The Power of Collective Wisdom

Alan Briskin and Sheryl Erickson 2009
Read: 2014
Education/Leadership, Non-Fiction

I read The Wisdom of Crowds a few years back. It told of the mathematical wisdom of crowds. Give enough people a chance to have input, and the right answer emerges. It’s why democracy works … most of the time. The average guess of thousands of people regarding the number of marbles in a jar will best expert marble counter people … whoever they are.

This book has similar ideas, but it focuses on leadership. The authors begin with a focus on listening. That evolves into total presence, so that you understand both what is being said and what is not being said. They speak of understand group consciousness and using that to raise the group to a new level. There is a lot of good in this book, and there is some that is pretty far out there. They never use the phrase “May the Force be with you,” but if I’m listening correctly, even though it wasn’t said, it was said.