Something called Collaborative Intelligence CQ

I was watching a LinkedIn Course about Learning Emotional Intelligence and the final speaker was Angie McArthur. She started by defining Collaborative Intelligence as "Collaborative intelligence, is a measure of our ability to think with others on behalf of what matters to us all."

The term Collaborative intelligence caught my attention, So I started searching about Collaborative Intelligence and Angie's work and publications. I got amazed by the new perspectives described in this particular topic and the practices we do and see in our day to day interactions, not only at work but in life in general. So let me dig a little deeper with you on what I found really interesting about Collaborative intelligence and what I applied right away in my interactions with people regardless of the situation - work or normal life -.

Collaborative Intelligence is the culmination of more than fifty years of original research that draws on Dawna Markova’s background in cognitive neuroscience and her most recent work, with Angie McArthur, as a “Professional Thinking Partner” to some of the world’s top CEOs and creative professionals.

Collaborative Intelligence: Thinking with People Who Think Differently - Book by Angie McArthur and Dawna Markova

Collaboration

But, before we start, we need to establish some points, the first point is what does Collaboration means?

Collaboration is the process of two or more people, entities, or organizations working together to complete a task or achieve a goal. Collaboration is similar to cooperation. Most collaboration requires leadership, although the form of leadership can be social within a decentralized and egalitarian group. - Wikipedia.

We will get back to this definition again later.

Market Share mindset and Mind Share mindset

The second point is our current economic mindset, which we have been educated to participate in from young age, and the evolution we have with the latest shift to a mindshare economy.

The market share economy - thus Market Share Mindset - we are brought to and thought almost through our whole life to be a part of, where we participate each with his/her idea/s and the team - society - choices just one idea or the leader collects all the ideas S/he likes and boom "we have a winner" Vs. the mindshare in which we all share our ideas, increasing the bandwidth of thinking and collaboration of the whole process and - for sure - enhance whatever process or decision we are taking.

The sharing economy is an economic model defined as a peer-to-peer (P2P) based activity of acquiring, providing or sharing access to goods and services that is often facilitated by a community-based on-line platform. - Investopedia

And to make this point clear I will quote Angie here "We believe that we are in a hinge time, we are shifting from what we call a market share mindset into a mind share mindset. In a market share mindset, things carry value, meaning if I have one thing and I give it away, I've lost something, in a mind share mindset, what happens is, ideas carry value. So if I come to you and I have a great idea, and you come with one great idea, then we both leave with two more great ideas. That mind share economy is happening and one of the fundamental ways in which a mind share economy grows is by being a leader as a host or a leader as a conductor as opposed to a leader as a hero, trying to be the smartest in the room." end of quote.

I think we all can relate to that previous statement - that we all are different - and we carry values different from one another, and this concept itself is a really healthy thing to have, I mean imagine living and working with individuals who carry the same ideas and perform the same at each corner every day, for me it will be a really difficult team and life as our differences is what makes our imagination start to boom and innovations arise.

Questions connect us, says Angie McArthur. Differences are dignified. Your differences form your contribution to the world.

We are Homosapien sapien

Stay with me, this is not going to be an anthropology article, we just need to know the definition.

Homo sapiens sapiens is the name given to our species if we are considered a sub-species of a larger group. - The Australian Museum

The word Sapien derives (or comes) from an old Latin word meaning 'Wise'. - Definitions.net

So we are being to think think, and the second "think" really means wisdom. I want you to think about any wise man you know or the typically television wise man, the one who speaks slowly and usually speaks last, and what do you think that represents?! For me, it means S/he takes the time to listen, process, and then talks - after processing all the data collected during the discussion before or from the data he collected or given to him or her -. And that brings us to the most significant gift that our species brings to this world which is our capacity to think.

“Humans can no longer afford to think in division and darkness. Collaborative intelligence is the light that is necessary for our individual and collective survival. We have no choice now but to think together.” ― Dawna Markova

And that is what we do each day and each minute, we think, talk, and execute, and each one of us does these actions differently, and that why humans need to collaborate, forming teams, groups, and forming the society itself.

And the most significant danger is that we can't think with those who think differently or don't know how to think with those who think differently. As we are different, Thinking Diversity is the one important thing you should look at, where communicating with others, but often we do not.

Thinking Diversity or Diversity of thought is the idea that people in a group don't need to look different or identify with an underrepresented group in order to bring varying, diverse viewpoints to the table. - Forbes

For example, the more people in a discussion or a meeting, the bigger bandwidth of thinking diversity you got. Thus the more Collaborative Intelligence you need to have a successful outcome.

So why we do that, sometimes because we think we know it all - the smartest in the room -, or because it is the default way we do things or we used to do things.

Collaborative intelligence is emerging as a new professional currency at a time when the way we think, interact, and innovate is shifting.

When asked about their biggest challenges at work, Markova and McArthur’s clients all cite a common problem: other people. This response reflects the way we have been taught to focus on the gulfs between us rather than valuing our intellectual diversity—that is, how each of us is uniquely gifted; how we process information and frame questions; what kind of things deplete us, and what engages and inspires us. - cqthebook.com

Benchmark your relationships - Flag 'em up

A very nice practice here is that you take 3 or 4 people you interact with usually each day and apply or look at them - each one through 4 aspects

• Growth

A simple two-questions here to ask yourself, How much growth do they bring out in you? and how much do you bring out in them?

• Understanding

Another simple question, How much understanding is there between you? how much do you understand them when you have a breakdown? 

• Aliveness

What is your sense of potency when you're around this person? Can you discuss something with him/her? Can you change his/her mind by conversation and convincing for the benefit of the whole team or group and vise versa?

• Respect

This one is essential and crucial because without respect it's really hard to want to collaborate with anyone. for example, I do not tolerate disrespect anywhere whether in the workplace or life.

Now rate each individual you already thought of from 1-lowest to 5-highest for each of the four aspects and list them. Look at the ratings for each individual, What do you think now?

The highest-ranked individuals on your list are the individuals with whom you can be most productive as well as collaborative, so keep them closer.

Great Minds Don't Think Alike But Can Learn to Think Together - Angie McArthur

What Collaboration really means?

A recent survey conducted by Harvard Business Review findings highlighted the two most important areas that collaboration needed to address within the workplace as delivering ‘effective team communication’ and ‘fostering collaboration both inside and outside an organization.’ With teams becoming increasingly dispersed, the challenge for managers can be centered on making remote workers feel included and not isolated.

Collaboration is a buzzword these days. Leaders want to get people to think as one company. But managers in different functions or different business units seem surprisingly reluctant to work together. Jealousies, misunderstandings, and enmity seem more common than collaboration. Why does collaboration fail? There are lots of reasons. Collaboration can be time-consuming. It creates risks for the participants. Competing objectives can be hard to resolve. But to my mind, the biggest problem is that people confuse collaboration with teamwork. - Andrew Campbell Director of the Ashridge Strategic Management Centre in England.

So, a lot of people are using Collaboration as a buzz word and use it as an adjective, but in real life, Collaboration is a verb, this means sometimes/periods you can collaborate and some other times you can't. Collaboration is something you have, then you don't, then you have, then you don't, etc...

what controls these periods length is the actions and interactions with others in your team, group, or society, and how you deal with each situation. And I will just mention the three actions to choose from in every situation but will write another article about them another time as I have some personal examples for each action.

The actions are: Fight, Flight, and Freeze

“One thing that distinguishes a boss from a leader is the ability to suspend belief and disbelief so that innovations and new processes will have a chance to emerge.” ― Dawna Markova