US author and journalist, James Surowiecki, presented the keynote address at the recent Local Government Association of Queensland Annual Conference. His best seller, ‘Wisdom of the Crowds’, argues that under the right conditions groups of people can be smarter than the smartest individual within that group. He told delegates that as the problems you are trying to solve get more complex, crowds get better, and improve the chances of coming up with the best answer.
“So what makes a crowd intelligent?” he asked. “The evidence is that if you tap into the collective wisdom of a large group of people you will be better off,” James Surowiecki said. “But how do you get knowledge from left of field to our decision makers?”
He said that we need to be weary of hierarchies within our organisations and particularly the tendency of staff to say exactly what the boss wants to hear.
“People withhold information or ideas for a variety of reasons,” he said. “They set low hurdles as these are easier to get over, such as longer timeframes and higher budgets, as an insurance for success.”
He said that a lot of knowledge is buried in organisations and our communities and we need to find ways to access this.
James Surowiecki said first you need a mechanism to get all the different ideas together to reach the best collective judgement.
“Diversity is vital,” he said. “People come at a problem from different angles using a variety of tools. Making your group more diverse will make it smarter. New blood, less experience and fewer preconceptions can help immensely. Experts are not always good at recognising their blind spots. An atmosphere of ‘assumed consensus’ is doomed to failure as often the right questions are never asked. Be aware of the danger of peer pressure. You need someone to play the devil’s advocate and offer up the opposite view to ensure you do get to the right answer.”
He said that independence of thought can be difficult within organisations.
“Encourage people to think for themselves,” he said. “But people tend to be herd animals and do not want to go out on a limb.”
He said that in most organisations decisions are made by small groups. People like to work with people similar to themselves, which automatically stifles diversity.
“The power of the leader needs to be considered,” James Surowiecki said. “Be sure that your organisation is not simply deferring its important decisions to authority and losing the power groupthink can deliver.”
