Collaborative Intelligence: Thinking with People Who Think Differently

by Dawna Markova

You can get overwhelmed by too much conversation. • You’re very sensitive to tones of voice.

KVA 1. Focused FOCUSED THINKING To Trigger Concentration: KINESTHETIC 2. Sorting SORTING THINKING To Trigger Sorting: AUDITORY 3. Open OPEN THINKING To Trigger Imagination: VISUAL Easiest Way to Learn 1. Experience 2. Hear 3. See

Wants to unite dissimilar elements.

Frustrations May have difficulty expressing feelings in words. “Spaces Out” With long verbal explanations.

BREAKTHROUGH PRACTICE: SHIFTING FROM STUCK TO THINKING FREE

By simply asking yourself, “Where am I free?” rather than focusing on where you are stuck, you shift your attention from stuck to free, from closed to open.

Mind patterns are important for recognizing the diversity of how people think, learn, and communicate.

Focused attention: Helps you accomplish tasks, attend to details and timelines. Sorting attention: Helps you digest information and think through confusion. Open attention: Helps you imagine possibilities and innovate.

There are three languages of thought: visual, kinesthetic (hands-on), and auditory.

CQ PLAYBOOK

CQ CHECKLIST Click here to download a PDF of CQ Checklist

Fixing implies that something is broken, and I think of people as unfinished works of art rather than broken machines—but

Leaders who understand and maximize the different ways that people process information are more prepared to inspire, empower, and meld the diverse intellectual assets within their organizations.

USING THE CQ PLAYBOOK WITH TEAMS

Step 5: What Adjustments Can We Make? Summarize the feedback above and ask people what they would stop, start, and continue to make their meetings more effective.

twenty-minute walk around the hotel grounds and use their smartphones to take three photographs: one representing the collective vision they wanted to achieve in six months, one representing that vision realized in a year, and the last of that vision realized in five years.

BREAKTHROUGH PRACTICE: USING MULTI-SENSORY TEAM PROCESSES TO GENERATE IDEAS Musical Brainstorm • Play classical music (or any music without lyrics) for a few minutes while team members think about a particular issue as they sit still or walk around. When the music ends, have people write as many ideas as they can on Post-its. • Ask people to share their ideas as they post them. Host a standing conversation about the questions: “What are we all saying? What are we all asking?”

Idea generation

The Mural • Ask team members to think in silence of a metaphor that describes what the team is trying to accomplish (this could be a vision, a new product, etc.). Have them stand around a long piece of paper that covers the wall like a mural. Have them speak about their metaphors as they draw them as best as they can. Have a discussion about the common themes and meaning.

The Pizza • Cover round tables with blank paper. Divide the paper with a marker into pizza “slices,” based on the number of team members. If there are more than six people, use two tables. Ask one person to be timekeeper. Each person then chooses a slice and, when the timekeeper says “Go,” writes down as many ideas as possible about the topic. After two minutes, move one space to the left. In the next two minutes, read what the person before you wrote and add to it. Continue reading/writing until you have been to all places. • Ask the group to complete the following: “What I learned was …” “What surprised me was …” “What inspired me was …”

Learnt surprised inspired

What was needed was the simple awareness that what worked for some people didn’t necessarily work for others.

perfect example of how understanding intellectual diversity can dissolve internal tensions, not only creating a better working environment for everyone involved but also directly translating to the bottom line.

Having simple awareness of how you are affecting another can give you the necessary clues to adjust. Most often we think of the content we are communicating, not how we are communicating it.

there are four different “cognitive styles”—preferred ways of knowing and approaching problems: analytic, procedural, relational, and innovative.

Thinking talents are your natural ways of approaching challenges, ways that increase your mental energy.

You get natural joy and energy from using your thinking talents, and you don’t burn out.

Equalizing “Is everyone being treated fairly?” Needs balance and to know that people are being treated in the same way;

Goal-Setting “What can I accomplish today?” Has daily drive to accomplish something and meet a goal. Every day starts at zero and must achieve something tangible.

Innovation “How can this be done differently?” Loves to create new processes or products; easily bored with routine. Energized by never having done it before.

Love of Learning “What can I learn next?” Drawn always to the process more than the content of learning; energized by the journey from ignorance to competence. The outcome is less important than what is learned.

Mentoring “What can help others grow?” Sees potential in others; every person is a work in progress; goal is to help others achieve success; searches for signs of growth in others.

Precision “How can I order this chaos?” The world needs to be predictable; imposes structure, sets up routines, timelines, and deadlines; needs to feel in control; dislikes surprises; impatient with errors. Control is a way of maintaining progress and productivity.

Thinking Ahead “Wouldn’t it be great if … ?” Fascinated by the future. Describes a detailed future that pulls him or her forward;

DISCOVERING YOUR COGNITIVE STYLE To discover your preferred way of thinking through a challenge, simply circle the talents you have on the map that follows. You can also access this map online at CQthebook.com/map to print and use.

Talents map

THINKING-TALENTS MAP

DISCOVERING YOUR BLIND SPOTS Equally important as knowing your mind’s sweet spots—the talents you have, the talents that are hidden, and how they combine—is recognizing your mind’s blind spots, which are the talents you lack.

“Being a CEO and being a coach both require you to understand the different qualities of each player’s potential so you can help grow and activate it.

‘Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can. Measure yourself not by what you have accomplished, but by what you could have accomplished with your ability.’ ” I

Quote

He recognized each person’s potential and developed it while creating an environment of pure collaboration and excellence. That’s what I want to do as the CEO of this company. That’s what I want you to help me do.”

you pulled your team forward when they had to make that presentation for the board by matching each person with what he or she is best at and then letting them work together like fingers on a hand. You let them take the credit while you stood in the back of the room. That’s leadership at its best.”

name a ‘moment of greatness’ for yourself or allow anyone else to do it either. If you aren’t aware specifically of the talents you bring to the game, how can you ever develop them to serve others? That’s not self-promotion or selfishness.

MoMent of greatness

author Parker Palmer says, good stewardship of the gifts you were put on earth to offer.”

one of my thinking talents obviously is mentoring,

he knew he had an ability to recognize and develop greatness in people, unlike the rest of the senior leaders in the company.

he could fix any problem a customer had.

“Mentoring” in the palm and “Fixing It” on top of the index finger.

Mentor

“Get to Action,” “Optimism,” and “Storytelling” on the other three fingers.

Not only did this enable Nick to get support in tasks that were typically laborious for him, it also freed him up to use his relational thinking talents to mentor others.

true “connective tissue” for the other leaders, because, like the sports teams he admired, everyone knew how to be of real support to one another in achieving a common goal.

Which thinking talents do you habitually use? • Which of your thinking talents are hidden as shadow attributes waiting to be developed? • What are your blind spots? • Which quadrant is causing you the most worry? THINKING TALENTS—WHAT LIGHTS YOU UP/WHAT BURNS YOU OUT?

TALENT Focusing LIGHTS YOU UP • Uninterrupted freedom to concentrate on a goal with timelines. • Keeping others on point. BURNS YOU OUT • Being interrupted or having to multitask. • When purpose, task, deadlines are not clearly defined or understood.