In 1906, Sir Francis Galton was visiting a livestock fair, when he came across an interesting game. The fair goers were invited to guess an ox’s weight after it was slaughtered and dressed. Around 800 guesses were made. Sir Gulton, being intrigued by this game, he collected all of the guesses that were made, and analyzed them. He found that not one person had the correct guess, and the overall average guess was only one pound off from the real weight of this ox. This really shows how the collective intelligence from a large group of people is powerful.
Can your organization leverage the collective intelligence and wisdom of its employees? An organization can use the wisdom of crowds if it has a strategic problem it wants to solve, or a new opportunity that needs to be identified. Traditionally, managers and people at the top of corporations make the decisions that trickle down to all facets of an organization. Today, there is a great opportunity for companies to leverage internal social networks, video conferencing, and collaboration platforms so employees can access each other and information. It might be time to utilize the collective intelligence and wisdom of all employees to see what answers they come up with. Feel free to share any stories from your company and what they are doing in this subject.
Jacob Morgan is a keynote speaker, author, and futurist. You can invite Jacob to keynote your next conference, subscribe to his videos on Youtube, check out his podcast, or subscribe to his newsletter!
Comments