Map Fixation Disorder
Being a part of a large organization it's interesting to observe how the company or it's people behave when trying to deal with completely new territory.
The problem, and possibly the solution, can be summarized with a simple analogy about maps.
We navigate our world using our world view. The collective understanding we have about spatial relationships, cultural relationships, personal relationships, markets, economics, trade, etc, that give us an abstract framework, a map if you will, of our extended environment. Maps are useful when used correctly, and terrible when their use leads to map fixation disorder.
Map Fixation disorder has two phases. One: not realizing you are using a map. This is very closely related to mistaking the map for the territory. This kind of attachment disorder leads people to bend reality to fit their map (See Sarah Palin).
Two: Using a map that doesn't represent the way you are traveling. Using a map of hiking trails to navigate highways won't work so well. Using a climate map to find a bus route, well, you get it.
Seems pretty obvious right? Yet, this is what organizations and humans do all the time. They are so attached to their world-view, that they can't conceive of another version of that same reality. So when empirical evidence suggests a different angle on the truth you start to witness some serious crazy.
Protestant vs. Catholic. Arab vs Jew. Democrat vs. Republican. These are examples about people arguing over whose map is better. To be plain, these arguments are not about reality, they're arguments about the map. People die every day over maps, not reality; maps.
As organizations encounter new territory, like API's, open data, social media, mobile, internet of things, and the competition born in those spaces, beware the crazies bearing old maps.
