General Thoughts About Collective Intelligence
I hope to explore the theory of collective intelligence and some general thoughts behind promotion and suppress of collective intelligence. In addition, I hope to examine some applications and strategies that enhance collective intelligence.
For the past 30 years I have been teaching special education. I’m in the business of evaluating and examining student’s intelligence. I assess intelligence, implement interventions and systematically monitor student’s learning. The past few years, I have become very interested in group intelligence. A group composed of intellectually “average” individuals, for instance, may work together to form a very smart “above average” intelligent group. Sometimes the whole is greater than the sum of the individual parts. Yet another group consisting of individuals with “above average” intelligence may in fact form a group which functions well “below average” intellectually. We’ve all experienced a group or organization that doesn’t seem as smart as any one of its members. Many groups and teams within a school setting function well below their collective intellectual potential. Why does one group excel and another struggle?
An I.Q. test compares individual problem solving skills with problem solving capabilities of others the same age. In a similar fashion, we could demonstrate the existence of group intelligence by comparing how well various groups solve problems, in other words measure group I.Q. Collective intelligence concerns how well people put their heads together in a group. So an important question is how can we raise group intelligence so the group (or school) may reach their full intellectual potential? How can we attempt to maximize collective intelligence, group productivity, collaboration, best practices and team effectiveness? We must move our culture forward and work smarter as a team.
What is Collective Intelligence?
One definition of collective intelligence comes from Wikipedia “An intelligence that emerges from the collaboration and competition of many individuals, an intelligence that seemly has a mind of its own.” Yet another definition of collective intelligence comes from George Por, “The capacity of a human community to evolve toward higher order complex thought, problem solving and integration through collaboration and innovation.” Group intelligence pertains to any situation where problem solving can exceed the capabilities of an individual group member. Collective intelligence is all about how smart a group thinks. How well does the group merge the minds of the participants and take advantage of individual experience, knowledge and expertise in a coordinated way? Does the group leverage the minds of the individuals or does it get done by a guy at the top? Please comment if you have any questions or answers. Let the conversation begin.
