How to get the most out of synergies thanks to collective intelligence

Every group, as we know, forms within itself an entity that is greater than the sum of its parts. But how is it possible to exploit this added value without it becoming, as often happens in the company, a dispersive and inefficient movement?

One of the simplest and most direct ways is to develop collective intelligence. According to the definition given by Pierre Levy, CI consists “in valuing all the diversities, knowledge, skills, ideas, experiences, found in a community and organizing them in a creative and productive dialogue“. The strength of the group, in fact. 

If applied to company projects and interactions, CI allows you to:

• Carry out complex tasks thanks to the synergies achieved
• Make the best use of each one’s skills, reflections and diversity of aptitudes to achieve a common goal
• Identify creative and innovative solutions to respond to challenges
• Generate collaborations that foster creativity, innovation, motivation and engagement towards work and the company

In fact what happens through the CI is a sort of “contamination of knowledge” within the group which determines a field of intelligence.

Promoting CI is an operation that can be done through dedicated training and workshops, during which the principles are illustrated and the basic “ingredients” are developed. Some of them are:

• Lack of hierarchical order
• Presence of a coordinator
• Creation and respect of common rules
• Multiplication of interactions between members and also outside the group in order to nourish the knowledge of the group itself
• Respect for the expression and experience of each one
• Right to be wrong
• Creativity and curiosity
• Horizontality (vs vertical hierarchy)
• Continuous information sharing
• Mutual trust and open communication
• Achievement of a sense of inclusion (unite in a common purpose, foster a sense of belonging and create a group identity)
• Creation of the so-called psychological safety of team members (the belief of team members that they can take risks and be vulnerable to others without being penalized or even humiliated for making mistakes or exposing themselves with ideas, questions or concerns.

Changing the relationship paradigm and group management through CI means bringing the group entity to express its qualities and potential to the maximum. It’s easy, if you know how to do it.