“Mad scientists”—rule-breaking geniuses whose resistance to convention sometimes produces radical innovations—are both a blessing and a challenge to R&D organizations. Recent studies suggest how such rogue innovators can shape a company’s culture and what can be done to channel their influence.
As organizations grow, the need for efficiency leads to a tendency to rigidify the channels of information and decision-making. This loss of operational flexibility eventually creates a white space from which the mythical “mad scientist” emerges. But many companies start out as nothing but a collection of mad scientists and then slowly rigidify, gradually transitioning these individuals out of the company as they move towards finished products. Others hire them as they need more ideas in their pipeline as a result of over-stratification and stagnation. The mad scientist is really an organic part of an organization’s evolution, not an anomaly that emerges heroically. He or she is a counterforce; an offsetting mechanism against the rigor of the established order, which may threaten to stifle creativity.
To read the full, original article click on this link: Need Innovation? Seek Out Your Mad Scientists | Innovation Management
