Deciphering Trust…

Don't you find it is always the smokers who know best what's going on inside an organisation? I've never been a smoker but have often wondered how you can build these kinds of informal networks without having to take up smoking.

Our experience of delivering open innovation at NESTA Connect has shown us that organisations or people who can navigate these informal networks successfully, either inside or outside of their institutions, will have better access to ideas, people and opportunities.

On the other hand, a collaboration where both sides come armed with contracts that try to regulate the flow of information – NDAs, patents and so on – is not an atmosphere of trust. Many businesses know this already but we still often think of business dealings as being based on contracts. In fact, our experience shows that people will often avoid trying to write very detailed contracts up front and look to create trusted relationships instead, following with contracts at a later stage as required.

This is why I'm looking forward to a forthcoming event on this topic at Nesta, in partnership with Entheo, with the influential social network theorist, Karen Stephenson.

The event promises how cigarette breaks, gossip and other informal networks influence your capacity to innovate.

It promises to be an interested and informative day and you can register for the event here.