Olivier Zara has written an interesting book called Managing Collective Intelligence, Toward a New Corporate Governance. He offers some excellent insights into the role of collective intelligence in organizations and implications for leadership. Zara defines Collective Intelligence as the "intelligence of connections, or relationships", with reference to our own brain function: the brain's intelligence is not derived from the number of neurons in the brain, but on the number of interconnections (synapses) between neurons.
A common objection to collaboration in general is the fear that decision making will denigrate into consensus or mob rule. This is a very real and vital concern. To answer this, Zara distinguishes between collective reflection (intelligence), communication, and decision making:
1) collective reflection: new information is created based on intellectual cooperation between individuals. Options are discussed, scenarios played out, alternatives considered, new ideas are generated. Divergent thinking is encouraged.
2) collective communication: information is simply exchanged, no collaboration is necessary and no new information is generated. Often people mistake this for collaboration ("I cc'ed you. We are collaborating!")
3) decision-making: the actual process of making a decision, taking into account all available information. Collective intelligence should contribute to the available information, but it does not necessarily follow that the actual decision is made collectively.
What is needed is a new type of manager who can harness the collective intelligence inside (and outside!) of the organization in order to be able to make the most informed decisions. (More on the nature of management or leadership of collective intelligence in a future post.) Most leaders will accept the fact that they should not make decisions in isolation, but the reality is that many of us fear collaboration and collective intelligence because we feel threatened by it. Zara offers some compelling reasons to incorporate collective reflection into our decision making process.
Isolated decision making produces:
- decisions that resemble past decisions.
- decisions based on deep seated, often unconscious reasons that may not be rational or pertinent
- isolated decision makers will tend to stick with a bad decision even in the face of evidence that something new is required
- lack of creativity
Collaborative leaders are not weak! Instead, you could argue that they need more strength and leadership abilities than their command-and-control counterparts. Leaders who foster collective intelligence must be able to cast strong, compelling visions which provide a solid framework for collective reflection. At times, a leader may choose to go against the collective intelligence of his/her group or company. In these cases, it is important to understand the reasons for the collective stance, and equally important for the group to understand the basis for the leader's decision.
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