There is a Japanese proverb that says: “No one of us is as smart as all of us”, an old Chinese proverb says: “Three cobblers are equal to one Zhuge Liang”. These proverbs are somewhat similar to the Vietnamese proverb that goes: “One tree alone can\’t make a hill; three trees together make a high mountain”. Despite of being expressed in very different ways, all these proverbs imply that one’s distinguished intelligence cannot be valued as the collective intelligence. However, in fact, the application of this correct principle still faces many obstacles.
In today\’s rapidly changing world, organizations must be constantly adaptable and renovate themselves to survive and grow. According to McKinsey & Company in 1935, the lifespan of S&P 500 companies was 90 years. However, their lifespan dropped to 14 years only by 2010. Recent studies show that companies\’ lifespan is getting shorter and shorter. In a volatile and unpredictable world, managers need to make wise decisions, especially in formulation and implementation of strategy.
However, the information needed for making an wise decision does not only depend on the leadership team, but also on the knowledge of staffs across different levels and departments. So far, the exploitation of intelligence of the mass through email and meetings were often less effective.
Steps to boost collective intelligence
As mentioned above, collective intelligence helps managers make more accurate and effective decisions. Therefore, in order to boost collective intelligence, the following necessary steps should be taken:
Creating a sharing culture where every opinion is respected:
Building a work environment where everyone can freely express his/her views is a key factor in boosting collective intelligence. First of all, leaders need to avoid giving personal criticism to employees in arguments. Secondly, leaders need always be frank in expressing their desire if they need more ideas from employees, and be open to all ideas, even those seem silly.
Encouraging a focus on numbers when giving ideas:
Many employees hesitate to give ideas as they think that only well-thought-out ideas should be proposed. However, studies show that when individuals are able to come up with a variety of ideas, even the ideas in their infancy, it helps boost team creativity.
Measuring and recognizing employee contributions:
Leaders need to create an environment where employees feel that their ideas are recognized and transformed into practical actions. Recognition and reward may include: public comendation, giving opportunities for execution of important projects and opportunities for promotion.
Syntegration: Smart solution to optimally exploit collective intelligence
In addition to the application of traditional methods for exploiting collective intelligence, Malik Syntegration is one of the modern management tools that organizations/enterprises can apply, especially in strategy formulation and great challenges dealing. This is a proprietary method that has been developed by the Malik Institute, Switzeland. The name of Syntegration® itself is a combination of the words “synergy” and “integration”. It is the synergy and integration of the intelligence and emotional capacity of leaders and employees.
Syntegration helps to optimize the number of interconnections and exchanges of a large number of participants, allowing the majority to easily share information to handle many intertwined issues, thereby optimally exploiting the maximum of collective intelligence.
According to James Surowiecki (2004), there are four conditions for successfully boosting collective intelligence, including: (i) diversity of opinions; (ii) independence (opinions not influenced by people around); (iii) decentralization (no one is assigned to do anything); (iv) coordination (a mechanism is available to turn individual opinion into collective decision). Syntegration Method meets all four of these factors: each participant can give his/her opinion on the issue he or she is competent in; someone is assigned to facilitate each discussion session so that all opinions are recorded and considered equal; the selected opinion is the one receiving high consensus. Therefore, Malik Syntegration has succeeded in boosting the intelligence of a crowd to bring breakthrough solutions to organizations.
Owing to the application of many scientific fields, the Syntegration Method surpasses the usual tools in Corporate Governance and organization. The Malik Syntegration Method has been tested and proved more than 1,000 times in organizations of all social fields.
In a complex and constantly changing world, relying solely on the leadership intelligence to solve the organization\’s/enterprise’s problems will be limited and therefore optimal results cannot be made. The application of smart and modern tools such as Syntegration will be a useful and urgent solution for organizational/business administrators. For more information on the Malik Syntegration Method, please contact: 0941 666 292 (Ms. Dang Thao, Director of the Syntegration Center)
Summarized by Institute for Strategic Leadership Development Research
