Unlocking Collective Potential

Is innovation about collective genius? I really enjoyed this TEDx talk by Ethnographer Linda Hill.

I have been reflecting a lot recently on the idea of individual potential versus the Collective Potential. I realise, for too long, I have been thinking we are in a 'Second Human Potential Movement' when actually I think what we are experiencing is the 'Cultural Potential Movement'. What is different now than from the 60's is it is about the collective not the individual - We have moved from 'Individualism' to 'Community', from 'Me' to 'We', from 'You' to 'Yus'.

My favourite quotes from Linda:

‘Our role as leaders is to set the stage, not perform on it… If we want to invent a better future then we need to reimagine our task. Our task is to create the space where every bodies slices of genius can be unleashed and harnessed and turned into works of collective genius.'

‘When you look at innovative organizations they don’t go along to get along. They don’t compromise. They don’t let one group or one individual dominate; even if its the boss; even if its the expert. Instead, they have developed a more patient and inclusive decision making process that allows for both/and solutions to arise and not simply either/or solutions.'

'If we want to build organizations that can innovate time and again we must recast our idea of leadership.'

'At Pixar they understand that innovation takes a village... The Leaders focus on building a sense of community… Leadership is about creating a world to which people want to belong… How do we the design a studio that has the sensibility of a public square so that people will interact.’

‘This is about inverting the pyramid so that you can unleash the power of the many by loosening the stronghold of the few and increase the quality and speed of innovation.'