If a Tree Fell in the Forest

"There's no sound when a tree falls unheard in the forest, and there's no space-time without consciousness nearby to watch." [Richard Bach, Running from Safety]

Last night I hosted one of our monthly conversations with Fast Company magazine readers' network from the series on CEO perspectives. Our guest was Bill Loftus, CEO, Gestalt, a 230-people, $34-million software company founded in 2001 and already winning simulation technology contracts for theatre-level training exercises over Raytheon Co., an 80,000-employee and $21.9 billion organization.

Gestalt's sweet spot is the technical expertise that serves commercial, defense and utility industries. They help enterprises solve challenges -- such as enabling managers of complex operations to quickly recognize critical conditions, optimize resource utilization, and manage complex asset portfolios. In a few short years, they became known as the experts in interoperability and intelligent decision-making.

Bill talked about how the world of business is fundamentally different, especially thanks to technology. Gestalt utilizes applications that harness the network effect and the collective intelligence. Innovation in this new environment means that we now have the pieces to solve problems we did not know we had. We are, in fact, designing solutions for the long tail -- the trend of issues along the spectrum vs. just the one problem at hand.

Some of the tools we're using to spread and collect intelligence are Wikipedia, MySpace (which he pointed out is not innovative on the tech side), LinkedIn, Craig's List, Podcasts, specialist sites like Winelog.net. Innovative ideas are born from the mashup of these tools: for example, mixing two compatible protocols like Google maps and Craig's list creates a visual overlay of available property rentals in a geographic location.

What this means is that people now solve problems differently. What is critical to understand in this new business environment is that communication allows us to work at a problem simultaneously as compared to hierarchical structures were certain paths to permission to proceed were more de rigueur.

Bill's philosophy of collaborative work evolved from his software R&D past. Companies used to spend time and resources trying to figure out what people where thinking while making online decisions so they could harness those relationships. When the world changed, people realized that they should just trust those users as they make decisions on their own. The magic of the collective intelligence resides in people putting information on Wikipedia and del.icio.us, for example.

While the business part is still ruthless and hard to execute on, the impact of communication and trust in relationships yielded fast results. Employees who can develop and execute strategy and teams who are self organized and trusted -- speed, it turns out, is a quality on its own; in this new network, the relationship with a customer is based upon a positive interaction vs. a contract. That's how Gestalt with its inductive approach to project management, won business over larger and more hierarchical organizations.

How can we think about this in a different context? After all, if we don't work on defense contracts with Gestalt, it becomes pretty esoteric to think just about the theoretical angle. In the spirit of connective intelligence, I would like to explore two conversations that can give us ideas on solutions we did not think about.

Liz Strauss at Successful Blog has been hosting a conversation on Social Networking: How is it Supposed to Work?, she asks.

"Networking is a “one at time, get to know someone relationship” activity in my world. Relationship − that’s the operative word for me. At every Social Networking Site, I’ve ended up with a “network” that came to be despite — not because — of me, and I’m not sure what I’m supposed to do with or for or about each of them." Then in the comments section after our conversation, concludes: "I think we’re all at the same place on one point. Relationships are more important than contacts."

If we examine how this conversation took place, we can distinctly observe that our need to communicate around a topic, which happened to be about relationships, provided a platform for the discussion. The topic and medium allowed us to evolve our individual thinking collectively, thus establishing a certain modicum of trust -- and developing our relationships one step further.

Another way of developing the collective intelligence around a topic is by asking a good question, then standing back to receive understanding. That's what Tully did yesterday at Logical eMotions.

"If the statement “we associate with like minded individuals” is true, then aren’t we asking the same “risky” question to ourselves even though we’re asking someone else?

Ask. The worst thing you get is understanding," writes Tully.

Blogs, wikis, LinkedIn, etc. these are all applications that harness the collective intelligence -- they don't make it. You need to have the people communicating, developing relationships, and trusting each other to design conversations that create a fundamentally different business. While we do a lot of thinking behind the interface of our consciousness, the action happens when our thinking is displayed through interaction. Interaction allows us to think together, fail faster, grow and learn better.

[photo credit, Joe Zlomek]

Comments

[Richie]

Yes, the way in which relationships evolve has changed fundamentally. Who is in charge of Wikipedia? Who is in charge of sites like Myspace?

Okay, in the case of Myspace there is someone behind the scenes, but the real ownership belongs to the individuals who make the content. This is not the case with all the media up until now. Instead of being passive receivers, we are part of the content creation.

Of course, one of the problems of the web is not starting the dialogue, but getting people to join in.

[Valeria Maltoni]

I was fascinated to hear the subject being brought up in the context of business and how these new tools can actually improve the way we work.

[Roger von Oech]

Interesting topic, interesting tools.

You know, when it comes down right to it, my favorite thing about blogging (one of your tools), is picking up the old-fashioned telephone and talking with some of the people I've met in the blogosphere. A lot of walls come down when I do this, and you get a much better sense of the person.

[Liz Strauss]

I'm with Roger. I find that a chance to talk allows for so much -- pacing and nuance and laughter.

Connecting is more than collecting.

Valeria, you did such a wonderful post showing how much. Thank you for that.

[Valeria Maltoni]

Roger -- we'll be talking this week. Promise. What I liked about Gestalt was actually meeting Bill Loftus. Online is not a substitution for face to face, it's just an extension, a way to have a broader reach.

Liz -- I owe you a call soon as well. Although open mic nights allowed me to get to know you and your friends much better, talking is a better way to have a sense of the other.

When I started blogging, I did on a promise that I would continue to connect ideas and people, because talk can and does change our lives. Back before New Year, I did a fun post on Horoscopes, which was designed to introduce stars in our network. I am currently working on projects with some of those people and look forward to telling those stories.