BOTTOMS UP

IMPROVISATION VS STRUCTURE PARADOX
• The goal was to add some method to their madness without losing the madness entirely
evaluate projects according to their impact.
• Improvisation versus Structure Too much structure—rules, hierarchy, planning, and the
like—will stifle innovation, but too little will produce chaos.
• To deal with these tensions that constantly threaten to tear every community apart, a
creative community needs what we call “rules of engagement.” Innovation and rules may
seem like an odd couple. How can creativity and improvisation require rules? Aren't
innovators rule breakers, people willing—eager, even—to challenge the status quo?
• They try to define what the innovation will look like, often through something like a list of
requirements or characteristics, and then lay out the steps that will produce such an
outcome. But, virtually by definition, a real innovation cannot be identified in advance. The
most innovative teams proceed neither by detailed plans nor by no plans at all. Instead, they
alternate brief periods of planning with longer periods of execution and improvisation.
• Many leaders, of course, like structure because it provides the comfort of control