Idea Darwinism
Updated 2026-08-15
INTRODUCTION
English translation pending.
CORE DEFINITION
A management principle in which ideas compete within an organization according to their capacity to survive challenge and solve problems, rather than according to the seniority of their authors. The core proposition is that selection pressure rather than authority should determine which ideas persist, because an idea's merit is revealed by exposure to criticism rather than by the rank of its sponsor. The key qualification is that selection requires a fair arena; when speaking time and credibility are distributed unequally, the surviving idea reflects power rather than fitness.
SCAFFOLDING EFFECT
Reduce cognitive load
- Author stripping: present ideas anonymously so evaluation responds to content rather than to rank. - Challenge round: require every proposal to survive a round of adversarial questioning. - Fitness criteria: state in advance what evidence would let an idea survive or be eliminated.
Anchor fast decisions
In most organizations, an idea's survival depends on the sponsor's standing, so proposals are evaluated before their content is examined and weak ideas backed by senior people persist. Removing the author from the evaluation forces judges to assess the argument itself, which lets problem-solving capacity rather than hierarchy determine the outcome. The mechanism also accelerates elimination, since an idea that fails a stated test can be dropped without the social cost of rejecting the person who raised it.
MINIMUM ACTION
In progress 0/1Practice this model in one real situation:
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Source support: Explicit
- en.wikipedia.orghttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Darwinismverified
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