Disclaimer: Riwa Harfoush is my sister. I think she is awesome.
My sister spoke at Ignite Toronto a few weeks ago. Ignite Toronto is an awesome series that “captures the best of geek culture in a series of five-minute speed presentations on a diverse range of topics.”
About The Talk (from Riwa):
I know two things:
1) People hoard their good ideas to the detriment of progress and 2) ‘copycat’ has been unfairly pegged with some seriously negative connotation. But what if the ideas we imitate inspire social change? What if opening them up to replication makes them cooler, smarter and more effective? I’m testing my own, working theory on this as we try to morph a good idea (the environmental health clinic) into one that can be copied and implemented by anyone – and I’m really excited to share what I’ve learned.
My Thoughts:
I love this presentation because after watching it I found myself noticing all sorts of way in my work environment where people hoard their ideas to the detriment of progress. I have done this myself. I also once worked with a guy who hoarded the little coffee machine capsules in his drawer and it used to drive me insane. (Not to mention that depriving people of caffeine in an office is NEVER a good idea.)
I kept thinking about the ingrained behavior that have shaped us as a species. We are dealing with two opposing instincts, hoarding and imitating that have both been essential to our survival and evolution. The irony is that while we imitate our competitors while trying to hoard our own ideas for innovation and keeping them secret.
In particular, idea hoarding is also a direct result of how we reward individuals for their contributions within organizations versus establishing a more collaborative environment. After all, saying you’re ok with copy cats is fine until a promotion is missed or someone else gets an accolade.
xClinic
However, maybe if we expand beyond the individual and look at how entire industries (like Ri’s pharma example) are hoarding ideas we can see some more interesting solutions. Riwa has been working with a very cool idea called xClinic:
The concept approaches health from an understanding of its dependence on external local environments; rather than on the internal biology and genetic predispositions of an individual. It directs attention to root causes rather than symptoms. The idea is that by building awareness, initiating behavioral change through action, and ameliorating your own local environmental health, you improve the health of humans and improve the local environment around you. The more people who participate, the greater the cascading effects.
Read more about xClinic here. Riwa’s musings can be found on her, Left & Write.