How to build teams with high collective intelligence.
I am fascinated by the science of innovative teams and it can feel mystical and mysterious. Recently I came across the Network scientist Alert-Laszlo latest publication and in it I found some very interesting studies. Why some teams make great things happen and some not doing so well.
All we need is to understand the science behind why some teams have higher collective intelligence and how it is created. Because we know that great things in business are never created by one person but by teams.
So a study done by professor Anita Williams Woolley, together with her colleagues at MIT, set out to answer a simple question: How could they measure the collective intelligence of a group of people working together?
“For one team member with high IQs didn’t do any better on collective intelligence tests than their lower IQ peers”
Researchers recorded each team members action searches for solutions. and their results debunked many expectations. for one team member with high IQs didn’t do any better on collective intelligence tests than their lower IQ peers. Individual intelligence didn’t seem to matter much in team performance. Neither the motivation level of team members or their individual satisfaction. What did matter was how the individuals communicated.
Three things to remembers:
- Teams tended to do well if individuals in a group had higher than average ability to read emotional cues
- In groups where some individuals dominated the conversation lead to lower collective intelligence than those with more equality among group members. In other words, the best teams were those whose members share discussions time and listened to each other
- The third key factor was fascinating and once again science showing the amazing power of a diverse team: teams with females members had a higher collective intelligence. So collective intelligence tests provide hard evidence that the ability of individual group members is not a key determinant of a team’s performance
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