Chaos and Contagious Behaviour

This morning, I have been tuning in and out of the broadcast from AlwaysOn Stanford Summit.

I am enthralled by the broadcasting technology (and seamlessness of the broadcast and simultaneous chat).

Most recently, I tuned into a panel discussing the secrets behind contagious behavior. The key, it seemed, was allowing messiness into organizations. An interesting concept and one embraced by many start-up companies in particular.

While the concept seems to work with established companies, I wonder about its effectiveness in start-ups. I suppose one has to be careful to keep some of the messiness in check so as to prevent unproductive chaos.