Collaborative Intelligence

Have you ever been stuck in a mind-numbing meeting, feeling like time has slowed to a crawl? Well, here's one explanation for this common experience: in general, people know very little about how to work well with others.

That’s because instead of being prepared for collaboration, we’ve been trained for a market-share economy, in which value is placed on things and power is exercised over others. In this world, success can be measured in the assets one accrues – things like money, cars and houses.

But it’s also a world in which we’re taught to be right and focus on our individual ability, self-sufficiency and independence; one in which a leader is someone who’s comfortable saying “I’m right and you’re wrong,” while handling difference through eradication and control.

On the other hand, in what the authors call a mind-share economy, wealth is based more on ideas and relationships than on transactions. For instance, if two people come up with an idea and talk about it, they’ll both have other ideas. That means the more we share, the more everyone will know.

This simple fact makes generating, developing and executing ideas with other people one of our most valuable abilities. So, instead of trying to outdo your colleague, listen to their perspective and try to learn from them.

But that doesn’t mean doing away with market-share mentality. It just means balancing it with mind-share mentality so we can compete and collaborate while striving toward a common goal. For instance, LinkedIn is in direct competition with headhunters, but also shares with them. As a result, the site knows what headhunters need and can better assist them in using the site to hire LinkedIn’s users – a direct benefit to the company.

However, to emulate LinkedIn you’ll need collaborative intelligence, or the ability to reach out to others, listen to them and open your mind to difference. Because only by doing so will you be able to achieve together.