“How can we develop professional relationships in companies while still supporting every person’s ability to express themselves authentically?”
What is collective intelligence ?
A new vision of collective intelligence
The obstacles to collective intelligence
Collective intelligence and…
Contrary to popular belief, Collective Intelligence is by no means obvious. Why not? Because companies face a paradox that is as basic as it is unavoidable:
- On the one hand, a company must constitute a coherent whole in the actions it takes toward achieving its vision and goals;
- On the other hand, a company is a group of individuals that are by definition heterogeneous. This means that:
- For any given situation, there are as many interpretations, and therefore behaviors, as there are individuals; and,
- Such a group is a sum of unique, diverse, and even contradictory truths.
This paradox is what makes relationships in companies complex and disparate, creating a multitude of obstacles and inefficiencies in a world where flexibility and speed are essential for survival.
To illustrate this difficulty, Peter Senge, an American professor of Management at MIT and successful author, often gives this example: based on observations, it is estimated that if we put individuals with average IQs around 140 into a group, the collective IQ measured over the course of a joint work meeting should be somewhere around…85!
In light of this observation, the challenge then becomes: how can we raise the observable collective IQ closer to the individual levels?
Another way of asking this question is: how can we develop professional relationships in companies (collective work) while fostering each person’s ability to express themselves authentically (individual fulfilment)?
It is upon these strong foundations of mutual support and solutions that we propose developing Collective Intelligence in your company. Ultimately, the process consists of acquiring individual and inter-individual development techniques to support a shift away from the diversity of individuals to their complementarity, without harming this diversity. How can we achieve this miracle? Simply by considering humans and relationships in companies as we have long considered marketing, finance, logistics, quality, etc.: that is, with professionalism and deliberate attention, as well as getting rid of what is not working and developing winning strategies.