“Loose ties” are vitally important for new business thinking, according to Nic Edmonds a former outdoor recreation instructor turned management consultant.

Edmonds told delegates at the recent World Outdoors Summit in Rotorua that sharing thoughts with loosely-connected groups of people can generate ideas and seriously hike innovation.

Currently based in Sydney with IT and services company Civica, Edmonds has over 16 years’ experience with the recreation and local government sectors.

Frustrated with same-old thinking in an earlier role working for a council, he formed what he called “the creation room”: a group dedicated to sharing ideas in monthly get-togethers in a local book shop.

“The rule was that any new member could only know one other person before they joined the group,” he said. 

“Each person had just five minutes to share ideas and that was it. A lot of cool projects came out of the group.”

Edmonds said the group’s strength derived from unconnected people caring only for whether or not something was a good idea. 

“It’s best to find groups of people to be your mentors or to challenge you who aren’t necessarily competing with you or vested in your success too much.”

Among many other roles Edmonds has worked as an outdoor recreation instructor, risk and crisis analyst, recreation planner and project manager. 

 

By Ruth Le Pla.

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