Hacker Culture and the New Rules of Innovation

5 Making space for innovation

‘Modular units’, I said. I took the tiny toy train carriage from the box and balanced it on top of the stack of cardboard cartons, toilet roll tubes and polystyrene blocks our team had put together. The stack was skirted by plastic action figures, a rubber Tyrannosaurus rex and a ring of tinsel. It looked like a bomb had gone off in a toy shop.

Mitch, who I’d met ten minutes earlier, traded a high five.

‘Modularity. I was thinking the same thing’, he said. ‘Let’s have a crane. People can design their units online and have them lifted into place on a modular stack.’

Bingo. The other team members sounded their assent. We were in a state of creative flow. Innovation was happening and everyone wanted to be part of ...