PERF RMANCE 04 - The Performance Portal - Ernst & Young

Article
Coolfarming:
discovering
the surprising
power of social
networks
Author
Peter A. Gloor, Research Scientist, MIT Center
for Collective Intelligence, Chief Creative
Officer, galaxyadvisors AG, MIT Sloan School
of Management, Cambridge, MA, US
This article applies the
principles of social
networking to corporate
leadership, arguing that
we need a new brand
of company, where
customers become one
with the leaders and product developers
of the company, working in collaborative
communities fostered by the internet and
online social networks. It offers proven,
practical steps on how to transform an
organization into one capable of unleashing
the power of self-organizing swarms — a
process we call coolfarming (Gloor 2010).
Many of the best innovations have come
not from the individual inventor, or even
in a large corporate research laboratory,
but from the collective efforts of groups
of people. We see these groups of idea
creators motivated by their love of the idea
itself and by their devotion to a process of
working with ideas predicated on nothing
more than the positive feelings success
breeds. They set out initially not with
the thought of realizing a financial gain
but rather to meet a challenge or solve a
puzzle and, in doing so, make the world a
better place. We call this swarm creativity
because “swarm” ideally describes the
positive behavior that results in the kinds
of collective mindsets that generate such
powerful “creativity.” In biology, the term
swarm is used to describe the behavior of
a group of animals traveling in the same
direction, and for us the swarming of bees
is an example of our concept. Without
central direction, bees self-organize to build
nests, feed and grow their offspring, gather
food and even decide on who becomes
their next queen.