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On Modularity, Response to Surprise, and Promotion of Organizational Innovation, the Authors Reached the Following Conclusions

• Modularity provides flexibility, but at a cost.
• There are different classes of modular systems, where each class provides different levels of functionality and up-front costs.
• Based on a set of criteria that RAND researchers developed to gauge the suitability of a particular system toward modularity, National Reconnaissance Office space systems do not appear to be strong candidates for modularization.
• Tacticians, who must generally react within seconds or minutes, often must first overcome fear and anxiety. A typical protocol is to control panic, buy time, and then revert to fundamentals learned in training.
• Strategists, who have days or weeks to react, generally face immediate feelings of anger and an impulse to overreact. A similar process for coping is employed: control emotions, take some initial enabling actions, quickly assemble key staffers, and disseminate a coherent longer-term response.
• The level of chaos in the environment also affects people's response to surprise.
• The most complex and chaotic situations are caused by other humans, rather than something in the environment.
• The biggest surprises tend to come from third parties.
• Innovation occurs for many reasons, each requiring a different approach.

The Authors Observed Three Common Lessons in These Disparate Topics

• Modularity and innovation are not goals in themselves.
• Strategic planning would be beneficial for all three areas discussed.
• Solutions in all three areas require not just hardware, but also people and organizational structures.