The keywords of Collective Intelligence.
COLLECTIVE INTELLIGENCE AND… DIVERSITY
“The keywords of Collective Intelligence.”
This word comes up often in our work. What diversity are we referring to? By this word we mean everything that makes up the singularity of an individual, and more specifically, everything related to the individual’s temperament and skills. To clarify, we are not referring to ethnic, religious, or national diversity, which we believe to be more of a generalization that is by definition insufficient and even dangerous due to its possible exploitation. We often say, “Not all Belgians like fries!” For us, the word “diversity” is central in that it includes the diversity of temperaments, motivations, inclinations, abilities, etc. And this word serves as a foundation for the following reasoning.
This diversity consists of:
- Being able to understand and make the most of the assets within the collective; and,
- Orchestrating it in complementarity.
Diversity: a treasure… if we work on it!
COLLECTIVE INTELLIGENCE AND…
EFFICIENCY
Reflecting on Collective Intelligence is central to the success of all collective companies, whether it is in the world of sports, community, or business. Our work has shown us the limits of a Collective Intelligence that is left in the hands of chance. Because of the differences between people, the search for a constant collective efficiency requires consciously working together. In technical terms, this requires complementarity between people but without reducing the field of diversity, which would be a quick fix that would weaken the company.
COLLECTIVE INTELLIGENCE AND…
TIME
We often hear, “Oh! But we don’t have time to do all that!” Yes, Collective Intelligence has a time-cost. But this cost is an investment that will allow for greater gains and savings, notably due to more relevant solutions, better explained. What is more, the collective becoming more efficient allows us to implement more automatically the elements necessary for Collective Intelligence. Because of the increased freedom of speech, new leaders will emerge for the benefit and the efficiency of the whole group. Finally: what is the cost of the infamous “firefighter” culture that is only reactive, that only manages when there are problems, that is unable to “see the forest for the trees”, always one’s head down and that does not give itself the time necessary to reflect and anticipate?
COLLECTIVE INTELLIGENCE AND…
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
Good news: soon, there will be no need for humans to think like robots. Why? Because artificial intelligence has us totally beat in this area! It is time to concentrate on what humans can do that artificial intelligence cannot: think globally, engage, express emotion to motivate, be flexible, innovate, create, etc. Collective Intelligence can maximize these skills so that differences in levels of skill, awareness, or approach will create enriching complementarities.
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COLLECTIVE INTELLIGENCE AND…
RESILIENCE…
Every company should be concerned with the resilience of the men and women who populate it. This is a key point at a time when suffering at work requires large companies to employ people to monitor the psycho-social well-being of their workforce 24/7. Disregarding resilience amounts to working in the short-term by exhausting individuals and their morale and encouraging social discontent through the inertia and lack of initiative, engagement, professional knowledge, etc. that it creates. Collective Intelligence promotes resilience by working on both individuals (relativity of perceptions, responsibility, etc.) and on the system (organization, delegation, skill development, quality of the collective, etc.).
COLLECTIVE INTELLIGENCE AND… 
HAPPYNESS AT WORK
We have all seen sports athletes – football players, basketball players, rugby players – overcome with joy after an impressive goal. Their joy is immense and it is shared by their supporters and sometimes even by a whole country! There is something to be learned from this: where does this immense joy come from? How did the action that triggered it occur? What elements prior to this action can also explain this positive explosion? Reflecting on this shows us something important: happiness at work comes from collective success. Consequently, how can we construct these successes? Create intensity? Free the passions (sometimes)? Connect all the actors? Coaches of high-level sports teams all ask themselves these questions. Do you?
Collective Intelligence contributes to happiness at work by allowing team members the freedom to contribute. In a collectively intelligent system, people can feel free to make suggestions, formulate hypotheses, take responsibility, demonstrate their autonomy. In short, be more themselves! Yes, being yourself by contributing in a visible way (especially feedback) to the collective work. In a collectively intelligent system, the individual and the collective are positioned in a permanent and mutual exchange of services, that everyone – the self, the other, and the system – is constantly seeking to improve.
COLLECTIVE INTELLIGENCE AND…
FREEDOM OF SPEECH
This is essential for building truth, voicing concerns and providing information about potential challenges, and proposing new ideas. We advocate for free speech by concentrating on two principles:
- First, basing this approach on respect for everyone; and,
- Second, identifying the obstacles that hinder free speech. Two of the most common obstacles are:
- Restrictive managerial conduct; and,
- More generally, any conduct that is insufficiently invested or irresponsible.
COLLECTIVE INTELLIGENCE AND… 
VICTIMIZATION
A victim mindset is a considerable challenge to Collective Intelligence. “My middle managers are yes-men,” “I’m not the boss, boss,” and “I can’t help it, that’s the process,” are statements that demonstrate a lack of accountability and justify holding and maintaining a given non-constructive attitude. If we want to fight against this, it is important to create a factual culture of feedback centered around everyone’s accountability. This requires analyzing what works and what does not, and what everyone responsibly suggests doing to improve things. The good news is that it works; the bad news is that it is everyone’s responsibility.
COLLECTIVE INTELLIGENCE AND…
PYRAMID HIERARCHIES
This is still essential for decision-making. Nevertheless:
- The pyramid should not rest on its summit, as we see too often. This comes down to:
- Limiting the competence of the group to the competence of the person in charge;
- Limiting the development of skills, leadership and initiative in lower ranks; and,
- Justifying authoritarian behavior that is destructive for Collective Intelligence.
COLLECTIVE INTELLIGENCE AND… 
OPEN-MINDEDNESS
This is particularly important for welcoming and understanding alternative thoughts or ideas. Obviously, this cannot be decreed. The way to obtain it is to make it very clear that free speech is accepted while continuously seeking out alternatives. “If you had to think even a little bit differently, what would you have to say?”
In some company cultures, freedom of speech will take time, but it is important to be patient and strategic.
COLLECTIVE INTELLIGENCE AND…
FACTS
Debates about opinions are destructive for Collective Intelligence. They focus on disagreements based on subjective elements of everything that makes up our perceptions: our values, our education, our culture, etc. Because they touch on fundamental elements for us, they encourage rivalries and even hatred.
So, we encourage you to question yourselves as much as possible on this point: Where are the facts? What exactly do they tell us? It is important to identify the objective facts and suggest hypotheses supported by them.
COLLECTIVE INTELLIGENCE AND… 
OPERATIONAL EXCELLENCE
These two concepts are not at all opposite, and both revolve around the search for rationality. Our vision of Collective Intelligence leads us to believe that it includes operational excellence.
- On the one hand, the scope of operational excellence is limited to the improvement of processes and methods that impact the structure above all else. It is part of Collective Intelligence because Collective Intelligence concerns a synergy between vision, structure, and skill.
- On the other hand, the process and methods resulting from reflection on operational excellence engage men and women in changes, including on issues of diversity, motivation, engagement, etc. Unfortunately, this dimension often escapes the disciples of operational excellence, which can generate resistance to accepting change by actors in the company.
- The people in charge of circulating these operational changes also too often come up against a lack of support from their own backers, which demonstrates once again that Collective Intelligence is not a spontaneous matter and that it takes work from everyone at all levels.
We conclude this short chapter by recommending that experts in operational excellence and experts in Collective Intelligence work together as often as possible to accelerate the process of change and develop its efficiency.
COLLECTIVE INTELLIGENCE AND…
PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT
Our position is clear: we do not do “personal development” in the traditional sense of the term.
Our job is to coach companies and the men and women that populate them to work better together and develop leadership at all levels of the company. Obviously, this requires coaching people individually so that they can better express the qualities of a leader in the service of Collective Intelligence: making their approaches flexible (tolerance of difference and alternatives); better controlling emotions (anger, excessive avoidance, too reserved nature); developing their authenticity more; showing less authoritarianism; etc.
We propose all this while respecting each person’s well-being and within a set of defined goals, which most often include improving profits. Once again, we believe that individuals and collectives need results to develop and thrive. Here, the concept of a result as we understand it, is not necessarily represented by achieving a target figure. It can also be evaluated in terms of a higher quality of services rendered.
COLLECTIVE INTELLIGENCE AND… 
TEAM RELATIONSHIPS
Diversity in business has always been a source of both wealth and difficulties: “This “Other” certainly has good ideas, but I cannot manage to work with him! Plus, he never sees things the same way I do!” Clearly, in a company, the articulation of egos and individual differences provokes a lot of counter-productive nuisances in a world where flow and speed are essential virtues for performance. To deal with this, we have analyzed the ins and outs of what creates or destroys Collective Intelligence. With this, we share techniques and specific knowledge with our clients that are indispensable for acquiring a true “relational science” particular to optimizing collective efficiency in your company and your teams, all in the service of success. Because what makes a team succeed is the quality of the synchronization and articulation of skills between them, well above their simple juxtaposition. Collective Intelligence: a challenge to overcome, a topic to discover.