The Open Enterprise (cont.)

Certainly, some organizational knowledge ought to be developed in confidential or closed settings, but that is not the kind of knowledge that caused the crises found in the companies shown on our home page. That knowledge ought to have been more public, and should never have gotten as far as it did.

Much like a computer relies on its internal operating system to support its day-to-day affairs, so does an organization rely on its knowledge operating system to support its knowledge processing needs. The knowledge operating system of a firm consists of the policies and programs that shape the conditions in which knowledge is produced and integrated within its walls. Policies and programs that specify closed knowledge processing regimes give rise to closed knowledge production and integration behaviors. Polices based more on openness lead, instead, to more inclusive knowledge production, as well as to a reduction in the rate of 'bad' knowledge adoption.

The Open Enterprise is not only a vision for more openness in knowledge processing, but is also a means of increasing the rate and quality of innovation in business. By engaging the whole firm in the process, creativity levels rise, as does the general quality of knowledge produced.

To help managers create the kind of knowledge operating systems that lead to openness and improvements in innovation, we developed the Policy Synchronization Method. Learn how to use this method by reviewing this site further. And in the process, learn how to create what Warren Bennis of USC described as 'social architectures for openness.'

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