Innovations happen at the Intersections

Everyone organisation can become more efficient and hone its customer service but big leaps come when new ideas and technical inventions are taken to the innovation level. This process is not easy - especially in enterprises that try to force all communication into rigid organization charts.

The first thing to do is to recognize and encourage informal conversations across formal lines of authority. Valdis Krebs - a pioneer of new social carthography: " Network analysts have found that innovation happens at the intersections". People positioned in these "intersections of ideas" are by necessity ideally placed to contribute to new ways of doing old things and new things.

These intersections do not show up in official organization charts. As observed by Weinberger: "The messiness of a diagram of social interaction is often a measure of the level of innovation in a company.