The Medici Effect

Last week, I attended the Medici Innovation Workshop organized by Ms Waltraut RITTER at SMU. The workshop is about the Medici Effect which is a term coined by the author Frans Johansson to describe

the effect resulting to breakthrough with the intersection of fields, disciplines and cultures

Some of the examples listed

• EastGate Centre - a building modelled after terminate moulds
• The card game "Magic - The Gathering"

What excited me really is that the chances for the Medici Effect to take place can be increased with a better tool for collaboration. It is much difficult for this to take place just by a person alone especially that the general trend in the knowledge economy is moving towards specialization of knowledge and skills.

For those that are interested to know more, you can download the ebook version at http://www.themedicieffect.com/downloads/MediciEffect.pdf

And check out the article "Create the Medici Effect" from Havard Business School

Breaking the code

My handphone was spoilt and I have been using a spare phone for the past week. And because my phonebook was not synchronized to the SIM card, I was receiving sms messages without any names. It's amazing that I can know who sent the message by reading a short message of less than 10 words.

What does this tells us? All of us have the ability to use context to pick up and associate information quickly. For example, a message "No cooking tonight" will be 100% from my mum who cooks my dinner. This context information is picked up over time and experience.

If somebody else read the same message, he will be wondering whether it is the mum or the wife who sent the message.

What appears to be so simple may not be so direct to others. Therefore we should always be explicit in explaining the context during textual communication.