Collaborative Intelligence and

Collaborative Learning

Many people these days give social networking a try either because they

hope it will somehow raise their marketing or public relations profile — or

because they’ve been told they should and they find that they enjoy the fun

and fascination of it all. These motivations have their place, whether you’re a

business entrepreneur or just someone looking for casual leisure, but social

entrepreneurs need to get into social networking because doing so is a great

way to make good use of collaborative intelligence.

Collaborative intelligence — the cumulative problem-solving power of a group

of people working together toward the same goal — can help solve very dif-

ficult, seemingly intractable social problems. Collaborative intelligence is the

result of collaborative learning, the enhanced ability of a group to discover,

absorb, and share information.

Committing to collaborative learning

Social entrepreneurs who commit to collaborative learning through their

social networks find that their profile is, indeed, raised and that they can

have fun and be fascinated along the way along, too.

 So how do you start collaboratively learning? To create an atmosphere in your

social enterprise that’s conducive to collaborative learning, keep the following

principles in mind as you go:

 ✓ Commit to change and enjoy the process of changing.

 ✓ Recruit diversity of opinion and thought.

 ✓ Make space for candid, respectful, and thoughtful communication.

 ✓ Always respect confidentiality.

 ✓ Value and obtain consensus and respect the role of compromise.

 ✓ Develop a shared vision and mission with your collaborators.

 ✓ Aim for clearly identified and doable outcomes, make specific action

plans, and clarify roles.