I’m a neuron.
That truth was underscored this weekend when, on Saturday morning, I finally had a chance to write up a blog post that had been brain-brewing for a while. I had been thinking about Forrester Research’s Social Technographic Ladder, and felt that it was missing a rung – so I tossed out the idea with a graphic and waited for a response.
It didn’t take long. Some of the thoughtful comments raised interesting issues, and pretty soon it became clear to me that perhaps the main problem was with the ladder itself, not its number of rungs.
Back to the drawing board. Now I posted a revised graphic on the blog post, and, after a couple more comments, expanded and revised it further. Still not happy that a simple analogy (the ladder) had turned into a scratchy looking drawing with boxes and arrows and labels, I took a walk out in the yard to re-think and came up with a Pie analogy (yet another update).
Why recount all this? Well, the ever-helpful Mack Collier left a comment on how this Saturday adventure in blogging was an example of what he calls content co-creation – bloggers sharing their ideas and having other participants come on in and suggest, refine, refute, and improve. Bingo – he was absolutely right.
I’ve posted before about the Opportunity Network we are building using social media. But we are also building an Idea Network. We are lashing our minds together to create a whole much greater than the sum of its parts. The Forrester neuron kicked it off with the ladder graphic. My neuron toyed with the idea, others kicked in, and pretty soon lots of synapses were firing as the idea became more refined.
We have the privilege of tapping into the neural pathways of smart minds the world over, enabling the iterative evolution of ideas at a very rapid pace. “My” idea may have merit, but “our” idea typically will have more. Neurons left to themselves don’t accomplish much, but lash them together into a functioning brain, and pretty soon, bigger and better ideas begin to flow.
(And, by the way, I’m still not satisfied with the end result of the ladder/pie ruminations, as I think a better illustration to pull together the raw material in that post is waiting out there in someone’s mind – maybe yours?)
(Image credit)
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Love the analogy! I always believe that nobody (except my mom of course) knows everything, but everyone knows *something*! Put all of those somethings together and you develop quite the power with which to reckon.
Thanks for the mention, and thanks for highlighting your ‘extra rung’ post, it was a goodie. Personally, I approach blogging with the mindset that my readers, as a group, are ALWAYS smarter than I am. Which means I always can learn from them, so I craft my content in a way that encourages them to interact with me. Or think of it as crowd-sourcing ideas.
But I loved your post because everyone was throwing out ideas, and you kept changing/refining/improving your original point, based on feedback from your readers. As it should be!
What you’re suggesting is a real behavior change, albeit a positive one.
It’s going to take people a while to get over the fact that ideas are fungible and that others may take your idea and offer their own feedback and suggestions.
Because as we well know, not everyone is open to feedback and suggestions, least of all from complete strangers.
I thought the heading said “a couple of Neutrons walked into a bar” There is a joke that we chemistry teachers tell. The punch line is from the bartender: “For you, neutrons, no charge!”