“For associations to make better decisions and fewer mistakes, they need to embrace the idea of collective intelligence.” Lior Zoref, a researcher and author of Mindsharing: The Art of Crowdsourcing Everything
At the recent ASAE Great Ideas Conference, two main stage speakers pushed association leaders to prioritize diversity to create better workplaces and foster creative decision-making. While the primary focus of their presentation was on leading through diversity and inclusion, collective intelligence can be applied to any aspect of your organization’s operations.
It’s no secret that when you work with a group to solve a problem, the outcome is usually better than if you go at it alone. However, we still find many businesses and organizations where decisions are made from the top down where the CEO or C suite executive is the one making the decision. Many times, this is due to pushing the easy button and simply doing things like they’ve been done for years. Other times it’s simply that management is scared of what they might find out if they listen to others and that it may come with an entirely new set of issues.
At Dynamic Benchmarking, we get the statement all the time from clients that their members want the data, but when it comes time for them to share their data they shy away and don’t submit it. We believe what Torin Perez said at the conference rings very true in all aspects of moving a company forward when it comes to utilizing collective intelligence. “Leaders must learn to “be comfortable with being uncomfortable” and move from owning their intentions to owning their impact.”
Collective data is a key aspect to making better decisions. How can one do better if they have nothing to compare to? And how can they do better if they are only comparing themselves to like organizations? We as an industry must take a leap of faith and lead our members to do better when it comes to collective thinking not only with diversity and inclusion but in all aspects of our operations.
We encourage you to read the entire Associations Now article on HOW DIVERSITY LEADS TO STRONGER LEADERS AND BETTER DECISIONS.