Small Worlds & Innovation

My son brought an article on social network structure & innovation to my attention. A study found that "fully connected" groups did well on simple problems, but not nearly as well on complex problems.

And, a related article discussed research that found that complex/'wicked' problems are solved better by individuals than by internet groups.

Don't know if there's a real trend here, but it seems consistent with a couple of things I've observed:

• As group size increases, so does the likelihood of a "lowest common denominator" solution


• As problem complexity increases, group effectiveness decreases

Although how a group is structured and the processes they use are key factors, I suspect that a key factor is costs associated with coordination of meaning among group members (i.e., syncing of mental models & narrative fragments). As you move into the Complex domain and the focus shifts to probing (vs. analysis), effective exploration of the problem is only possible by individuals or very small groups with significant overlaps in problem domain expertise.

Bottom line: ensure there's a good match between the nature of the problem (simple, complicated, complex, chaotic), the makeup & structure of the group attacking the problem, and the processes be used.