Collective intelligence is simply a phenomenon that describes the knowledge and insights that are distributed across an organization, which when aggregated become extraordinarily useful to leaders and decision-makers. Research in the field clearly shows that we’re better when we work and think together… or that two heads are better than one. The matter of fact is that employee knowledge extends well beyond what is asked in the somewhat limited (albeit useful) engagement surveys many organizations use today.   

Many organizations want to understand how collective intelligence can be used and how to get started. This post will help with that. We’ve built a simple platform that helps companies activate and use the collective intelligence of employees and take advantage of the many benefits that it provides. The best part is that collective intelligence already exists within the company, it’s all about beginning to mobilize it. 

Read along for four highlighted benefits of using collective intelligence and Mindpool.

1. Mindpool helps you predict performance using collective intelligence
 

We live in an ever-changing world, where being agile and ready for change is key. Using collective intelligence to tackle uncertainty is beneficial as it allows companies to take a look at the current and future performance of the company with speed and accuracy. In other words, Mindpool helps harness quantitative predictions from employees that relate to performance. These predictions help answer how the company will perform over time.

To elaborate, employees can help provide perspective and understanding based on how they perceive the organization is set to perform over the next few months. As an organization, you can instantly discover what departments predict better or worse performance as well as understand the aggregated firm outlook. By asking employees to predict how they believe the company will perform, decision-makers are able to very quickly receive new insights from employees based on their experience, intuition, and insight.
 

2. Mindpool helps you harness unique employee insights 
 

To support and explain the above predictions from employees, Mindpool helps organizations tap into the business insights that correlate to these positive or negative predictions. In other words, Mindpool provides direct access to qualitative insights that help explain predicted performance. These insights help answer why the company will perform as predicted and what issues or opportunities exist. Essentially, Mindpool provides direct access to curated 

insights from employees.      

 A good metaphor for knowledge in organizations is an iceberg. The top of the iceberg represents the knowledge that organizations have access to today. This only represents a worrying 10% of the combined knowledge in an organization. It is often referred to as explicit knowledge, which is most often spread throughout organizations via traditional formats such as reports, powerpoints, presentations, budgets, etc. 

The bottom of the iceberg - the other 90% - is tacit (hidden) knowledge, which includes all of the combined insights, intuition, and experience that exist in the organization. Remember, employees, are often the first to sense threats and opportunities through their daily interactions with customers, colleagues, and other stakeholders. Nevertheless, this layer of knowledge is notoriously hard to access.

Mindpool uses research-backed methods and new technology to help organizations tap into this knowledge.

3. Mindpool helps you discover suggested actions from employees
 

When we help organizations access the collective knowledge of employees, we also ask questions that inspire employees to share ideas and actions that can help improve performance. It is critical that employees are empowered to provide inputs and solutions, not just insights. These suggested actions are based on inputs from the employees that know the organization, the market, and the customers better than anyone else. Ultimately, employees are given the opportunity to both give insights (points 1. and 2.), but also to contribute with concrete solutions. 

With such actionable suggestions, it becomes seamless for the organization to start looking into ways to improve and what has to be acted upon. Ultimately, taking action and advantage of the strategic resource that is collective intelligence, it will allow for the company to get ahead in the competition.

56% of frontline employees have valuable insights to give, want to be heard, and have actionable suggestions for improving company practices. 43% have feedback that could potentially cut costs.
 

4. Collective intelligence enables employee engagement and inclusion 
 

It can be a challenge (sometimes!) to include the incredible diversity in your company. From research, we know that inclusion and diversity can be a competitive advantage. It allows airing perspectives and ideas that can prove to be highly valuable. According to McKinsey & Company, research suggests that companies with a high level of inclusion and diversity are more likely to have financial returns above their national industry medians (Hunt, V. et al., 2015).

Furthermore, 80% of millennials say inclusion is important when choosing an employer. Yet, 34% do not feel they are heard and more than two-thirds believe employees are asking the wrong questions to employees. That means that if companies want to attract talent, they have to prioritize their employees.

Take advantage of all the benefits

We’ve outlined the four benefits of Mindpool and collective intelligence and we hope it has sparked an interest. If you’re ready to get started and tap into the knowledge of your employees, do not hesitate to reach out to us here. We can’t wait to help you tap into the collective intelligence of your company and enable faster and better decision-making.

Sources: 

Bonner, D. (2000) Knowledge from theory to practice to a golden opportunity, ASTD, pp. 12-13

Hunt, V. et al., (2015). Why diversity matters, McKinsey & Company.

N/A. (2019). Unleashing the power of inclusion. Deloitte.

Reeves, M. (2020). How to thrive in the 2020s, BCG.

You've just read a blog post from Mindpool - a platform that helps you harness the collective intelligence of employees. Mindpool taps into the knowledge of employees to provide actionable predictions and curated insights. Mindpool is rooted in decades of research in collective intelligence. Read more from our resource universe or contact us here if you'd like to tap into your employees' valuable knowledge.