May 20

Written by: Myra Norton
5/20/2010 10:05 AM

This is a great article and video from Fast Company that has an interesting (and perhaps not too obvious) tie to human networks.  In it, Dan Heath of Made to Stick talks about the idea of scaling solutions rather than solving problems – something he calls “finding the bright spots.”  First of all, I love this philosophy, and think it is one I should remind myself of daily; but I also see a pretty powerful tie to what we know about engaging and activating human networks.  At the heart of spreading change throughout a social system is the very simple requirement that a positive experience of benefit is disseminated from Key Network Members to the rest of the network system (whether that change is having more people adopt your products and services, reducing obesity in a given city, activating supporters for a cause, etc).  Hear that again:  a positive experience of benefit.  In essence, to activate the human networks impacting our organizations we need to find the bright spots, create the bright spots, and enable those bright spots to travel through the network.  That is “scaling solutions” in a networked world.

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