The next circle of innovation 3

We are all Michelangelos

It’s funny as well as rewarding when you see something and turn the pages of a dated book and say, “I’ve seen this before”. The book in question is Tom Peter’s The Circle of Innovation published in 1997. Tom Peters said

“The only sustainable competitive advantage comes from out-innovating the competition. Wealth in this economy flows directly from innovation, not optimization; that is, wealth is gained not from perfecting the known but imperfectly seizing the unknown”.

Google is a perfect example of a company which has imperfectly seized the unknown through its relentless pursuit of new products and experiences and its “perpetual beta” philosophy.

The new circle of innovation

What is innovation has been propounded by many gurus, so I will resist from repeating the known. Imagine the most dominant search and media company (Google) giving you the power to create your own circle of connections and access to their profiles. You lay back and listen for a while. Then you reach out and start conversations. You share. Others re-share with your take. You create your circles of influence. You create a smaller circle of gurus and peers and give shape to that idea you’ve been thinking about.

I reached out to Chris Brogan and asked, “Can carefully curated Circles when combined with Docs and Hangouts and Huddles could well becomes circles of border less innovation – What do you think?”. His response was “I think you’re right. And it’ll be a much better Wave than Wave ever was.”. Got me started on this post for sure.

Jay Deragon said, “The intangible value of people discovering, learning and sharing are the foundation of a new economy” linking his article People are your greatest asset and I responded, “In the same vein when “relevant” people connect to produce or innovate magic will happen – maybe a new renaissance. Social Flights is a product of experiences of people who fly. As Google says “The web is what you make of it” – hopefully less noise, more action”

Googleplus Circles – a new vehicle for innovation?

Circles in Googleplus are a way to converse with relevant people and follow them. To me this means that I am clearly doing away with the clutter and focusing on relevant streams of conversation without losing it among all the noise in a social network.

Brian Solis of Altimeter group wrote a very inspired and erudite post, where he says :

For years it seemed that Google couldn’t grasp the human laws that govern social networking. The intentional and unintentional spectacles of exhilaration that launched Wave, Buzz and +1 showed the world that a culture of engineering is only part of the formula required for social networking. It would take a culture of sociology, ethnography and psychology to understand the dynamics of human behavior and package them into a meaningful service that real people would embrace. It would take a team of great minds such as Chris Messina and Paul Adams, a former user experience expert at Google to realize that to +1 Facebook or Twitter, would take a novel and human approach

Could this be the beginnings of a new circle of innovation? Combined with Google’s Hangout and Huddle could I imperfectly seize the unknown? Could I become the curator of new ideas in my chosen circle?

Could I become the next Michelangelo?

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