Ivan says that breakthroughs always happen at the edges "because
those at the centre can't see" outside their system. That is valid.
There is more to the story. Breakthroughs happen at the edges also
because that is where there is contact with something that is not
totally self-generated.
Breakthroughs (that persist) also happen at the edges because almost
all breakthroughs are the result of recombinations of elements and at
least some of these recombining elements are likely to come from
outside the system.
A note of caution as well. The center is "at the fringe" depending
on the circumstances and point of view. Another way of saying this
is that there is no centre except from a perspective. That frees
creativity, innovation and breakthrough to happen anywhere in an
organisation.
-- Michael McMaster Michael@kbddean.demon.co.uk -Info: learning-org-approval@world.std.com or <http://world.std.com/~lo/>