Where do we find black swans? Surely part of what makes a swan a swan it that it is white. Our common sense tells us that to expect things to follow regular patterns -- the earth circles the sun and each day it will appear to rise from the horizon. Management presupposes control and control presupposes thinkg will behave as planned, that swans are whilte. Where can innovation come from?
Diverse networks are are a source of innovation. People with diverse networks are healthier, more innovation and creative. So Don acts on what he has learned. He is a guitarist, a fedgling dancer who enjoys meeting new people and is always on the lookout for new ways to have fun. He writes that this is partially because our expectations about what we can see limit what we see. Those expectations come from those around us. Our networks create us, and to be new, we need to be in different networks.
One way Don discovered to break out of unconscious expectation is improv. Improv is not only about theater, it is about recognizing the things that we do that limit us. It is about learning to make mistakes and recognizing how society creates us. Don facilitates improv game get togethers where participants do exercies in breaking out of the constraints of our social roles; learning to make mistakes and be impossible selves.
Don invests in the random, the chance of meeting someone or learning something he did not know that he did not know. He augments the focus required to publish in academic journals and work with business with play and new connections. He is searching for, and occationally finding black swans.
