Frans Johansson spent the past three years talking to individuals and teams at the intersection of different disciplines and cultures. He combined the results from those interviews with decades of existing research in psychology, economics, and management of creativity and innovation. The result is The Medici Effect, the first book to fully explore the concept of cross-field and cross-cultural combinations and to offer clear guidance on how to make such an approach work effectively. Currently, he is the managing partner of Medici Capital Fund in New York City.
What is this book’s core concept? The idea behind it is simple: “When you step into an intersection of fields, disciplines, or cultures, you can combine existing concepts into a large number of extraordinary ideas.” Johansson achieves three specific objectives: He explains what, exactly, “the Intersection is and why we can expect to see a lot more of it in the future”; next, he explains “why stepping into the Intersection creates the Medici Effect”; finally, he outlines “the unique challenges we face when executing intersectional ideas and how we can overcome those challenges”; and with regard to the third objective, some readers may be reminded of a passage in Leading Change where Jim O’Toole observes that there are always unique and formidable challenges when threatening what he characterizes as “the ideology of comfort and the tyranny of custom.”
Although the excerpt which follows is taken from Johansson’s Introduction, it serves as an appropriate conclusion to this brief commentary: “We, too, can create the Medici Effect. We can ignite the explosion of extraordinary ideas and take advantage of its individuals, as teams, and as organizations. We can do it by bringing together different disciplines and cultures and searching for places where they connect. The Medici Effect will show you how to find such intersectional ideas and make them happen. This book is not about the Renaissance era, nor is it about the Medici family. Rather, it is about those elements that made that era possible. It is about what happens when you step into an intersection of different disciplines and cultures, and bring the ideas you find there to life.” The core principles that Johansson examines so carefully are relevant to all organizations (regardless of size or nature) in which there is a compelling need for productive convergence of diverse skills, talents, values, and (yes) agendas.
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