There is a distinct S-shaped curve that appears whenever innovations diffuse across a population. This curve, describing the number of adopters of this innovation, is a mathematical shape that nearly everything new follows, from iPods to fax machines, and is known as a logistic curve. But it can also appear in areas less traditionally associated with innovation.
The Cistercian order, a Catholic order of monks and nuns, was founded around the year 1100. As an institution, the Order has certain rules and disciplines that made it a distinctive type of monastery. When Arnulf Grübler, a professor at the Yale School of Management, examined the spread of Cistercian monasteries during the Middle Ages, he found that it surprisingly obeyed the typical curve of innovation diffusion as well.
Just as the iPod has its early adopters and late adopters, so too do the Cistercians. Apparently, innovation diffusion is truly universal, occurring in both modern technology as well as monastic orders.
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