11 Rules for Creating Value in the Social Era

Chapter 10: Openness

One underlying value pervades much of what I have covered thus far—openness. Since it is so fundamental, I want to address it straight on. Openness is more than the stuff of open source. Openness is a stance—to share, to collaborate, to distribute power to many. With openness, the future is going to be co-created. Whenever we want something bigger and better, we need to be able to let go so that someone can build on what we’ve started.

Openness can be seen in the world today on societal, organizational, and personal levels. We recently saw this on the world stage during the Arab Spring. We see it in organizations when global brands like TED decide to open up with TEDx. And at the individual level, we see it in social networks ...