184 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1955 



The reason for this is not hard to find: research success in either 

 basic or applied research is the product of good ideas ; and ideas cannot 

 be manufactured like automobiles on a production line. Ideas arise 

 in the brains of individual people, and they arise under circumstances 

 which no one — not even the individual himself — fully understands. 

 We do know how to increase the prohability of new ideas arising — and 

 therefore increase their frequency. There are some simple rules for 

 this: 



1. Find some well-trained people who have been successful in getting 

 ideas in the past. 



2. Give them full information about the nature and importance of 

 the problem being tackled. 



3. Keep them in close touch with each other and with others engaged 

 in similar work in such a way as to allow the maximum interchange 

 of ideas — for out of such interchange and stimulation are new ideas 

 frequently bom. 



4. Provide these people with the facilities and the help which they 

 need in developing and testing their ideas. 



5. Keep the environment, the atmosphere, and the administrative 

 arrangements such that there is the maximum stimulation to imagina- 

 tive thought processes and the minimum of interruption and 

 frustration. 



Even these rules are not very specific. They do not tell you how to 

 find the right people, just how they are to be thrown together, what 

 facilities they will need, or just what administrative arrangements 

 provide maximum stimulation and minimum frustration. All these 

 are delicate and subtle matters. They are also variable; a combina- 

 tion that works in one set of circumstances with one set of people may 

 not work with others. Arrangements which are most satisfactory 

 during an all-out war may prove hopelessly unsuitable in time of 

 peace. An organization which is operating beautifully under one 

 director may sink into mediocrity or worse under another. A research 

 team which has delivered an outstanding contribution in the form of 

 one new weapon falls to pieces when that job has been done, and 

 never quite "clicks" on another. 



All these are, as I have said, subtle and difficult problems. Their 

 solution depends on the ability, the intuition, the adaptability, the 

 imagination of relatively few people, possibly of only one person, 

 in each organization. One person who can judge people, who can 

 sense and who can set the spirit of the group, who can anticipate 

 difficulties and avoid them, who can stimulate enthusiasm — such a 

 person can make a successful team under almost any circumstances. 

 And whenever you find a highly successful group I suggest you seek 

 the causes for its success not in the organization chart, not in the budget 



