What environments foster unusually innovative ideas? This is a question that Steven Johnson, bestselling author of Future Perfect, sought to answer at a recent talk that I had the pleasure of attending.

Steven highlighted common themes he’s come across on where good ideas come from:

• The slow hunch – Contrary to the myth of the "eureka” moment, truly transformative ideas come on slow. This allows ideas to go through an incubation period and mature over time. Steven advises to keep your hunches in mind and keep them alive, even if you aren’t sure just what to do with them yet.
• The adjacent possible – In practice, our ideas are actually cobbled together from pre-existing bits around us, like a collage. Steven says, “Every new idea is a neural network of other ideas. It’s a recombination – a remixing of ideas put together in a new configuration. The trick is not having one big idea. It’s about how to get more building blocks on the table.”
• The liquid network – Historically, dynamic environments that facilitate idea exchange have given rise to transformative ideas. According to Steven, these multi-disciplinary spaces allow ideas to fluidly migrate across interests and passions, leading to a higher degree of innovation and creativity.
• Diversity – Surrounding yourself with people of diverse backgrounds and knowledge can actually make you smarter and more creative. They expose you to ideas from other fields, which you can adapt in a new space. Steven says, “That’s where that new, out-of-left-field idea is going to come from – cultivating unlikely links and connections across fields.”

According to Steven, when you combine these ingredients together, you get platforms of innovation. Whether these are software platforms, physical spaces, or virtual networks, it all boils down to creating platforms that open ideas up to as wide and diverse a network as possible.

Steven’s closing statement: “Chance favors the connected mind.”

Intrigued? Check out Steven's TED talk here for the full run down.