From IQ to WeQ - The Secret of Swarm Intelligence

2016, September 8th

Do you sometimes have the impression that you are a lone bird in a cage? And do you desire to rise freely into the air and to be in cooperation withyour swarm?

In the first part of this blog topic you experienced why we may leave the illusion of being a lone warrior and leverage cooperation, in order to come to meaningful and innovative solutions for the challenges of our business world and finally implement them. From IQ to WeQ - Part 1

In this second part of the blog topic I invite you to spread your wings and to elevate to new levels together with your colleagues as a cooperative swarm.

How are we going to do this?

I’m convinced, if we would like to understand complex phenomena and problems and if we desire to find major solutions, we need to widen our perspective and perception.

Nefiodoff¹ describes the shift from the “Either-Or“ - Logic towards the “As-Well-As“ – Behavior as a criterion for the transition from the 5^th to the 6^thKondratiev. ”As-Well-As“- Behavior doesn’t mean to accept a weak compromise, but to create really new and higher solutions.

An coaching- and consulting- example from my practice: The General Manager of a leading pharma company engaged me to evaluate the results of a critical employee survey.

We discussed reasons and solution approaches. At one point she asked me impatiently: ”What is the right thing to do – option A or option B?” I calmly looked at her and said only 3 words: “As-Well-As”. For one moment she was appalled and speechless and there was magnified silence in the room. Then a smile lightened up her face. Now I knew, that the mind shift had taken place. We now could work on bigger solutions by integrating both options. Brilliant, this is one of the moments, which I love so much about my work.

This also means not to polarize male and female success strategies² or even play off and fight against each other, but to integrate them in the “As-Well-As” sense. For an instance goal-orientation and a good inter-connection doesn’t mutually exclude each other. It’s a good way to first integrate the male and female parts within ourselves, the animus and anima principle. Therefore we complete ourselves and are able to use both qualities according to our daily business needs by applying them in a focused and flexible way.
Thus I experience in my Team Workshops again and again, that particularly the combination of logical-analytical solutions with intuitively created solutions lead to major meaningful solutions.

What does that mean for team developments and cooperation?

Friedrich Glasl³ shows impressively in his teambuilding model that ”High Performing Teams” are not the end of the story. He goes one step further with the “Reforming Teams”.

What is the difference?

Like described in the 1st part of the blog topic Performing Teams are highly capable and motivated teams. From IQ to WeQ - Part 1

But there are barriers sometimes bordering on a “we are better and more important“ -arrogance towards other teams within the organization, also called silo-thinking. Coming back to the metaphor about the body from part 1 of this article: Can you imagine the lung telling the heart: “I’m more important than you are!“?

Reforming Teams work efficiently together with other teams by connecting fast and effectively with people outside the team. They are flexible and versatile. They build creatively new constellations, what is the prerequisite for organizations in the transformation process.

We need strong individuals, who build Reforming Teams, in order to develop major solutions on a higher level and in order to commonly transform our organizations.

Strong Individuals! Reforming Teams! Transforming Organizations!

How does the collaboration work in Reforming Teams?

Peter Spiegel⁴ calls the mega-trend summarizing past and future developments of We-qualities as WeQ compared to I-qualities, which are expressed with the intelligence quotient IQ.

WeQ is another quantum leap in the evolvement of human capabilities. The intelligence of our brain isn’t based on the single nerve cells, but on the way and flexibility how they are cross-linked with each other. Imagine what even would be possible, if we connect more effectively with other brains?

Looking at our current challenges as individuals, organizations and humanity we quickly see that we need a new understanding of connectivity. Examples in nature like ant colonies, mycelium and swarms of fish or birds raise the question if there is an interconnection between separate beings or if it’s one being. We also call it swarm intelligence.

Internet and economic globalization have anticipated what we now need to follow with our consciousness.

Current examples are open space, co-laboration in Reforming Teams, urban gardening, car-sharing, innovation by design thinking, brain-googling, social business, cross-functional competitive simulations and disruptive innovation and more to come…

Let’s create a lot more!

How do you live cooperation and WeQ-qualities within your organization?

I’m curious and like to learn more about your innovative approaches.

Annette Freund

FREUND INSPIRED MOVE

Annette Freund is Founder and Managing Director of the consulting company FREUND INSPIRED MOVE in Switzerland. She is inspired by change processes: Strong Individuals! Reforming Teams! Transforming Organizations!

She provides her services in German and English speaking environments.

www.inspiredmove.ch

Inspired by:

¹Leo Nefiodow – The sixth Kondratiev

²Veit Lindau – Human Trust Coaching Community

³Friedrich Glasl – Trigon Entwicklungsberatung

⁴Peter Spiegel –WeQ more than IQ