Collaborative Intelligence
Think you might want to read this book?
Ever wonder how your mind works on its own and/or with others? If you answered yes, boy are you in luck! Dawna Markova and Angie McArthur have written Collaborative Intelligence with you in mind. You will learn about the kinesthetic, visual and auditory patterns of thinking, how to put forth the best thinking for different situations, and understand the Inquiry Compass. In addition to the intellectual journey, this is a great read for anyone looking to get optimal work from a group.
What Would Socrates Ask?
What is the biggest obstacle to effective collaborative thinking at your school?
What is one goal your leadership team could accomplish within the next year?
What if we changed the phrase “pay attention” to “give attention”?
Concepts
CQ- Collaborative-Intelligence Quotient: a measure of your ability to think with others on behalf of what matters to us all.
The IQ of a group can actually drop by more than 30 percent compared to the IQ of individuals in the group.
The Four Essential Strategies of CQ
Mind Patterns: your mind pattern is the unique way that you process and respond to information. Identify and maximize your own mind pattern and to recognize the mind patterns of others.
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.
Inquiry: This is the unique way that you frame questions and consider possibilities. By identifying your own preferences, as well as the styles of those around you, you open yourself to widening your perspective and become a better thinking partner.
Mind Share: Mind share encompasses the mindset shift required to generate alignment within your team. Aim your individual and collective attention, intention, and imagination in order to create this.
Metacognition: using the inherent capacity of the mind to notice itself and how it works.
Alone Together: In spite of astounding new technologies that appear to make communication easier, we are still not connecting in ways that support true collaboration. We are merely thinking “alone together,” as social scientist Sherry Turkle said, and many people feel more frenzied and isolated than ever before.
Thinking Talents: Thinking talents are your natural way of approaching challenges.
Three Kinds of Inquiry: The first type is success-based inquiry; you access your own wisdom by focusing on what has worked in the past. Second is intentional inquiry; when you feel lost, overwhelmed, and confused in your thinking, it helps. The third, influential inquiry, helps when you feel disconnected or ineffective in your own thinking or with others.
Quotes from the author
“When somebody does not respond to us verbally, when he stares out the window, juggles, or paces, we often assume he is not “paying attention.” This is not necessarily true. These may be indicators of different states of thinking and different ways of paying attention.”
“...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.”
“Some people have difficulty identifying their thinking talents, because as a society we have been conditioned to focus attention on fixing our deficits rather than maximizing our strengths.”
“A quadrant where you habitually do not ask questions qualifies as a blind spot. For example, someone may repeatedly ask you how you are feeling (relational) but never ask about your future plans (innovative). As with cognitive styles, knowing your blind spots can be extremely helpful in expanding your ability to inquire.”
“If we weren’t already doing it this way, is this how we would do it?”
“Making the transition from market-share to mind-share thinking requires activating all the intellectual capital available to us. We have been trained, however, to foster self-sufficiency, individual competence, and independence.”
Quotes from others
“Each mind has its own method.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson
“The next great leader will be a diverse team. People who want to operate as the hero-who-knows-everything will either change or become extinct.” - Al Carey
“The power to question is the basis of all human progress.” - Indira Gandhi
“The fact that we are different doesn’t mean that one of us is wrong. It just means that there’s a different kind of right.” - Faith Jegede
Referenced books with the potential to impact leading and learning in education
The applicability of this book to education is ….
Resources
