What are the greatest obstacles brokers of information face?
Everyone thinks having a lot of novel ties to discrete worlds is an advantage because they present greater opportunities. But the flip side to that is the challenge to translate skillfully and to mobilize action among diverse people who speak different “languages.” This increases the innovation challenge exponentially, and the risk of failure. The challenge in these environments are phenomenal and now we have an increasing percentage of innovation that involves this type of work. How does knowledge itself flow, how does it meet other knowledge, and how does it combine? I see five “transformations” to articulating knowledge. These may seem obvious, but each are really important. To communicate knowledge you need to transform it from: • Private to public – moving your personal understanding out into the world so that others understand it; • Complex to simple – simplifying knowledge through analogies, metaphors, or narratives; • Past to present – bringing your past experience to the prese
