Collective intelligence and the emergence of wholeness

Peggy Holman1

The trajectory of my life's work has been towards the liberation of the human spirit in the context of the whole, such that the good of the individual and the good of the collective are both well served. This embraces and reaches beyond concepts of "intelligence" and, in doing so, reframes intelligence-including collective intelligence-in terms that may better suit our 21st century challenges.

I see intelligence as having three dimensions:

• inquiring, exploring, and pattern-seeking
• learning, discovery, and pattern-naming
• knowing, answering, and pattern-providing

The products of "the intelligence community"-and much of the world of consultancy of which I have long been a part-involve the last of the three: Answers. We have information and understandings to share with those who need answers.

In this essay, I want to stress that there is much more to intelligence than that. I want to suggest that in times like ours, the quality and persistence of our inquiry is as important-or more important-than any answers we may find. While "getting lost in exploration" can be a risk, given these times of rapid change, it is deadly to treat answers as if they are final.

Systems call forth different aspects of intelligence, as needed. When everything is working fine, people who have answers are rewarded and the pioneers and questioners are pushed to the fringe. When shifts begin to happen rapidly and systems begin failing, smart people and institutions start pulling in those who are effective at challenging the status quo and asking and pursuing powerful questions. What was fringe becomes central.

Intelligence is a CAPACITY that is particularly vital now. Our new century calls on us-both individually and collectively-to become artists at creatively challenging ourselves, each other, our organizations, and our social systems. It calls on us-in the face of uncertainty and dissonance-to use ART-to ASK questions, to deepen understanding by REFLECTING the deep yearnings that we sense in others, and to TELL STORIES that matter.

As the software development manager of a cellular phone company during the early days of the industry, I had a major project on the rocks. The company had just hired a director of Total Quality. He facilitated a meeting to determine how best to proceed. I had never seen a meeting dealing with a broad range of interests and personalities coupled with a complex subject so well handled. I thought, “If I knew more about how to do that, we'd be more effective at delivering systems.” Little did I know the path I had just stepped onto following! I took responsibility for transforming the Information Technologies group into a Total Quality organization. It was 1989 and while Total Quality was well entrenched in manufacturing, we broke new ground in a service organization. Much of our success was our focus on process using a highly systemic approach. Over the next three years, we changed every aspect of what we were doing. As part of the company wide effort, we became the best in the industry by every measure-customer satisfaction, employee satisfaction, operational excellence (including an award-winning data center).

At the end of that period, I thought I knew something about change. The next change effort I tried, I instantly fell on my face. That's when my learning really took off. I was given the opportunity to find out what was happening on the leading edge of learning organizations for a 60,000 person company. It was 1993 and Peter Senge's book, The Fifth Discipline, was the rage. During that period, I was introduced to some very exciting and innovative work that engaged the people of the system in transforming their system. I was captivated. I had never before realized that it was not only possible but most effective when the good of the individual and the good of the collective are both served.

It was a turning point in my work. I became part of an emerging movement or field of study and practice which had no name, but in which tremendous knowledge of group and organizational capacity was emerging. In particular, we were developing increasingly sophisticated ways for engaging whole systems-all the stakeholders, all the parts of the organization or community-in shared exploration and creation of whatever happened next. In my pursuit to understand what made these practices effective, I was inspired to write my book, The Change Handbook, which in 1999 explored 18 methodologies for engaging whole systems.

I discovered that when these practices were most effective, they made room for individuals and the system to be and do together, connected through communication practices that no only informed the mind, but touched the heart. The latest 2007 version has expanded (as has the field) to include over 60 methodologies. The second edition sparked the “first annual” Nexus for Change2 Conference: a convergence of practitioners, leaders, activists, and scholars committed to the power of participative change methods that transform whole organizations and communities as they face 21st Century challenges.

Through my experiences and research, I realized that not only were we learning how to engage whole systems, but we were learning how to engage whole humans-head, heart, body, spirit-and our whole diversity-of race, gender, age, class, perspective, etc.-and our whole range of intelligences and expressive modalities-logic, language, art, music, dance, story, imagination, etc.-and the whole complexity of the situations and inquiries we were exploring (the more viewpoints and possibilities we creatively included, the more fully we covered the ground). We were discovering how to address highly complex, often conflicted issues and bring forth breakthroughs.

This increasingly inclusive engagement of "the whole"-on all these fronts-proved both energizing and effective. I gravitated more and more to methodologies in which our answers were not the result of following a step-wise process, but were about creating contexts in which the people of the system gave birth to novel responses. These were the exciting fruits of-and stimulation for-ONGOING engagement of our full humanity with the fullness of our situation.

That kind of holistic engagement generated breakthroughs: new relationships, new communities, new projects, new possibilities, new understandings, and new forms of organizing ourselves to accomplish meaningful purpose.

I began to favor creative ways to engage with what we don't know, what we fear and dream of, what is just out of our reach, with all sorts of Mystery and Dissonance, rich with possibilities. I wanted to engage using our full selves, together, on the risky, vulnerable, juicy leading edge where new worlds emerge. I gravitated to approaches like Open Space Technology, Appreciative Inquiry, Dialogue, World Café, and the Art of Hosting.

My own edge right now reaches beyond all these methodologies. With passionate colleagues, I am exploring what makes these processes so powerful as stimulants for emergence.

Our goal is to break free of processes and methodologies, to touch the deeper patterns they reflect to convene and host even more powerful conversations that begin to connect us in community at increasing levels of scale.

Arising out of the dissonant, broken wholeness we see all around us, we have the potential to evolve into ever more life-serving wholeness for each and every one of us and the organizations, communities, and societies in which we live and work. At the heart of this exploration is EMERGENCE, that learning edge of evolution where useful, juicy novelty appears.

People who use emergent processes discover

• Wisdom within themselves;
• Connections to one another;
• Respect for their differences;
• Power through sharing stories; and
• Capacities for bringing dreams to life.

Keys to Emergence3

After years of witnessing remarkable transitions from fear, hopelessness, and conflict to renewal, commitment, and action, I perceived a pattern that provides a pathway from chaos to coherence. It has dramatically shifted how I do this work. Two catalytic actions start the process:

• Welcoming disturbances using powerful, life-affirming questions
• Inviting the diverse mix of people who care to explore the unknown.

Transformational change often begins with looming crisis, fear, conflict, and despair. This often creates a belief that any action, particularly when it involves complex issues and people in conflict, will lead to chaos, breakdown and a situation that is out of control.

What would it mean if the people involved could get curious about the unknown, to re-cast it through a lens of hope, dreams, desires and possibilities? While, either creates "disturbances" that indicate something new wants to emerge, the capacity to act increases dramatically when a glimmer of possibility shines through. Turmoil is a gateway to creativity and innovation. Just as seeds root in rich, dark soil, so does transformational change require the darkness of the unknown. Being receptive to not knowing takes courage.

Powerful Questions

Asking unconditionally positive questions at such times can overcome fear, uncertainty and doubt-questions like these World Café classics:

"What question, if answered, would serve us all well in this situation?"

"What could our community, our organization also be?"

They reframe problems as possibilities, focusing attention on what matters and bound the territory to explore, reducing the feeling of losing control. They also provide a powerful attractor for inviting the diverse mix of caring people into exploring the unknown. The greater the diversity, the more divergent the exploration is likely to be. The wider the divergence, the greater the possibility something unexpected will emerge.

Figure . Emergence: Moving from Chaos to Coherence

Passion

Entering the unknown with appreciative questions liberates individuals and connects the collective to itself. Inviting people to follow what has heart and meaning elicits the unexpected. It is a remarkable gift, asking each person to look within their own place of mystery.

Furthermore, paradoxically, as people follow their own callings, a new sense of connection to each other surfaces, the group becomes more whole.

Differences seem less divisive, more beneficial. As the group collectively reflects, as they are witnesses for each other's stories, the connections to each other grow even stronger. And something more difficult to name begins to happen-the same ideas, themes, experiences, and inquiries begin to show up in widely diverse conversations.

These are the signals of emergence-the hidden tensions and coalescences that are finally surfacing into conscious awareness- recognizable because they show up and resonate so clearly in different parts of the same group. People sense a connection to something that defies description, a feeling of being part of a larger whole, a whole that is often much larger than the group itself. This felt sense of emergence has at its core the discovery that what is deeply personal, what means most to us individually is also universal. The discovery is palpable. The collective comes alive as new ideas and relationships emerge. We experience our connection to the "whole" filling us with excitement and energy, as a new coherent clarity emerges.

Personal and collective meaning converge into coherent, clear intentions. New ideas, insights, leaders, and structures naturally emerge. Action is often swift and effective. There is no need for consensus as clear intention focuses the field for action. There is no need to "enroll" others as people enroll themselves taking responsibility for what they individually and collectively love. The threads that connect people weave a powerful web of community. Ideas travel the web, sometimes achieving dramatic breakthroughs. Other times, changes surface months or years later as they travel the indirect pathways of new network connections. Parenthetically, this network frequently extends to those who didn't attend the event, who "catch" the spirit of the experience.

Emergent Conversations

Emergence! This is the stuff that new worlds are made of. The fact that it is so thrilling, so centered on what matters to us-to each and every one of us-is such a blessing from the universe! It is attraction to a purpose that calls to us, that has heart and meaning and draws us in. Once there, it is the magic of powerful conversational methodologies and high quality hosting or facilitation that can provide the environment for something useful to occur.

Generative conversations are clearly a forum for exercising collective intelligence in all its manifestations. But, perhaps more important, through iterations of powerful conversations, groups have the potential to move beyond collective intelligence to form “social organisms” that think, feel, sense, and operate through the unique capabilities of their members in loose-knit connection into a whole that is bound by commitment to common purpose. Knowledge of process, application of powerful conversational and whole-systems methodologies, and further research and development to understand the nature of how emergent conversation can support us in growing resilient organizations and communities and to take such capacities to scale-these are critical factors, too often overlooked by busy actors in business, community-building, governance, activism, sustainability, and all other forms of proactive human engagement. It is time to change that.

The Challenge and the Potential of Emergent Practices

Perhaps the most common block to using emergent processes is that it is virtually impossible to know the specific forms outcomes will take. This is because, emergence, by definition, involves the unknown. What lessens the risk and increases the likelihood of success is the clarity of intention guiding the work.

This powerful combination-direction established with a question that focuses intention coupled with openness to the unknown-creates a dynamic tension ripe for emergence. While it can be a leap of faith to believe great results come without defining the specific outcomes, if you want breakthroughs, a broad and deep delving into passion and purpose almost always far exceeds any pre-determined outcomes. Those who ultimately choose this route often do so because they are stuck but realize that continuing to act in the same way won't produce the fundamentally re-generative results they seek.

The Evolution of What Emerges

A group's diversity, an event's duration, and ongoing experience shape the nature of what unfolds. In short homogenous events, new ideas, relationships, and connections can be made. Two days and increased diversity can generate breakthrough ideas pursued by self-organized teams. Longer events often provide glimpses of the ongoing pattern of emergent leadership and structures. With multiple experiences, the pattern is internalized, emergence becomes a practice, a part of the culture, and can even be institutionalized: Experiments in self-managed teams in organizations and citizen committees in communities frequently emerge. When embraced as an ongoing practice, people organize themselves following inspiration and commitment to form vital and robust communities of practice. Structures emerge to fit the context. New forms of governance are required when leaders are those who attract followers by taking responsibility for what they love as an act of service to the well-being of the whole.

The more we develop the capacity for riding the waves of mystery that open to emergence, the more leadership emerges everywhere. Individuals, guided by their heads and hearts, act as "free agents." They speak from their full voices. When that voice resonates with others, as if some universal Truth were spoken, people follow. What IS a leader after all, but someone who speaks a truth so compellingly it inspires others to join them? When this opportunity is widely available, a powerful and fluid field of leadership emerges in the collective.

And when we collectively take responsibility for what we love, there is an unaccustomed openness in which our connections to each other form a "resonant network"; I and you become we. In truth, we are always connected. When we act from inner connection, we open to each other, and that connection is visible. In this web of community, people are more alive and effective, sharing their gifts with each other. They easily find others who care about the same things they do. The tension between the needs of each individual and the needs of the collective dissipate. We are in coherence. If one voice is dissonant, it no longer fragments the group. Instead, through attractive, appreciative questions and high-quality reflection, it is understood and integrated for the good of the whole.

When coherence is sustained, through continually tapping our sense of connection, the ripples are powerful. Newfound trust develops as breakthroughs in ideas, solutions, and relationships support both planned and emerging action. There is a greater willingness to be flexible. A virtuous cycle of ideas, connections and actions feed into even more exciting ideas, connections and actions.

So it seems to me that at its best, collective intelligence is always moving towards the verge, towards the edge of what we don't know. Collective intelligence doesn't stop working. The questions that are most alive are the ones that we don't yet have answers to. In the process of continually seeking answers to our questions together, we not only find answers, but find new means of seeking and new directions to explore, new questions to ask. This whole process is one of emergence. The trajectory is through continual differentiation and uniqueness (as we become more fully and visibly ourselves), through continuous complexity and ordered patterns (as we discover coherences that take in more of reality), and through new ways of becoming aware, looking both inward and outward, into and beyond what first caught our attention.

The process carries us from our individual and collective assumptions, positions and certainties, through the actual complexity and mystery that we face, into new understandings and possibilities we never dreamed of, to embody more of The Whole. It is a journey from simplicity through complexity to a wiser, more whole simplicity on the other side. It is something that, ultimately, we can only do together, interacting, finding our wisdom emerging through the frictions between our differences and the pressure of what wants to be born working its way through everything we are and see, fully shared, as we awaken together into a new Common Sense-and then move on..

1 Peggy Holman convenes conversations that matter using generative processes that call forth the best of who people are and can be to unleash the energy and wisdom to move dreams to action, resulting in more resilient, agile, collaborative and alive people and systems. The second edition of her book, The Change Handbook (Berrett-Koehler, 2007), has been warmly received as an aid to people in reinventing their organizations and communities. Peggy has an MBA from Seattle University. See www.opencirclecompany.com.

2 See www.nexusforchange.com for the continual unfolding of the inquiry around how these practices can serve the well-being of organizations, communities and social systems as a whole.

3 You can read more about emergence in two articles on my website:

http://www.opencirclecompany.com/From Chaos to Coherence.pdf

http://www.opencirclecompany.com/DynamicsOfEmergence.pdf

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