The complexity of organizational contexts, the tsunami of information that suffocates us, the need to innovate and the continuous changes that occur in the environment, require tools for analysis and decision-making of a higher level than the traditional ones. Therefore, it is necessary to use intellectual resources capable of handling this complexity, which is overwhelming for the isolated individual. The action must be based, then, on the group synergy that can produce the necessary qualitative leap.
In the same way that our brain generates ideas through the interconnection of multiple functional areas that are manifested outwards as a single organ, the team is called to unite their minds through work methodologies that optimize their capacity. Through them, it is possible to open breaches in disciplinary barriers, soften egos and exchange the defense of individual positions for a frank pursuit of the common goal.
For a long time, we have techniques that are suitable for building group thinking. These are well-known but little-used tools that allow information to be processed in such a way that individual contributions undergo imperceptible transformations along the way, to finally become a collective idea of greater magnitude to which no one dares to assign authorship. precise. Perhaps for that reason, everyone is usually willing to accept it willingly.
The funny thing is that these tools are designed to work from the intuitive, enhancing the creativity and innovation of the participants beyond what seems obvious. Because only from there is it possible to expand our conscious capacity outside the limiting scope of our rationality, to deal effectively with the complexity that surrounds us. Intuition guides us and, step by step, validates the elaboration in a way that no other mental instrument is capable of achieving.
Of course, the intuitive is seen as opposed to the rational and, consequently, it tends to generate great mistrust at management levels, who have been taught to handle numbers almost exclusively. For them, the application of these dynamics is perceived as a waste of time. We lack training in how to combine the best of both worlds - represented by our two brain hemispheres - and we tend to discard this procedure in our organizations because we are unable to understand its importance.
Some of the most valuable tools of this type are simple “trial and error” estimation mechanisms, which are used to channel individual sensations that, by themselves, could not have a precise expression: the cause and effect diagram (Ishikawa), the brainstorming, the affinity diagram, multi-vote techniques, transfer of ideas, matrix diagrams, the “house of quality” of the QFD technique (Quality Function Deployment) and so many others that, in whole or in part, they do nothing more than guide the team's intuition along paths capable of providing innovative solutions to take advantage of our best opportunities.
In particular, almost all of these tools rely on the human being's ability to appreciate proportions within a certain range of variability, to which specific values can easily be assigned (for example, the famous "80-20" by Vilfredo Pareto). With these values we can then operate comfortably to obtain tentative conclusions with a certain degree of "objectivity".
It is a serious mistake to minimize the importance of such instruments, but the most serious mistake is to do so only because we have not taken the trouble to understand their meaning and to train people in the proper techniques.
The application of the neuropsychological principles on which these techniques are based can help us to develop dozens of novel and useful applications for different purposes, thanks to which we can continue to raise our goals. The motivational effect they exert is great, as long as we are faithful to the purposes and professional when it comes to pursuing them. A team armed with these tools cannot lose.
As leaders, you need to understand these facts to their fullest extent. The challenged minds of a collective can produce knowledge of the highest quality, if you know how to harmonize them and you can focus your energy. Why belittle that wealth? The information shared within a motivated team is transformed into the best possible knowledge, that which leads to effective action within an ethical framework. Anything else leads to the situations that we are used to seeing in our societies and it does not seem like an attitude that future generations would be willing to applaud.
But, how to generate, in the members of a team, the necessary attitude to connect their minds in the construction of collective directions? It is a tremendous challenge to replace the rules of classic individual performance with others, openly opposed, that allow achieving mental synergy, alignment of wills and organizational learning, thanks to true teamwork.
This requires something more than a timid intention or a speech that announces a new improvement project, because paradigms turned into habits are not transformed from the intellectual, however brilliant it may be. The substitution of paradigms can only occur from concrete action, because it is our entire organism that must undergo the changes so that they are accepted and recorded in our cellular memory.
For this reason, the creation of a collective intelligence within the team will only be possible as a consequence of the combined activity of the minds that compose it, as long as the bi-leader is able to put himself in front of him to firmly lead the required cultural change.
