I stumbled across Steven Johnson today. Not literally, but I happened upon his 2010 TED Talk and then found a whiteboard talk he gave to promote his book "Where Good Ideas Come from", which I am now reading.

Johnson postulates that the English coffeehouse played a major role in firing up innovation when it became popular starting in the middle of the 17th century. It is his belief that the old-style coffeehouse (no takeout available) brought people together where they not only discussed the trivia of the day but sometimes shared ideas that resulted in the fusion that gave birth to a good idea.

He gives considerable evidence to debunk the "eureka moment" theory that great innovation usually occurs in a burst of individual inspiration. Rather, he suggests that people coming together make an idea by putting the pieces of the puzzle together in cooperation. Several heads are better than one.

That appeals to me a lot because I feel strongly about how connectivity increases innovation. Perhaps you read the article I published with the late Dr. Claude Dreyer of the European Patent Office and UNIDO an article "Overcoming the Barriers to Innovation" in the Journal of Intellectual Asset Management on the subject of bringing innovation partners together via the 21st century coffeehouse, an Internet portal.

But each of us has to ask ourselves some important questions with respect to our workplaces:

Do we build networks within and beyond the borders of our employers to generate new ideas?
Do we foster work environments where it is easy for people to come together and informally toss around ideas with colleagues - even from different areas of our organization?
Do we reward individuals for ideas or do we also reward teams?

You can watch Johnson's TED Talk here.

His whiteboard talk can be viewed here.

I would like to end by quoting his favorite line:

Chance favors the connected mind.

- Herb