Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Welcome--Why Co-Intelligence?

On this blog, we will explore together the nature of collective intelligence and collaboration, how to access it and what it enables us to do together. We hope that you will join in with in the ongoing inquiry into:

  • Expanding the paradigm of human capacity for compassion and empathy
  • New perspective on what collaboration asks of us and our organizations
  • Strategies for creating powerful dialogues and evolutionary solutions
  • Required yet simple skills and practices needed for collaborative situations, beginning with two people
  • An enhanced sense of the collective power of teams and whole systems


There is no doubt we live in increasingly complex times where hyper-connectivity means every change, invention, crisis, or possibility is everywhere available anytime to everyone. At the same time, we are presented with both the threat of crises and the opportunity for innovation in every aspect of our living: environmental, economic, organizational, political, and social. These complex systems challenges and opportunities demand that we develop and access our co-intelligence, which Tom Atlee defines as “being wiser together than we are individually.” We are being called to build our capacity to tap into our collective intelligence, bringing a breadth of diversity, creativity, disruption, and innovation to bear in our organizations and communities. We believe there are four main capacities that allow us to access co-intelligence, which we will be sharing in future posts.  

Q: When have you been in a situation where you had a strong sense of collective intelligence at work?