There is a good conversation going on concerning how to develop the network mindset. Some suggest modifications to MBA curricula.

For MBA programs it is often too late, kids are already too far gone by then. Remember, universities are corporations. Many traditions are monastic and draw from canon law. They mostly furnish continuity and stability. They produce automata like any good bureaucracy. Curricula are rigid and dogmatic. Many universities are simply failing civil society.

In addition, many universities are preoccupied with producing gladiators for ‘March Madness’ and the ‘Pac 10.’ Coaches earn millions, professors not so much.

Rather than tweaking the MBA curricula, the network transformation must be more like Peter Thiel’s 20 Under 20 – use investment capital to encourage kids to drop out of school to develop ideas, solutions and products. 

Recall, many of the great the leaders today, Gates, Ellison, Dell, Jobs, etc., are dropouts. Create an environment for iconoclasts not conformists.

To develop network thinking, STOP innovating. That is a path to oblivion. Creating modest, incremental process productivity growth, also known as innovation, is a total waste. It’s one definition of insanity: doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. Or put another way --

"The righter you do the wrong thing, the wronger you become. It is better to do the right thing wrong than the wrong thing right." – Ackoff

Process thinking is a suffocating framework that repels people, networks, variation, complexity. It is the classic ‘race to the bottom.’ Sorry folks, there is really NO way to get from a process mindset to networks. Also, the network mindset is NOT a process innovation.

Network thinking is a mutation: an entirely new frame of reference. Network mutations require a SUDDEN departure from the parent organization in one or more heritable characteristics. This will never be accomplished with a some dopey MBA curriculum adjustment.

Network mutation is caused by a fundamental change in an organizational gene or a chromosome. ONA is instrumental in seeing and understanding the genetic structure, including its defects and advantages. ONA and the network mindset aid continuous mutation, thus altering the evolutionary nature of the organization. This, in turn, achieves new levels of growth and prosperity.

Meanwhile, mutation of the ossified MBA/university establishment should not be expected.