"In a recent Stanford Business Magazine article, Innovators Navigate Around Cliques-- a researcher reported that, "Contrary to common assumptions, the evidence suggests that in many cases strong social ties do not provide significant new information, so it helps not to be embedded in them". Are certain types of networks more desirable than other types?

Karen: It is not the first time this idea has been out there--of course--and it's not the first time it got published either.

Trust is an oppressive power and can stagnate innovation, forcing people to forego more innovative work and instead focus their efforts on "fitting in" and belonging to a network. Sometimes if you have an idea that differs from that of others or the reigning concept of the moment, you will appear as the nail that sticks out and needs to gets hammered back down. This can be painful!

But there is a dark side to trust. You can have too much of a good thing if you will. You could trust too deeply, too much, and when that happens you commune, you change your behavior, you become like them, and you lose your sense of a larger context--one might say objectivity--and then you are not going to be innovative. Real innovation occurs not in the center, but in the periphery. For innovators to survive, they must go around these clique-ish roadblocks."
8:59:04 AM