Collective Intelligence and Collective Leadership

Summit for the Future

May 4, 2006 - Amsterdam

George Pór Chairman, CommunityIntelligence Ltd.

“The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them.” (Einstein)

The increasing complexity of our interwoven global crises can be met only by dramatically enhancing the collective intelligence of human groups at all scale, from local to global.

Collective Intelligence: Why Now

As of today, “Collective intelligence” has 978,000 webpages referring to it. 6 years ago there was only about 10,000.

Why now? What has been fueling the mega-growth of this concept?

Collective intelligence is the capacity of groups and organizations to evolve towards higher order complexity and integration through collaboration and innovation. -- George Pór

Collective intelligence is at its roots a human enterprise in which mind-sets, a willingness to share, and an openness to the value of distributed intelligence for the common good are paramount. -- from Wikipedia, the world’s largest encyclopedia that is a product of massively collective intelligence

Collective Intelligence:Three Complementary Definitions

“Intelligence” refers to the main cognitive powers: perception, action planning and coordination, memory, imagination and hypothesis generation, inquisitiveness and learning abilities. The expression “collective intelligence” designates the cognitive powers of a group. -- Pierre Lévy, Canadian Research Chair of Collective Intelligence

a. Dialogic CI – A group of participants suspend their old mental models and engage in dialogue that values the emergent whole higher than its parts. This approach include Bohmian dialogue, "generative conversation" (Otto Scharmer) and "enlightened communications" (Andrew Cohen).

b. Co-evolutionary CI – This form of CI builds on the power of such evolutionary mechanisms generating intelligence over time as trial and error, differentiation and integration, competition and collaboration, etc. Its examples include: ecosystems, sciences, and cultures.

c. Flow-based CI – A group of people become so absorbed in a shared activity that they experience being completely at one with it and one another. Ensembles, high-performance sport teams, astronauts, and others in that state of communion, report on both an enhanced state of autonomy, and collective intelligence.

d. Statistical CI - Individuals thinking separately in large crowds can reach successful conclusion about their collective cognitive, coordination or predictive challenges. Examples include the "intelligence" of markets and cases popularized in the "Wisdom of Crowds" by James Surowiecki.

e. Human-machine CI – This form of CI leverages the synergy of the human mind and its electronic extensions, drawing on the best capacities of both. The "collective" includes symbiotic networks of humans and computers working together and developing compound capabilities. It can also support all other forms of CI.

There are many forms, manifestation of CI, and correspondingly, many "tribes" of its practitioners. This is an abbreviated overview. A more detailed inventory by Tom Atlee can be found here: http://www.community-intelligence.com/blogs/public/2004/05/notes_on_forms_of_collective_i.html

Forms of Collective Intelligence

What Is the Value of CI,Personally to You?

Do you want to reach your highest personal & professional potential?

If so, the problem is that you can’t even have a clue of what your full potential may be, without considering the cognitive and creative powers of your global professional community, as part of yours.

CI and its embodiment, our global brain, are as much part of you as you are part of them.

How, specifically?

CI in Wilber’s 4 Quadrants

The Business Case for “CI 2.0”:What Is the Value of Boosting CI

You need to upgrade your organisation’s collective intelligence if and when it needs to:

• Increase the chance for breakthrough discoveries and innovation to occur with some level of consistency.

• Find solutions to tough challenges faster, by mobilising dispersed expertise and talent.

• Have successful methods and practices in one part of the company spread rapidly to all teams and units where they can make a difference.

• Increase the size of the web of expertise available to any employee to solve specific problems or make complex decisions.

Higher Collective IQ Results froma More Vibrant Knowledge Ecosystem

Boosting your group’s/organization’s collective intelligence, its capacity to evolve, requires to feed and be fed by its knowledge ecosystem.

A “knowledge ecosystem” is a value-creating, self-organizing system, defined as a triple network comprised of:

a People network of co-creative conversations that creates

a Knowledge network of shared insights, inspirations, successful practices and frameworks

both of which is supported by a Technology network of tools, and virtual environments.

To Upgrade Your CI, You Need to

Feed Your Knowledge Ecology

Source: John Seely Brown

The CI of Organizations Is Emerging

from a Network of Conversations

Humans Co-Evolvingwith Language and Tools

Individuals Co-Evolving withCommunities and Organisations

What Makes the Engine Roar

6-pole Model of CI

Source: Dr. Pierre LévyCanadian Research Chair of Collective Intelligence University of Ottawa

Source:

Tom Atlee

Partnership-basedModel of Collective Intelligence

Communities of PracticeCommunities of Practice

Communities of practice are self-organizing

and self-governing groups of people who share a passion for the common domain of what they do and strive to become better practioners.

They create value for their members and stakeholders through

developing and spreading new knowledge, productive

capabilities and fostering innovation.

Communities of practice are self-organizing

and self-governing groups of people who share a passion for the common domain of what they do and strive to become better practioners.

They create value for their members and stakeholders through

developing and spreading new knowledge, productive

capabilities and fostering innovation.

What Makes aWhat Makes aCommunity of PracticeCommunity of Practice??

Community• Personal motivation

• Trustful relationships

• Easy ways to stay connected

• Mutuality of service

Practice• Sharing expertise

• Creating shared resources, e.g.: shared knowledge base

• Validating best practices

• Growing collective capabilities

Distinctive Focus• Community identity• Unique mission• Shared cultural values• Jointly developed learning

agenda

Support Structure• Community facilitation• Online forums• Dynamic document

repositories• Project weblogs• Instant messaging &

whiteboards

Communities of Practice Are Everywhere

Source William S. Snyder

Face-to-Face &Face-to-Face &Virtual CommunitiesVirtual Communities

ThroughDialogue

&Reflection

ThroughDialogue

&Reflection

Harvesting is the first act of building collective memory and intelligence. Recording what has heart for the members of the group is a vital condition for coherent, coordinated action in the future. Taking care of harvesting is a high-value, though frequently under-honored task of community stewardship.

Harvesting, Knowledge WeavingHarvesting, Knowledge Weavingand Meaning-Makingand Meaning-Making

Knowledge weaving is identifying the patterns in conversations and making connections that add to its richness. Well-edited and structured meeting summaries are a good example. Software tools for weaving include idea and outline processors, taxonomies, keyword searching, topic maps, mind maps, link collections etc.

Meaning making is the higher order integration of information and knowledge into enhanced CI, through iterative conversations that make up the nervous system of an organization and help it evolve from a community of learners to a community that learns. Tools for meaning-making include metaphors, (digital) storytelling, and mental modeling

A system has “collective leadership” when people are attuned to each other so well that, even when separate, they naturally act in harmony with each other and the goals of the common enterprise.

Most leadership teams, including those at senior levels, are far from fulfilling their potential. They meet as individuals, squeezing time from their more urgent work, debating from their individual perspectives and concentrating on their individual domains of authority.

Their actions, and the actions of those who report to them, consequently take place at cross-purposes, and they often seem trapped in cycles of opposition and breakdown.

Need for Collective leadershipNeed for Collective leadership

Source: Dialogos

Presencing also known as “Theory U” is the result of 8 years of research and interviews with 150 thought leaders on innovation and leadership, by Otto Scharmer, a professor at MIT. The U-process - a methodology for individual and collective leadership to unlock our creativity and achieve breakthrough results. It teaches us how to learn from the future. The next few slides will illustrate some of the core distinctions of Presencing.

Presencing asPresencing asCollective Leadership TechnologyCollective Leadership Technology

Source: Presence: Human Purpose and the Field of the Future, by Senge, Scharmer, Jaworski, Flowers

Professor Scharmer teaching

Source:

Otto Scharmer

4 Levels of Listening4 Levels of Listening

Source: Otto Scharmer, THEORY U: Leading Profound Innovation and Change By Presencing Emerging Futures, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, May 2004

Sensing - Presencing - Realizing:Sensing - Presencing - Realizing:Three Movements of Theory UThree Movements of Theory U

“Presencing” is bringing into presence, and into the present, your highest potential and the future that is seeking to emerge.

Your highest future possibility is related to your own highest intention…it’s being an instrument of life itself, to accomplish, in a sense, what life wishes for me to accomplish.

Source: Presence: Human Purpose and the Field of the Future, by Otto Scharmer

Presencing Your FuturePresencing Your Future

Journeying on U CurveJourneying on U Curveby Generative Journalingby Generative Journaling

“Generative journaling” is like a having a generative conversation with oneself, and gaining new insights by answering a set of generative questions.

It is also a personal preparation for the collective practices of co-sensing, co-presencing and co-creating.

The council is assembled by a leading executive and usually consists of 5 to 12 people who participate in dialogue and debate about vital issues and decisions facing the organization. Each council member has the ability to participate not from the egoistic need to win a point or protect a parochial interest.

Council members come from a range of perspectives, but each member has deep knowledge about some aspect of the organization and/or the environment in which it operates. The council includes key members of the management team but is not limited to members of the management team, nor is every executive automatically a member. The council meets periodically, as much as once a week or as infrequently as once per quarter.

Source: Good to Great, by Jim Collins

Leadership CouncilsLeadership Councilsin “Good-to-Great” Companiesin “Good-to-Great” Companies

Last Words…

If you want to learn more about collective intelligence, I recommend:

Blog of Collective Intelligence http://www.community-intelligence.com/blogs/public/

Quest for Collective Intelligence, by George Pórhttp://www.vision-nest.com/cbw/Quest.html Liberating the Innovation Value of Communities of Practice, by George Pór http://www.community-intelligence.com/resources.htm

Collective Intelligence: Mankind's Emerging World in Cyberspace, by Pierre Lévy

Co-Intelligence Institutehttp://www.co-intelligence.org/

Thank you for your listening and questions that inspired what I had to share with you!

George PórChairman, CommunityIntelligence Ltd.

George is a veteran of building effective processes and systems for large-scale, professional collaboration networks, who combines European values with American dynamism and ancient wisdom traditions.

He has worked as Senior Research Fellow at INSEAD and Visiting Researcher in the Complexity Programme of the London School of Economics. Other academic work included posts at Université de Paris, UC Berkeley, and California Institute of Integral Studies.

He is the author of “The Quest for Collective Intelligence,” a chapter in Community Building: Renewing Sprit and Learning in Business. He wrote also the “Liberating the Innovation Value of Communities of Practice” chapter of the “Knowledge Economics: Principles, Practices and Policies” book http://www.entovation.com/knowledge-economics.htm , as well as the Collective Intelligence section in Evolutionary Leadership, by Peter Merry.

His clients include: EDS, European Foundation for Management Development, European Investment Bank, Hewlett-Packard, Intel, Siemens, and Swiss Re.

He can be reached at the following address:George at Community-Intelligence dot com

George PórChairman, CommunityIntelligence Ltd.

George is a veteran of building effective processes and systems for large-scale, professional collaboration networks, who combines European values with American dynamism and ancient wisdom traditions.

He has worked as Senior Research Fellow at INSEAD and Visiting Researcher in the Complexity Programme of the London School of Economics. Other academic work included posts at Université de Paris, UC Berkeley, and California Institute of Integral Studies.

He is the author of “The Quest for Collective Intelligence,” a chapter in Community Building: Renewing Sprit and Learning in Business. He wrote also the “Liberating the Innovation Value of Communities of Practice” chapter of the “Knowledge Economics: Principles, Practices and Policies” book http://www.entovation.com/knowledge-economics.htm , as well as the Collective Intelligence section in Evolutionary Leadership, by Peter Merry.

His clients include: EDS, European Foundation for Management Development, European Investment Bank, Hewlett-Packard, Intel, Siemens, and Swiss Re.

He can be reached at the following address:George at Community-Intelligence dot com

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