Designing the Machines That Will Design Strategy

No matter how advanced technology is, it needs human partners to enhance competitive advantage. It must be embedded in what we call the integrated strategy machine. An integrated strategy machine is the collection of resources, both technological and human, that act in concert to develop and execute business strategies. It comprises a range of conceptual and analytical operations, including problem definition, signal processing, pattern recognition, abstraction and conceptualization, analysis, and prediction. One of its critical functions is reframing, which is repeatedly redefining the problem to enable deeper insights. Within this machine, people and technology must each play their particular roles in an integrated fashion.

The half-truth is that people benefit from personalised learning which incorporates multiple modalities. The brain excels at integrating information from multiple sources, and forms deeper connections between ideas when those ideas have been communicated through more than one medium. It is therefore useful to learn from multiple sources and in different modalities (Shulruf, Hattie, & Dixon, 2008).

Mindstone’s collaborative learning model encourages peer-to-peer feedback, with synchronous and asynchronous collaboration on comments as well as notes. Learners are able to ask and answer questions, and in so doing reflect upon their own learning. Shared libraries provide a forum in which peers can contribute resources and work together in the extraction of insights and understanding, writing notes together or in teams. The notification system ensures that learners are apprised of new comments on their discussions, and are able to immediately respond to questions they have been asked.

Our mission is to rethink how we create, share and organise knowledge. This community is a place to share ideas, post designs, and ask questions on the interaction and architecture of tools for thinking. We draw inspiration from geniuses like Douglas Engelbart 10, Alan Kay 5, Ted Nelson 2, Douglas Hofstadter 3, JCR Licklider, Vannevar Bush 4, Arthur Schopenhauer, Jef Raskin, Donald Norman 1, Bret Victor 2, Nicky Case 4, Andy Matuschak 8, Ludwig Wittgenstein and many more. The power of the unaided mind is highly overrated. Computers were meant to become interactive intellectual amplifiers for all humans. Yet many of todays applications fail to capture our ideas adequately or inspire us with serendipitous knowledge. We can do better than the Evernotes, Dropboxes or Googles!