Synergy

Reviewing how several dictionaries define the concept of synergy reveals that it is often used more as a marketing buzzword than to evoke a particular concept, e.g., "Cooperative interaction among groups, e.g., among the acquired subsidiaries or merged parts of a corporation, that creates an enhanced combined effect". An older definition, from Websters 1913 Unabridged Dictonary, much more precisely conveys what we seek to achieve from the formation of the Kororoit Institute: "An effect of the interaction of the actions of two agents such that the result of the combined action is greater than expected as a simple additive combination of the two agents acting separately". By forming an Institute that actively promotes open collaboration and interdisciplinarity amongst its associates we hope the result will be substantially more than the simple additive results people can achieve working on their own.

What synergy produces emerges from complex interactions and often cannot be predicted in advance. However, given our theoretical and practical understanding of how knowledge is created in complex organized systems we have some strong ideas on how to build a multidisciplinary organization that will synergistically foster the kinds of revolutionary and disruptive thinking that may lead towards solving some of the seemingly intractable problems facing humanity over the next few decades.