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June 29 - July 17, 2020
Humans can no longer afford to think in division and darkness. Collaborative intelligence is the light that is necessary for our individual and collective survival. We have no choice now but to think together.
The most significant danger our
species brings to the world is our inability to think with those who think differently.
Each and every one of them taught me that intelligence is a verb, not a noun. As with tending a garden, it requires cultivation.
Your collaborative-intelligence quotient, which we will refer to as “CQ” throughout this book, is a measure of your ability to think with others on behalf of what matters to us all.
Many of the barriers keeping us apart are actually optional, present only in our minds.
In the market-share way of thinking, value is determined by shortage—I have it and you don’t.
Wealth is created and carried by ideas and relationships more than by transactions.
When you have a good idea and I have a good idea and we exchange them, you walk away with two new ideas and I also have two new ideas. The more we share, the more we have.
A mind-share world necessitates that we learn to use influence with others rather than power over them. This
Ultimately, in a mind-share world, those who are most flexible in their thinking will be those who have the most influence.
Market share determines who is right and who is wrong. Mind share asks what is possible.
Collaborative intelligence (CQ) is a critical component of mind share, because it allows you to recognize what expertise is present and what is missing.
RATE YOUR CQ The following assessment will help you evaluate the quality of collaboration between you and the people you spend the most time with at work. It will serve as a benchmark, because we will be asking you to repeat this assessment at the conclusion of the book, to gauge what has grown between you. Instructions • Identify the five people with whom you currently spend the most time at work. • Write their names across the top of the chart below. (This chart and the other tools can be downloaded from our website: CQthebook.com.) • Next, estimate the approximate percentage of time in any
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We either grow or diminish our capacity through those people with whom we spend the most time.
Collaborative intelligence is the flow of energy and information within and between us.
you can grow. We invite you to use the quiz as a benchmark by
THE FOUR ESSENTIAL STRATEGIES OF CQ 1. Mind Patterns: Your mind pattern is the unique way that you process and respond to information. We will teach you to identify and maximize your own mind pattern and to recognize the mind patterns of others. 2. Thinking Talents: These are the specific ways of approaching challenges that energize your brain and come naturally to you. Identifying these talents and your blind spots, as well as those of your colleagues, is key to more effective collaboration. 3. Inquiry: This is the unique way that you frame questions and consider possibilities. By identifying
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One of the things that most commonly trap us is the habitual pattern of our own thinking—the limiting stories we tell ourselves about who we are and what our capacities are.
He explained to me that in a leader, no quality was more important than the ability to recognize and develop the capacity of each person, the particular way he or she brings value to the world. As I write this, his words still resonate: “Remember this secret, Dawna: Talent attracts capital far more than capital attracts talent.”
HOW DO YOU PAY ATTENTION TO ATTENTION?
1. FOCUSED ATTENTION
Your thoughts become certain and form into solid beliefs.
Concentrating on accomplishing tasks. • Decision-making. • Attending to details and timelines.
SORTING ATTENTION
subconscious state of mind,
Your thoughts wander back and forth, sorting through information, comparin...
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Trying to understand. • Digesting information or experiences. • Thinking through confusion. • Weighing multiple choices.
OPEN ATTENTION
Imagining possibilities, new ways to approach old problems. • Exploring different options by seeing things in a new way. • Associating to past experiences, stories, and people:
Our minds are constantly shifting quickly between these three states of attention—from focused to sorting to open, and from open to sorting to focused, often without our awareness. You might have experienced this when, driving on the
Your mind became like a loom, weaving different ideas in a new way, or making associative leaps between past and present. We call this way of thinking “relational logic,” because your mind is creating new connections between thoughts.
WHY DON’T WE VALUE ALL THREE STATES OF ATTENTION?
These may be indicators of different states of thinking and different ways of paying attention.
However, most of us have been taught to consider only a focused state of attention as being valuable, and we assume that sorting and open attention are a waste of time.
Thus, when our minds are confused and sorting information, we panic and reflexively attempt to use logic to “get to the point,” to focus.
We are habituated to giving answers, taking swift action, and deciding something now. However, unless we are willing to spend time not knowing, with our minds wide open in wonder, we won’t generate the kind of innovative thinking we so desperately need.
The vast majority of remaining mental activity is beneath the surface of our awareness, where our minds explore relationships and make unconscious connections. You may not think of this as “work,” but your mind is in fact working in this state of open, relational thinking.
THE THREE LANGUAGES OF THOUGHT: WHAT TRIGGERS YOUR ATTENTION TO SHIFT?
kinesthetic, auditory, and visual.
Every person uses all three elements to think. It is the sequence of kinesthetic, auditory, and visual elements that triggers your attention to first focus (1), then sort (2), and then open (3). This 1-2-3 order determines what we call your mind pattern.
Yet when we get stuck while thinking or communicating with someone else, we attribute the difficulty to a lack of capacity, a mental deficit, or a personality trait.
THE CQ PLAYBOOK
Step 1: How Do You Think?
Step 2: What Has Worked in the Past?
If you will be meeting with a person you know: Identify what has already been successful with him or her.
If you haven’t met with this person before: