What kind of thing is a think tank?

They are, of course, organizations of one kind or another whether formal, informal, small, large and so on. This post from "On Think Tanks" is highlights a very obvious but critical element, namely the people who originate, lead and live in the think tank. The organization is the people, particularly at the scale which most think tanks function - small, compact, mission-driven and expertise loaded. Being small, they need to be timely, selective, and capable of acting quickly and intelligently on opportunities. That nimbleness is underpinned by having invested in capacity, intellectual and otherwise, to carry out those timely forays. Being flexible and nimble isn't about being haphazard or careless - quite the opposite.

It would be worth exploring what role conscious organizational design plays in think tank establishment and growth. If think tanks were compared against a typology of organizations, where would they end up? It would seem that the small, entrepreneurial sector of the spectrum would be well represented with a power law distribution as size increases - the bigger a think tank is, the more rare it would be.

Has anyone come across a study of this type? What would such a study tell us about the role, purpose, and future of think tanks? Are they changing more or less than other institutions in their comparative space? Do the visible aspects of a think tank reveal what is going on under that visible layer? What would we see if the top layers were peeled back?

Amazon is a Super Nova Business

This infographic, sent to me compliments of Brian Dijkema, is just plain shocking. The monster size of their disruption has/is/will change the retail climate and a lot of other things as well.
Source: Frugaldad.com

Design: So Very Critical, So Very Vulnerable

This very short Deiter Rams video segment from a Co.Design interview reflects the non-negotiability of design being part of the most important structures of an organization - if you don't have design insulated(protected) at a very high level, you can forget it. That's what Deiter says. You may have a crack team but if you put them in the wrong part of your organizational ecosystem...curtains. Dead before they begin.

That is sobering indeed. And it applies to all talent in an organization. In retail the mantra is "Location, location, location" and in talent development and creativity generating deep value, the mantra is the same, "Location, location, location".

This is clear and simple but almost never followed.

A structure for adaptive organizations?

A colleague passed along this video that features a piece of software that reflects an adaptive organizational architecture.

Has anyone used it?

My comment was that it might not fare well inside an existing structure (seems like there would have to be very high buy-in for success to be realistic) but it is intriguing for start-up organizations or teams. I'm also very interested in how it could support volunteer teams or ad hoc groups that have some specific piece of work in mind. I'll have to dig around the website more and see where they've taken it.