PART THREE | THE COLLABORATIVE ORGANIZATION
8 | Organizing for Improvisation
Once a collaborative organization gets too big, it stops working. （戈尔公司每个小组不超过150人，Semler 将300人的工厂分成3个不同的车间）
A study of companies in Europe, Japan, and the United States found that the most innovative companies limit operating units to fewer than 400 employees.
Just the opposite: innovation today is a continuous process of small and constant change, and it’s built into the culture of successful companies. （今日的创新是由小而持续不断的变化组成的连续的过程，这个观念已经植根于成功企业的企业文化之中了）
Many organizational theories have their roots in the 1960s and 1970s, a time when adaptability and innovation weren’t as important as they are today. （这也是为什么很多管理理论现在已经过时了的原因）
But such theories can’t help us in today’s rapidly changing economy, because protected monopolies are becoming increasingly rare, and new technologies are opening up formerly stable industries to radical new competition. （当今的经济变化太快，垄断企业越来越少，旧有的管理理念已经没有作用了）
（不过还是有一些相反的研究结论的，比如：）
- Decades later, the success of loosely coupled companies has shown that Weick was right. （松散耦合的企业比精心计划的企业更有创造力（1969））
- When companies used smaller teams and fewer hierarchical levels, they were more innovative. （较少层级的小团队更有创造力（1980s））
- Team-based companies performed better than traditional bureaucratic firms. （团队结构的公司比官僚结构的公司表现更好（1996））
（介绍了一些公司组建“创新实验室”的故事：）
- Google's X research lab （自动驾驶汽车、谷歌眼镜）
- Qualcomm
- Amazon's Lab 126 （Kindle电子书）
- Microsoft's Garage
（很多传统企业也有类似的实验室）
After all, one of the oldest strategies for increasing innovation is to separate out everyday business activities from innovative activities. （最古老的刺激创新的策略是把创新行为和日常生产分开，但最终证明，这种做法并不是很有效）
Famous innovations in the past have come from isolated groups, But the difference is that the older model was based on linear innovation: the separate group comes up with ideas; the rest of the company selects the best ones and executes them. （线性创新是指精英团队负责想出 ideas，然后其他公司部门挑选出最好的来执行。）
But although separation can be good for short-term creativity, it interferes with long-term innovation: an isolated “skunk works” usually has trouble communicating with the rest of the organization, because innovation requires collaboration across the company. （但实际上，线性创新可能短期有效，但长期并不理想，因为创新团队并没有和公司进行交流沟通）
（比如施乐公司著名的 PARC 部门发明很多东西，但施乐公司从来都没有将这些发明推向市场，反倒被乔布斯借鉴了去，成就了 Apple）
Successful innovative companies keep these small sparks coming from individuals throughout the organization, each spark inspiring the next.
（直到后来，各大公司才意识到不能将创新实验室与整个公司分隔开来，所以向实验室中引入了其他部门的人员，且常常轮换）
The most innovative companies do ten things that foster collaboration and innovation. （最具创新性的公司为了孕育协作创新而做的10件事情：）
- Keep Many Irons in the Fire （常常有很多好想法备着）
- Create a Department of Surprises （用专门的部门来搜集整理创新想法）
- Build Spaces for Creative Conversation （创建合适的工作环境）
- Allow Time for Ideas to Emerge （创意是急不得滴！）
- Manage the Risks of Improvisation （“即兴”有风险，需要灵活管理）
- Improvise at the Edge of Chaos （保持在“开放自治”和“混乱”的分界线上）
- Manage Knowledge for Innovation （为创新而进行知识管理）
- Build Dense Networks （在成员间建立比较深的相互联系）
- Ditch the Organizational Chart （扔掉管理表格）
- Measure the Right Things （学会用真正的标准来衡量创新活力）
Keep Many Irons in the Fire
The collaborative organizations constantly experimented, and they always had several different low-cost projects in the works. （我觉得这里 low-cost 是个重点！） But instead of a grand plan that organized all the projects, they responded to what emerged.
For years now, 3M, Gore, and Google have reserved from 10 to 20 percent of each employee’s time for innovative new projects. （此外还有Apple的Blue Sky，LinkedIn的Incubator，Cisco的Nerd Lunches，Code Sprints，Hackathons，Geekfests，Idea Jams）
The goal of these practices is to encourage prototyping and experimenting with ideas. （尽快做出原型来测验新的想法是最重要的目标）
These strategies allow ideas to be tested quickly: the less promising projects can be terminated early, and the new sparks become visible so that other teams can adapt and use them. （重点是要快，不合适的项目赶紧砍掉，好想法迅速采纳）
Create a Department of Surprises
In the collaborative organization, sparks that fail at their original purpose are often picked up and used elsewhere. （在协作创新团队中，不合适原有目标的点子也经常被用在其他的地方，不合适原有目标并不代表这些点子是无用的）
A collaborative organization is good at recognizing when that one great collaboration happens.
But it’s a law of innovation that successes can’t go up unless failures go up, too. （失败是在所难免的，所以要学会管理失败以及管理失败情绪）
And because we can’t have the successes without the failures, we need to create organizational cultures that cherish failure. （用合适的企业文化来消化失败，甚至“庆祝”失败）
Build Spaces for Creative Conversation
Steelcase and Herman Miller have responded by designing workplaces that balance the power of collaboration with the need for private concentration time. （开放的工作环境还是需要提供私人空间以供人专注工作的）
Allow Time for Ideas to Emerge
Teresa Amabile has found that this management tactic （指：tight deadlines and long hours） usually kills creativity. （相关研究可见：T. Amabile, C. N. Hadley, and S. J. Kramer, “Creativity Under the Gun,” Harvard Business Review 80, no. 8 (2002): 52–61. Quotations from workers are on p. 58, and AT&T’s philosophy is stated on p. 52.）
Low-pressure situations allow for collaborative conversations to unfold, and that’s where innovations emerge. （很多人自以为的在压力下更有创造力的感觉是错误的，是假象）
You can’t rush creativity. （因为：） creativity requires that we encounter and internalize previous sparks of insight, and it takes incubation time for those sparks to combine in the mind. （这是创新的本质所决定的！）
Manage the Risks of Improvisation
After all, improvisation can be risky. （即兴是有风险的！）
- when people are improvising, they must take time away from planned projects that have been carefully analyzed. （因此需要平衡好计划性工作和即兴工作）
- the improvisation can make it impossible to sustain a central vision and long-term strategy. （因此即兴工作仅限于小团队内部）
- too many new ideas might bubble up. （会导致 feature creep 功能蔓延，这对于商业产品来说是不利的。作者没有正面提出对这一风险的解决方案，只说需要灵活管理风险）
Improvise at the Edge of Chaos
Improv theater groups that do “long-form” improvisation almost always prepare a loose structure in advance. （项目比较大的时候，还是需要准备一个简单的规划的）
The successful innovators used limited structures that called “semistructures.” （有经验的创新者都会使用“半规划”）
The researchers concluded that the critical balance for innovation is at “the edge of chaos”: not too rigid and not too loose. （不能太紧张，也不能太松懈）
opportunistic planning: planning that provides a company with a general outline of how to proceed, but gives it enough flexibility to change in response to unexpected developments. （机会主义计划：指定的计划不能僵硬死板，要留出弹性来应对可能出现的预料之外的状况）
The collaborative organization is no anarchy; it’s filled with structuring and ordering features. （创新协作绝不等于无政府状态！）
Manage Knowledge for Innovation
The collaborative organization excels at transferring to other groups the ideas that emerge from good improvisations.
Successful innovative organizations use procedures that select the good improvisations and then spread them throughout the organization, systems that are known today as knowledge management. （这里所说的“procedures”应该就是上面所说的“Department of Surprises”）
When people have a broader range of skills, new connections and greater communication are possible. （人不能太“专”，具备多种技能的人更容易建立联系）
The more jobs are formalized, the less likely innovation becomes. （工作程式化以后，就没有什么创新性可言了。更准确地说，如果一个员工认为他的工作是程式化的，他就不可能在工作中创新）
Frequent reassignment of staff—such as rotating them through an innovation lab in three-month stints—diffuses tacit knowledge more effectively than written reports and computer databases. （经常性更换员工的工作岗位比让员工写工作报告更有利于公司内部的知识流动，员工会带着知识去不同地点并促进知识的传递）
Build Dense Networks
Today, companies can choose from a wide variety of collaboration tools, including Slack, Basecamp, Trello, Yammer (now owned by Microsoft), Do.com, and Salesforce.com’s Chatter. （今天我们有很多协同工作软件或平台可以选择）
The traditional bureaucratic structure was designed to make sure that only the right person saw the right information. （官僚化的管理结构只让特定的人接触到特定的信息）
New technology helps, but it won’t make an organization collaborative without the right culture and values in place. （工具永远只是工具，工具不会让团队变得协作起来！）
When information is shared through collaboration, and decision making is decentralized, there’s no need for a hierarchy to gather and channel information to a single decision maker. （信息在协作中自然分享，决定在协作中自然浮现，不需要一个专门的组织结构来搜集所有信息来给某一个特定的决策者来拍板）
Instead, the manager is a catalyst and facilitator, acting as a connector between groups, a cross-pollinator and carrier of knowledge. （管理者的职能要从“决策者”改变为“服务者”）
This is the concept behind Holacracy （全体共治、无差异自治）
In creative conversations, knowledge is represented equivocally, lending itself to multiple interpretations, new combinations, and reuse. （“交流”的最终目的并不是传递信息，而是在传递信息的过程中让信息被“解释”、“组合”、“重新使用”）
Ditch the Organizational Chart
Measure the Right Things
If a company expects all new ideas to come from a separate group called “research and development,” it’s still using the old linear model of creativity.
Patents aren’t the same thing as innovation. （专利并不等于创新！）
Most successful innovations are complex combinations of many separate ideas. The patents are less important than the collaborative systems that bring them together. （专利相当于一个个思维火花，如果没有一个协作系统把这些火花串联起来，专利就不会产生革命性创新）
The best measure of an organization’s innovation potential is how successfully it has created a collaborative organization.
The Harvard Business Review published a study that used network analysis to identify the strongest collaborators in an organization; it found that leaders are usually surprised by at least half the names on the list. （这份报告可见于：R. Cross, R. Rebele, and A. Grant, “Collaboration Overload,” Harvard Business Review, January-February 2016, 74–79.）
A second key feature of the collaborative organization is the way it manages information. （因为创新的驱动力是 知识在新情境中被重新解释或者重新运用）
（公司如何衡量自己的创新潜力：）
- Count the proportion of time spent on small exploratory projects; more is better, up to about 20 percent of total staff time. （员工花在小型探索性项目上的时间越多，公司越有创造力，但不要超过20%，因为还有正常的工作要做）
- Measure the average length of a project before being terminated (shorter is usually better). （无效项目的平均寿命越短，公司越有创造力）
- examine how well the organization celebrates and rewards failure. In short: fail often, fail early, fail gloriously. （一句话：经常失败、失败得早、失败得光荣的公司文化比较有创造力）
The most open and connected networks foster the greatest innovation. （两个重点：1. 开放；2. 互联）
9 | The Collaborative Web
（关于“大富翁”游戏的故事）
Monopoly emerged from a collaborative web, a diffuse and informal network of people who enjoyed playing the game. （大富翁的原版游戏其实在民间已经逐渐演化了几十年）
Each group of players modified the rules as they saw fit, but no one ever owned anything. The ideas spread around freely, and those that worked best survived. （类似于文化领域的“适者生存”，但其实最终结果是产生了无数的变种）
（然后仔细分析了关于电视发明的传说以及实际的真相：一系列横跨几十年间的关键技术的发明才最终导致了电视的发明）
The key to understanding innovation is to realize that collaborative webs are more important than creative people. （协作网络比单独的创造性个体更重要）
But in today’s economy, most of the action is in the web, where everyone’s creative power increases so that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. （在协作网络中的每一个个体的创造力都是被增幅了的）
（关于波士顿电脑业衰落而硅谷崛起的故事，前者封闭而后者开放）
In Massachusetts, all the companies suffered from the mindset of possessiveness. But in Silicon Valley, the vibrant collaborative webs resulted in collective learning and systemic adaptation, both of which made everyone in the web stronger.
Silicon Valley shows the power of local collaborative webs that economists call clusters （集群）.
Businesses cluster because it makes each of them more successful; they can all tap into the power of the collaborative web. （传统意义上说“集群”是为了更合理地利用资源，但创意产业的“集群”是为了更好的进行交流而建设协作网络，这也许就是很多地方“创意产业”最终效果不明显的原因吧）
From the perspective of any one company, information that flows away is lost. But for the web as a whole, information that flows multiplies its total innovation. （对单个公司来说，信息泄露是损失，但对于整个协作网络来说，信息需要流动才能增殖创新）
Bay Area brings together all the key components: venture capitalists, a huge pool of talent, established larger companies with expertise and seasoned management skills, and a stream of new ideas and new talent from Stanford University. （钱、人才、大公司、提供新点子和新人才的大学）
Collaborative webs didn’t suddenly become important as a result of new technology. （并不是说有了新科技就马上会出现协作网络，关键还是在于人与人之间是不是在交流，以及这些交流是否有效促进了信息的增殖）
（关于飞机发明的更多史实，莱特兄弟虽然发明了飞机，但过于保守以至于一直隔离在相关的协作网络之外，反倒是网络之内的 Curtiss 最终研制出来现代飞机的雏形）
The AEA was a collaborative web, and by being part of it, Curtiss made more advances than the Wrights.
（协作网络 Collaborative Webs 的5大特征：）
- Each Innovation Builds Incrementally on a Long History of Prior Innovations （任何创新都是建立于长时期先验创新的不断积累的）
- A Successful Innovation Is a Combination of Many Small Sparks （一个成功的创新是众多小火花的结合）
- In Collaborative Webs, There Is Frequent Interaction Among Teams （在协作网络中，团队间的互动非常频繁）
- In Collaborative Webs, Multiple Discovery Is Common （在协作网络中，多人同时发现是很普遍的）
- No One Company Can Own the Web （没有一个公司能够拥有整个协作网络）
But even though Parker Brothers owned the products that had emerged from the web, it could never own the web itself—nor the later innovations that emerged from players around the globe.
（关于早期因特网 ARPANET 和电子邮件的故事）
Because once the concept was proven, other programmers built more efficient mail delivery programs. （提出概念的人并不一定就是创造出最终产品的人）
Innovations don’t stand alone; they’re successful only if a collaborative web emerges around them. （创新成果一定是和协作网络一起出现的）
The collaborative web can’t be managed, the outcome is unpredictable, and success or failure depends on the actions of many highly interconnected people and organizations. （协作网络不可以被管理，它的产出不可预期，成功或失败取决于其间的人和组织）
small world network: many densely connected small groups that are loosely linked to one another.
The variable Q, that measures how densely interconnected the entire musical community was. （研究者用这个Q值来表示一个网络中人与人之间的关联密度）
The fascinating result is that, yes, more connectivity is better, but only up to a point. After that point, increasing connectivity begins to interfere with innovation. （又是一个需要“不多不少刚刚好”的结论，唉……）
The idel Q of 2.6 （研究得出的最佳 Q 值是2.6）
The risk is that teams might fall into collaboration overload. （过度参与社交的人员反而无心参与工作了。论文可见：R. Cross, R. Rebele, and A. Grant, “Collaboration Overload,” Harvard Business Review, January-February 2016, 74–79.）
Some managers and employees spend over 80 percent of their time in collaborative activities, and they report the lowest engagement and career satisfaction scores. （有些人花了80%的时间在协作事务上，当然干不好本职工作咯！）
Cross’s research found that close links to anything over 25 people reduced performance. （最多只能和25个人保持紧密的联系，否则就会影响工作效率……）
Connections expose a team to new sources of creative material. But if the network is totally connected, there is less diversity of ideas and the web risks falling into a rut of conventional styles.
The most creative web is the one in which good connections exist among the teams, but the teams still enjoy independence and autonomy. （最有创造力的网络是在团队间存在很好的联系，但彼此又能够足够自治并享受独立工作的网络）
（接下来讲 Linux 的故事，用来讨论 Open Innovation）
In a collaborative web, companies make money by finding a niche within the system, not by owning the system. （Linux 不赚钱，但围绕 Linux 可以找到很多利基市场）
Books such as Democratizing Innovation by the MIT professor Eric von Hippel advocate this model, which has come to be known as “open source,” as the driver of innovation. （有人认为，开源是创新的驱动力。但这话并不一定正确）
Collaborative webs have a lot in common with open-source communities, but the open-source model is not the ideal web for innovation. （协作网络和开源社区有些像，但开源模式并不一定就适合于协作创新）
（对500项开放源码项目的研究发现，其中只有1%的项目具有革命性创新价值，另外59%有增量创新价值，剩下的大部分都是复制已有的商业产品）
10 | Collaborating with Customers
（作者认为，公司不可能拥有任何真正的协作网络，但是公司可以将自己的客户培养成一个合作网络，去利用 User Generated Content）
it aggregates the collective wisdom of everyone who uses the Web by ranking a web page higher when other pages connect to it. （collective wisedom 和协作创新还是不一样的，群体智慧其实大部分还是在使用群体的“脑力劳动”，而不是在使用群体的“创造力”）
It doesn’t really feel like a game. It’s more like a space where you make things. （这是在说 Minecraft）
Minecraft is a maker space, a tinkering workshop. Players learn to create, they learn to collaborate with friends, and at the same time, they develop computational thinking abilities. （Minecraft 更像是个工坊平台，让人可以进行协作）
Four out of five of them originated in user suggestions or were actually invented by the users. （来自1969年的一项研究）
In 2009, an MIT study found that 50 to 90 percent of all innovations came from users.
Between 10 and 40 percent of all users modify the products they buy.
Two technological developments will continue the trend: social media and the Internet support the dense networks of communication that allow for the frequent sharing of small sparks, and new software tools that support design—such as computer-aided design tools and visually oriented programming environments—make it easier than ever for a customer to contribute a spark to the web. （一方面是促进通讯交流让创新想法传播更方便，另一方面是提供工具让用户更容易进行相关创新工作）
The most innovative collaborative webs have complex and multiple links that no one can fully understand or control.
Open innovation can succeed in any industry. （开放式创新在任何产业都可能成功）
Open innovation works best with a wide range of expertise and experience.
Creativity today is everywhere. We all contribute to collaborative webs, even when we don’t realize it. （当今，创新无处不在。我们都在为协作网络做贡献，不论我们有没有意识到这一点）
11 | Creating the Collaborative Economy
（这一章是谈协作经济，如何让在协作网络中的贡献转化为对贡献者的实际经济价值，但最终也没有什么很好的结论）
To drive innovation, countries need legal systems in place that balance the rights of individual creators without blocking the collaborative webs that give them inspiration.
In 2012, a review of all of the research found no evidence that patents increase creativity. （论文可见：M. Boldrin, and D. K. Levine, “The Case Against Patents,” Working Paper 2012-035A, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, 2012.）
The science of innovation has shown us the power of collaboration, but US government policy remains based on the myth of the big idea, the solitary genius.
（为了更好地促进协作创新，作者认为需要对现存的法律系统做7项修改：）
- Reduce Copyright Terms （减少版权保护年限）
- Reward Small Sparks （奖励微创新）
- Legalize Modding （Modding 合法化）
- Free the Employees （将针对员工的“非竞争性协议”非法化）
- Mandatory Licensing （强制性允许授权，并规范化授权费）
- Pool Patents （共享专利权）
- Encourage Industry-Wide Standards （鼓励建立全行业标准，且该标准不应该被某公司所独有）
Innovation happens more rapidly today than it did in 1790. Why should an idea be protected for even longer when the innovation cycle is shorter? （版权法是1790年颁布的，现今的创新更新得更快了，但版权保护年限反而越来越长，这都是为了保护大企业的利益而做出的决定，而不是为了鼓励创新）
The open-source community thrives because programmers share their sparks without charge—for intangible benefits such as recognition, and also in exchange for receiving the sparks from others.
（当前的专利制度根本就不是为了鼓励微创新而设计的，所以在当前制度下根本无从谈起让所有贡献者都获利）
The US Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998—designed to prevent users from making illegal copies of software, music, and movies—has the side effect of making it impossible to modify the products consumers purchase. （有关1988年的数字千禧年法案的论文可见：H. R. Varian, “New Chips Can Keep a Tight Rein on Consumers,” New York Times, July 4, 2002.）
Another way that government policy can support the emergence of collaborative webs is to make employee noncompete clauses illegal and to allow the free flow of employees and in all but a few limited cases, the free flow of whatever knowledge those employees have. （允许员工流动，允许信息流动，这与企业的诉求是完全相反的）
Patent owners should be required to license their technology, and decisions about pricing for the license should be removed from the patent owner to prevent excessively high fees that interfere with the flow of ideas. （版权拥有者不能拒绝授权，也不能随意定很高的授权费）
With pooled patents, every company shares in the collective benefits of participating in the web. （专利权共享。但是现在专利都集中在大公司手里，专利权共享反而让大公司能够联合起来压迫独立开发者）
（我个人觉得，最应该禁止掉的是“独家授权”！）
With universal and shared standards in place, modular innovation takes off: anyone can attach a new innovation to the rest of the system. （有了统一的标准，模块创新才能腾飞）
But we can’t copyright every Tweet and blog post. We can’t give patents to everyone who suggests an online solution to a problem in a technical forum. That would kill the collaborative potential of the Internet. （这是难点所在啊！）
12 | Collaborating with Everybody
（第一个故事是伦敦出租车司机抗议Uber，Uber让他们千辛万苦所获得的Green Badge变得毫无价值）
（第二个故事/事例是关于Fan Fiction的，比起中国的网络小说来，美国的粉丝小说弱爆了好吧……）
It used to be that the writers were the creators, and the readers were the audience. Today, readers and writers come together in a collaborative web. （创作者和消费者的界限已经被模糊掉了，双方都处在同一个协作网络中）
Today’s social media allow you to share more easily and to become more deeply connected with others.
Like Google, Twitter has an open API—the application programming interface that lets anyone modify the behavior of the underlying app without having to dive deep into the source code. （开放API确实促进了创新）
To build the kinds of organizations that generate innovation, we have to move beyond the pervasive myths of the lone genius and tap into the creative power of collaboration. （传统的“孤独的天才创造者”神话害人不浅啊）
All creativity is based in collaboration. Even when you’re alone, your ideas come out of your prior encounters and conversations. （所有的创造性行为都基于协作）
The Internet has changed how we collaborate. It’s the biggest advance in collective creativity since the telegraph and the telephone.
Fortunately, with social media and search algorithms, we have a record of every idea, every message, every small spark.
My research shows that collaboration is grounded in good conversations. Everyone contributes to the innovations that result, but no one really owns them. （协作植根于良好的交流，每个人都为创新做出贡献，但没有人真正拥有最终的成果）
The peak state of group flow. The conversations that spark ideas, as we play off one another. The improvisational flow of a process that generates surprising and unpredictable creativity. The collaborative webs that result in innovations that are more surprising and wonderful than what any one person could create alone. That’s group genius. （这算是作者回答什么是 group genius 吧）