOOC16? Nicholas Taleb calls this habit of actively locating and engaging –“antifragility”. Risks may well be our safeties in disguise. Why? Because we get stronger through engagement.
Geraci’s takeaway is this:
- leaders (that means everyone) must focus “beyond the walls of the organization” into the ecosystem.
- they must focus on building relationships
- they need to be organized to function as a series of inputs and outputs, permeable membranes with the outside world around us.
- they must continually ask the question, “Is our network working?”
But his best advice is in simple, declarative sentences:
So what’s the solution…? Open the doors. Let the light stream in. Get out of the building. Interact…. Everyone. The new value is not inside, it’s out there, at the edges of the network. Embrace that, and grow.
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Terry, I think the Times and many other businesses could/should duplicate cMOOCs and encourage their employees, competitors, customers and vendors to participate. I think they should also encourage employee volunteerism, in any sector that is important to the employee, and support them with the best collaboration tools possible, so they gain the greatest value for time spent.
Finally, they should measure engagement. In the HBR article the author wrote: “They also measure the value of this activity, and expect to see a real ROI. They measure efficiency, productivity, quality of the network, quality of inputs and outputs. Rather than just networking, they continually ask the question, “Is our network working?””
The CLMOOC, and others I’ve participated in, have made some efforts to map participation, but not with a strategic effort to understand impact, or expand participation and impact.
A discussion of this as part of the MOOCs would be a step in this direction.
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This is the salient quote from you, Daniel: “but not with a strategic effort to understand impact, or expand participation and impact.” This is one of my goals this summer with CLMOOC16. Thanks for your help in clarifying that it is the edge of the network that I seek. I will call on you for sage advice.
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The National Academy Press recently published a report on Afterschool learning where they called for mapping and closing gaps:
“The committee identified six actions that policy makers, program developers, and stakeholders should take to develop and support productive programs:
Understand the local conditions for community programs that support STEM learning: Build a map and bridge the gaps.”
http://www.nap.edu/read/21740/chapter/2#3
You may want to cite this work to help build the case for this work.