The Next Next Common Sense Context is the Most Important Building Block Clearly, there is something very different about the corporate cultures of IBM and JR East. In fact, something is not nearly a strong or inclusive enough word. Clearly, everything is different about IBM and JR East. The context—the setting in which the members of each of these two organi- zation's networks find themselves—is so different that they might as well be different worlds. Building blocks need a context which serves as a foundation on which they can rest and a set of constraints so that they do not wander while the mortar is drying. In LEGO bricks, both the foundation at the bottom and the interlocking surfaces are composed of a "clutching force" (not the mortar which holds regular bricks but an alternating pattern of circles and gaps which fit together to create the "clutching"). The surfaces themselves will not clutch a finger (infants excepted), but will clutch other LEGO with which they are aligned or cohere. In the digital age, this concept of "clutching force" has evolved beyond physical connections to encompass API integrations, data interchange protocols, and interoperability standards. The modern organization op- erates within multiple overlapping clutching systems—technological, so- cial, regulatory, and market-based—that determine which components can easily connect with others. The physical configuration of the LEGO which emergently creates the "clutching" has its metaphoric counterpart in the worlds of ideas, knowl- edge, perceptions, and emotions. The setting of the organization is both the base on which all behavior rests (like the plastic LEGO foundation) but also the provider and reinforcer of the social norms which emergently act as the "clutching force." At JR East, the foundation allowed an "odd" idea to be carried to management, and the context—JR's set of cultural and social norms—led to the activities which resulted in the water company. At IBM, the foun- dation was the overriding imperative of the mainframe computer and the context—IBM's set of cultural and social norms—was "do not question,
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