The Distributed Mind

"Its core task is thinking, its outcome is information, it is typically nonlinear in nature, and it requires mental skills to perform successfully."

"Today it is estimated that virtually every major corporation in North America and Western Europe is using various forms of empowerment somewhere in the organization."

"Hierarchical organizations rely on management direction and organizational departmentalization to provide order and consistency."

"It is becoming common practice in many knowledge teams to involve team members in hiring, giving feedback on performance appraisals, project staffing, interacting with customers and vendors, and other vertical tasks."

"The learning lattice organization provides a supplementary team of similar professionals who work together to communicate best practices and develop technical skills."

"All organizations, of course, are living systems."

"In organizations, differentiation is required to keep up with the increasingly complex nature of business environments."

"Effective knowledge teams are most often highly empowered, with a great deal of shared leadership."

"There are at least four key concepts that contribute to an organization's ability to build an environment of creativity."

"Current knowledge is the life blood of knowledge work, and the ability to transfer it is a key differentiating characteristic between effective and ineffective knowledge work teams."

"It is useful to tell people as we transfer information exactly what the limitations of our knowledge are on a subject."

"The Internet has taught us that there is an equally important way to transfer knowledge: pull knowledge transfer."

"The overall role of the knowledge work team leader is to be a boundary manager, which includes being an organization designer and a cross-organization collaborator."

"The futuristic fusion of the computer and the human seems to be an ideal solution to the problem of solving mortal limitations in a world of increasingly miraculous technical innovation."

"Our future will be ensured only through the proper and effective use?the collective use?of our minds. "