ABSTRACT
A research and development (R&D) community performs only two things on the way to delivering useful knowledge packages: (a) Individuals within the R&D community create bits of new, potentially useful knowledge, and (b) the community itself integrates those bits into coherent, definably useful packages of knowledge. The community and individual are inextricably linked in this, as the individual gains perspective and direction as part of the community. The community defines context; that is
• What is valuable • The boundaries of what is known and unknown in that value space • How members of the community are arrayed • How the community creates and sustains its culture to nourish or
starve innovation
At the same time, the individual makes the community. It is through the collective, aligned intent of each individual that communities exist at all. Without envisioning and committing together to fulfill a higher purpose, individuals cannot coalesce into a coherent, operating community, let alone a well-functioning one. Individuals bring their own paradigms and norms together, and, somehow, within their shared community, create common norms and viewpoints, paradigms, and mental models that define a culture or an environment in which individuals exist and interact productively.
