Caught in a Double Bind
A word of caution before we dive in. If it's true that through the practice of planned serendipity we can directly increase the role of serendipity in our endeavors, then the opposite is equally true. We can develop attitudes and behaviors that smother it—and smother it we often do, with fervor.
As we've already begun to demonstrate, the normal function of most businesses is designed to squelch serendipity, not to encourage it. There's a simple reason: companies are structured to deliver predictability and reduce risk. It's an almost pathological compulsion of businesses to excise the role of chance from their routine operations, whether through quarterly revenue commitments, management by objectives, value chain engineering, ...
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