Optimizing Team Intelligence

“Failure isn’t fatal, but failure to change might be.” –John Wooden

Bob Mercer, a Marketing Executive from Manhattan, took two of his associates to the Adirondack Mountains over the weekend, to the campsite where he and his father had camped many times as a child. Since Bob had been buried in his work, it had been thirty years since his last trip, and Bob was eager to get there. During the drive Bob reminisced of the wonderful memories he shared with his father while fishing on the river and hiking through the beautiful terrain. Upon arriving Bob decided to forego setting up camp for a short hike into the woods, to a river located less than two miles from camp. They took with them a backpack containing a few jugs of water, some light snacks and their fishing gear. Bob sensed he had enough equipment for their short journey. After all, he had planned to get back before the sun set to set up camp, build a cozy fire, and then fry some of the fresh catch for dinner.

Along the trail Bob bragged about the river he and his father had fished several times in the past. After they had traveled a few miles, the river was nowhere in sight. Bob kept saying, “I’m sure it’s here. I have fished this area several times with my dad.” One of his friends suggested they get back to camp to set things up, and start again in the morning. Bob, however, refused his friend’s advice, thinking the river was just down the path. They walked another mile or two, and no river was in sight. By now the high mountain range around them and the sun’s angle had engulfed the valley in a dismal shadow. What Bob did not know was that the river was rerouted due to a heavy mudslide in the area several years ago. If they had read the signs along the path they would have been alerted of the latest change in the landscape. But wait minute, a forest fire burned the trail signs a few years ago, and since the camp area became unpopular with the campers, the signs were never replaced. The ridges and peaks seemed very familiar to Bob, but certain rest areas, and other key landmarks had been eradicated by the fire’s fury.

Soon Bob and his friends were lost, and the weather above them was rapidly changing; a small detail they did not anticipate. The weather in these high altitudes can change within a moments notice and cause temperatures to drop drastically. Suddenly the ominous clouds above them burst open, sending a heap of water over them. Bob and his friends needed to respond quickly to the environmental changes or suffer the consequences of their choices. Their clothes soaked by the rain, and the chilling effects of the cold weather added to their misery.

Although Bob was an avid camper for many years in his youth, he had not gone camping for quite some time, and his friends were city dwellers all their lives. They simply did not have the expertise or knowledge to respond to these types of weather changes. The hiking trails started to fill and flow with water, which made it even more cumbersome to trudge uphill. After walking more hours than expected in the rain and mud, they luckily stumbled onto their campground late into the evening extremely exhausted, and nursing the large blisters on their feet. Too tired and late into the night to set up camp, they simply spent the night in their rented car, grateful they had made it out of the dark, wet and cold wilderness alive.

What can we learn from Bob’s excursion? Can this scenario relate to the workplace, where the marketplace dynamics change constantly? One must keep up with the drastic changes, since one day, you will wake up to find your organization outdated, and outpaced by the competition. If Bob had planned better, perhaps by talking to the locals before arriving to the campground, and listened to his friend’s suggestion of returning to the campground, Bob may have averted some of the discomfort from his environment, and personal embarrassment among his associates. As the old adage goes, “The prudent see danger and take refuge, but the simple keep going and pay the penalty.”[i] What Bob refused to do was apply what he learned as a Marketing Executive, that is, to exercise collaborative and team intelligence to any situation.

Organizational Intelligence

According to Professor William E. Halal, “Organizational intelligence is the capacity of an organization to create knowledge and use it to strategically adapt to its environment or marketplace. It is similar to I.Q., but framed at an organizational level.”[ii] Author Verna Allee defines organizational intelligence as “the cognitive capacities and capabilities of an organization.”[iii] In sum, organizational intelligence is tapping into your team’s collective knowledge quotient, and then applying new learning capabilities to seize viable opportunities and advantages in the marketplace. 

Utilizing organizational intelligence does more for you than just help you stay afloat; it helps you perceive and create the foresight skills required to take advantage of the shifting movements in your environment. In turn, allowing you create the strategies to stay competitive in these unstable settings. Organizations who place a high value on learning and accessing new knowledge increase in strength and are better prepared to absorb fast changing environments. Then how can organizations and business leaders prepare themselves and their teams to become more aware of the environmental changes in their sphere of business? Unlike Bob, the Marketing Executive from Manhattan, we must first look to our living systems in nature to get our queues.

1. Learning from Nature and Living Organisms

One way organizations can make the adjustment is to think like living organisms, who learn to live in, adapt and survive in changing environments, such as the seasons of drought or when imminent danger looms. Animals have built-in systems of awareness and networks that alert them to apparent changes emerging in their environment. Do you remember the unfortunate Tsunami that hit Thailand’s shores unrepentantly on Christmas Day 2006? It was noted prior to its destruction on land that birds and animals were seen taking flight away from the ocean to seek higher ground moments before the death tide hit the beach. In other words, these animals sensed atmospheric changes in their ecosystem, which triggered an internal “flight” mechanism. 

The world of living organisms can teach us many things. For one, learning to acquire an internal sense that something is out of alignment in your environment, and with this growing intuition (sensing and feeling), create crucial insights and foresight to make the needed changes before a looming disaster overwhelms your business strategy. Grooming this gift of intuition takes time, when one takes the time to think, feel, and to sense the slightest movements and trends in their specific business environment.

Second, you will need to tap into your team, and learn to optimize their collective intelligence.

2. Optimizing Team Intelligence

Organizational intelligence requires a constant and transparent conversation with your team, not just at the executive level, but also throughout the organization, including the shop floor. As leaders you need to have top to bottom knowledge, and this happens by having transparent conversations with all your team members. Therefore, as you gather your team members, you should mine for their collective insights and knowledge, which are crucial for organizational navigation. You should not underestimate the wisdom of your team members regardless of their background, experience or education. Pure wisdom often comes from the simple-minded in your organization. Certain employees in your organization interact with suppliers, customers and other vital networks that supply a pipeline of information, which many times goes unnoticed. Many times the information shared in these exchanges do not make it to top management, and organizations miss vital intelligence gathering and data required to lead their organization masterfully.

In the story you just read, Bob’s two companions had no experience neither as campers nor as hikers, however, a conversation would have been better than none at all. In this respect, community learning is essential for acquiring new knowledge. Rapid changes in the environment must include speedy discussions and decisions to lead effectively. One leader does not possess all the right answers, all the time, but a team’s collective insights, knowledge and intuition can be the deal breaker in situations like Bob’s excursion. So it is vital that you stay connected to your business web. Let me explain.

3. Staying Connected to Your Business Web

Your business operates among a web of networks within and without the organization. Your internal web consists of various departments, a system of reporting and accountability, and employees with varying degrees of experience, education and competencies. Your external web is made up of vendors, shareholders and consumers, who also interact with your competitors and other related enterprises. As you become more intimate and connected to the entire web you begin to sense the slightest changes within your field of relationships. According to author Mary Beth O’Neil:

When anything comes in contact with a spider web, anywhere on its surface, the whole web moves… so it is with an interactional force field established between two or more people. It has its own anchor points, resiliency, and breaking point, and it is most often invisible to the members within it. When anyone in the field moves, all members feel the effect, though differently based on their positions.”[iv]

When you become more familiar with your internal and external business webs you become more sensitive to the slightest of movements, and their effects upon your business strategy.

In the opening story, at what point should Bob have felt changes in his environment? Could it have been the moment he sensed the missing river or no signage along the path? Remember, he had been there several times before with his father. Memories like the examples Bob spoke about are hard to forget. At this point he should have stopped and asked himself, “Something isn’t right here. Let’s regroup.” But he did not, and suffered the consequences along the path.

Now Back to Bob

If Bob had detected and thought through the changes in his environment early and learned to use this information properly, he probably would have made better decisions and avoided an embarrassing night with his friends. Some environments do not stay the same within time; they change, while others stay the same. Therefore, we must remain on constant vigil or else learn life’s lessons the hard way. It is easier to gain insight from hindsight but it is even better to develop foresight, which is insight fostered by perception and knowledge. Therefore, learning how to learn is the key to increasing intelligence capacity, which must become a priority for thriving organizations in our modern, fast paced and changing business environments. A “winging-it” approach simply won’t help you survive through the unexpected changes in your business environment.

__________________________

Joel C. Garcia is CEO of THRIVN, a top staffing and recruiting agency with a focus on employee engagement, workforce development and client satisfaction, in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Joel has a proven track record for coaching high performance teams by empowering them to transform work cultures by exuding managerial excellence and utilizing components of a collaborative, innovative and strategic style of leadership. Joel earned a Master's Degree in Organizational Leadership with an emphasis in coaching and mentoring from Regent University.

[i] Proverbs 22:3 (NIV)

[ii] William E. Halal. Organizational Intelligence: What is it, and how can managers use it? Strategy and Business, Fourth Quarter, 1997. https://www.strategybusiness.com/press/16635507/12644?tid=230&pg=all.

[iii] Allee, Verna. The Future of Knowledge, Increasing Prosperity through Value Networks. Butterworth-Heinemann, 2003.

[iv] O’Neil, Mary Beth. Executive Coaching with Backbone and Heart. John Wiley & Sons; San Francisco, CA. 2007, pg. 49.