The "Wisdom of Crowds" is a ground-breaking text from James Surowiecki that argues the combined knowledge of groups of people is superior to individual decision making.
The key, and greatest challenge, is that this pattern and process of decision making is most relevant when the individuals in the process maintain their independence.
So how do we leverage the Wisdom of Crowds in our organisations, to optimise decision making, yet somehow collaborate with independent thinking...?
This example from the book charaterises everything required for good crowd based decision making...
"The market was smart that day because it satisfied the four conditions that characterize wise crowds:-
1. diversity of opinion (each person should have some private information, even if it's just an eccentric interpretation of the known facts)
2. independence (people's opinions are not determined by the opinions of those around them)
3. decentralization (people are able to specialize and draw on local knowledge)
4. aggregation (some mechanism exists for turning private judgments into a collective decision)."
“Diversity and independence are important because the best collective decisions are the product of disagreement and contest, not consensus or compromise."
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The Brilliance of Balance
One of the common traits of successful people is that they rarely have a plan B. This single mindedness is one of the keys to setting yourself apart. There is little argument that spending all of your energy on any single pursuit will make you either very good at that pursuit, or at the very least, the best you could possibly be.
A mistake that is often made in corporate environments is that people think they can leverage this single focus to make things happen.
It's true, most great things only come to fruition through focus and determination, however it is the balance of views in large organisations that give ideas power.
Think about a practical example, why are solo music artists rarely successful after leaving a successful long term band... they no longer have a drummer to stand up during production and say - mate, that sounds like crap...
The Change Agent
To ensure this balance is encouraged but doesn't become destructive, an ultimate change agent, or Strange Attractor (Surfing the edge of Chaos) is required within your organisation/project.
If it isn't you, find one... engage them... sponsor them...
This person (or it could be multiple people) will challenge when required and bring all of the diversity of thought together to create the recipe for change.
The key attribute of the Wisdom of Crowds, is that almost no-one in the team will totally agree, and yet the balance of independent decision making will strengthen the final outcome.
Making it work
Keeping in mind, this is not an exercise in compromise as such, although the individual opinions of the crow will undoubtedly need to flex, Surowiecki argues that the collective balance of thinking should be the path taken rather than a compromise based on the efforts of the greatest influencer in the room.
One factor that I would add to the recipe of the Wisdom of Crowds is a common goal. In almost all of the examples provided in the book there is one thing in common, the participants were clear about the goal.
The bigger the organisation, the bigger the crowd, the bigger the opportunity. Large organisations have almost endless contributors to the crowd, all with their own independant thought process and hopefully their own view on a would be common goal.
So the challenge for decision makers is to balance their own thought processes and thought leadership with the collective, independant thinking of the organisation that they represent. Synthesizing this knowledge in a meaningful way is perhaps one of the great challenges to face business leaders and their collective minions alike.
The model that we use at NAC is a relatively simple one: -
Understand the common goal
Collect the independant data sources and feedback
Validate through observation
Synthesize and articulate in a meaningful way
Decide on a clear direction, avoiding compromise where possible and demanding challenge and friction of decision making
About the Author
Stuart Nielsen
Stu has been transforming financial services business for over 2 decades with his unique style of people leadership and problem-solving acumen. Never afraid to tackle the complex problems in any facet of an organisation, Stu will bring a sense of reality to any problem and leverage the combined energy of your people to create a high performing business.
Capable of working at the strategic end right through to delivery and knowledge transfer, Stu's strength in communication is an asset to any organisation trying to make sense of its self and drive change towards a common purpose.
"Data is great, feedback is awesome, however nothing is real until it is observed"