Life is a learning process. When we meet and interact with people we learn some new things. At times we need to question some things that we come across. Through such enquiry we learn a lot. That is how I learnt about collective intelligence. Constantly coming across this term in empowr blogs aroused my interest to find more about this and conceptualize how to benefit from collective intelligence. When I reflect on the African experience, the concept of Ubuntu which shows the africaness of Africans show how collective intelligence has affected human beings from the long past.
How to benefit from collective intelligence
The simple definition of collective intelligence is the intelligence that arises from the collective efforts of a group of people who have a great and undying interest to do something. Remember it is only collective intelligence if it is positive and beneficial. If the collective efforts of people is not beneficial then it should be called collective stupidity, as one professor at MIT calls it. One example of collective intelligence often quoted is that of the Wikipedia, where people from diverse backgrounds contribute to a body of knowledge on one platform. Empowr is now an example of collective intelligence, as much as other online forums and communities be it on WhatsApp, Facebook, LinkedIn and many other communities. These fora all depends on the collective efforts, collaboration and competition arising from the coming together of many people, who have a common cause. In some cases collective intelligence is harnessed through votes and polls as well as open discussions and negotiations. There are so many options depending on who you are and what you want to achieve.
The concept of collective intelligence emerged long back during the time of Napoleon Hill. Napoleon Hill, through his much publicized book Think and Grow Rich, identified a mastermind group as a driver to achieve the collective business goals of people. Many people implemented the mastermind group concept, and this led to America becoming the number one economy in the world. Michael Hyatt says, “Few things can accelerate you toward your goals faster than participating in a mastermind,” group. The good thing is that masterminds groups these days are not formed of people who want to meet in a house. People can now meet on Skype, Facebook, hangout and many other social and business groups. Anyone can now search on the internet and find the mastermind group he/she wants, join, participate and prosper. You need to harness the power of collective intelligence.