Collaborative Intelligence

Collaborative Intelligence Plot Summary

Introduction

In our increasingly complex and interconnected world, the ability to think with others who think differently has become not just valuable but essential. Despite technological advances that allow us to communicate instantly across the globe, many of us struggle to truly collaborate effectively. We misread people, miscommunicate with them, and often fail to access the full range of intelligence that exists between us, not just within us. Collaborative intelligence, or CQ, represents our ability to think with others on behalf of what matters to all. It involves recognizing and dignifying our cognitive differences, then using them to face complex challenges together. As we transition from a "market-share" mentality that values scarcity and individual expertise to a "mind-share" approach that leverages collective wisdom, we need new strategies for harnessing our diverse thinking styles. The four essential strategies explored in this work—mind patterns, thinking talents, inquiry, and mind share—provide practical frameworks for accessing and amplifying our collaborative potential, enabling us to create breakthrough solutions to our most pressing problems.

Chapter 1: Mind Patterns: How Different Brains Process Information

Mind patterns represent the unique ways our brains process and respond to information. Each of us has distinct preferences for how we take in data from the world around us, how we organize it internally, and how we express our thoughts. Understanding these patterns illuminates why some people seem to click instantly while others struggle to communicate effectively, even when discussing the same topic. At the core of mind patterns are three states of attention that our brains cycle through: focused attention (for concentrating on tasks), sorting attention (for processing information), and open attention (for creative thinking and imagination). While Western culture has traditionally valued focused attention, all three states are essential for effective thinking. Our minds constantly shift between these states, often without our awareness, as we metabolize information—taking it in, organizing, digesting, evaluating, eliminating, arranging, storing, and expressing it. What triggers these shifts differs for each person and involves three "languages of thought": visual (seeing), auditory (hearing), and kinesthetic (feeling/doing). For some, visual input triggers focused attention, while for others, it might spark open, creative thinking. Your mind pattern is determined by the specific sequence of these elements that helps you shift from focused to sorting to open attention. For example, someone with a VAK pattern focuses best with visual input, sorts information by talking or listening, and accesses creativity through movement or physical sensation. There are six distinct mind patterns (VAK, VKA, KAV, KVA, AVK, AKV), each representing a different sequence of processing information. By identifying your pattern, you gain insight into the conditions that help you think most effectively. For instance, a person with the KVA pattern might need to move around to concentrate, observe visuals to sort through options, and have quiet time to generate creative ideas. This understanding helps explain why sitting motionless in meetings might be excruciating for some but ideal for others. In professional settings, recognizing mind patterns can transform challenging relationships into productive partnerships. Consider two architects with opposing patterns who struggled to work together until they discovered their complementary thinking styles. By adjusting their office layout and communication approach to accommodate both patterns, they revitalized their partnership. Similarly, mapping the patterns present in teams can reveal why certain groups excel in ideation but struggle with implementation, enabling leaders to create environments where everyone can contribute their best thinking. Understanding mind patterns doesn't simply explain differences—it provides practical tools for bridging them. By recognizing the conditions that help each person think well, teams can design meetings and workspaces that accommodate diverse thinking styles, ultimately unlocking collective intelligence that far exceeds what any individual could generate alone.

Chapter 2: Thinking Talents: Discovering Your Natural Cognitive Strengths

Thinking talents represent your innate ways of approaching challenges—approaches that increase your mental energy rather than depleting it. Unlike skills that can be learned through training, thinking talents are natural patterns of thought that have always been part of who you are. When you engage these talents, you experience a sense of flow and competence; work feels energizing rather than exhausting, and you excel with seemingly minimal effort. Each person possesses five to eight predominant thinking talents from a possible thirty-five, ranging from "adapting" (finding flexible solutions to changing circumstances) to "thinking logically" (requiring sound, data-based reasoning). These talents can be grouped into four cognitive styles: analytic (focused on "why"), procedural (concerned with "how"), relational (centered on "who"), and innovative (exploring "what if"). Your specific constellation of talents across these domains reveals your natural approach to challenges and where you might need support. Interestingly, we often fail to recognize our thinking talents precisely because they come so naturally. What seems ordinary to you may appear extraordinary to others. A senior executive with the talent of "mentoring" never considered his ability to develop others' potential as special until he realized how rare and valuable this capacity was. Similarly, we may mistake shadow attributes (rough or excessive expressions of talents) for weaknesses. "Skepticism," for instance, is the shadow attribute of "thinking logically"—when channeled properly, this questioning mindset becomes a powerful asset for identifying flawed reasoning. The real power of understanding thinking talents emerges when you map them collectively within a team. This visual representation makes intellectual diversity tangible and shows how different people contribute unique perspectives. One leadership team discovered they were overwhelmingly strong in innovative and procedural thinking but lacked analytical talents—explaining why they consistently generated exciting ideas and implemented them quickly, but often without thoroughly evaluating financial implications. By adding team members with complementary talents, they created more balanced decision-making processes. Understanding thinking talents also helps transform challenging relationships. A CEO struggled with his chairman until he realized their talents occupied opposite quadrants of the cognitive spectrum—the CEO excelled at relational and procedural thinking while the chairman was strong in innovative thinking. By recognizing their complementary strengths rather than seeing their differences as obstacles, they formed a powerful thinking partnership where each compensated for the other's blind spots. The strategy of thinking talents illuminates not just what you're good at, but how you can create conditions for your own excellence while supporting others to do the same. When team members understand both their own contributions and their collective profile, they can distribute work more effectively, design processes that leverage diverse strengths, and transform potential conflicts into productive collaboration.

Chapter 3: Inquiry: Harnessing Questions to Bridge Differences

Inquiry—the art of asking powerful questions—serves as a bridge between different thinking styles and creates openings for collaboration where none seemed possible. While most of us have been educated to value having the right answers, mastering inquiry involves embracing uncertainty and using questions to explore possibilities rather than confirm what we already believe. This shift from certainty to curiosity represents a fundamental transition from a "fixed" to a "growth" mindset. Three distinct types of inquiry serve different purposes in collaborative thinking. Success-based inquiry helps you access your own wisdom by examining what has worked in similar situations, allowing you to transfer knowledge from one domain to another. Intentional inquiry reconnects you with what truly matters when you feel lost or overwhelmed, serving as a compass to guide your thinking. Influential inquiry expands your perspective by helping you explore challenges from multiple angles—analytic (why), procedural (how), relational (who), and innovative (what if). Most of us habitually gravitate toward one or two of these inquiry quadrants, creating blind spots in our thinking. Someone strong in procedural inquiry naturally asks questions about timelines, resources, and next steps, but might overlook questions about the human impact (relational) or alternative approaches (innovative). When diverse inquiry styles clash in conversations, breakdowns occur—the analytical person focuses on data and logic while the relational thinker emphasizes emotions and connections, and both walk away frustrated. The strategy of inquiry transforms these potential clashes into productive collaboration through what we might call "permeability"—the willingness to be influenced by perspectives different from your own. A senior executive who habitually used his authority like a bow and his opinions like arrows learned to approach meetings like a sailor tacking with the wind, using questions to gauge and navigate different viewpoints. This shift from trying to be right to trying to be effective dramatically improved his relationships with both his team and external stakeholders. For teams, structured inquiry processes can transform standard meetings into energetic sessions that liberate collective intelligence. The "four-directions round table" approach, for instance, divides team members into groups representing different inquiry styles (analytic, procedural, relational, innovative), then has each subgroup tackle the same challenge from their perspective before sharing insights. This process ensures that all relevant questions are explored before decisions are made. The power of inquiry extends beyond verbal communication to physical interaction. The embodied practice of "butterfly on wrist" illustrates how traditional attempts to convince others through force (grasping someone's wrist firmly) create resistance, while gentle inquiry (touching lightly like a butterfly landing) creates openings for influence and collaboration. This physical metaphor helps us understand why pushing harder rarely changes minds, while curiosity often creates unexpected breakthroughs.

Chapter 4: Mindset: Shifting from Market-Share to Mind-Share

The transition from a market-share to a mind-share mindset represents a fundamental shift in how we perceive value and relate to others. In market-share thinking, value is determined by scarcity—diamonds are precious because they are rare. Power comes from accumulating resources others lack and maintaining control over them. This approach bifurcates our thinking: either I'm right or you are; either I win or you do; either I stand alone or sacrifice my uniqueness to accommodate the group. Mind-share thinking operates from a radically different premise: when ideas carry value, sharing creates abundance rather than scarcity. If I have one idea and you have one idea, and we exchange them, we each walk away with two ideas. The more we share, the more we have. This perspective values influence with others over power over them, seeing leadership as hosting diverse perspectives rather than heroically providing all the answers. Those most flexible in their thinking become those with the most influence. Three key aspects form the foundation of mind share: attention, intention, and imagination. Attention connects you to the present moment, where you have the power to act. Intention identifies what really matters to you. Imagination explores how you can realize future possibilities. When aligned, these three aspects create what the authors call "future pull"—a unified course of forward action and influence that magnetizes others toward a shared vision. Creating this alignment requires specific practices. Aiming your attention involves recognizing when you're distracted and using your mind pattern to bring yourself fully present. For example, someone whose mind focuses through visual input might need to look at key points written on a whiteboard to fully engage in a meeting. Aiming your intention means clearly articulating what you want to create rather than what you want to avoid. Compare "I don't want to gain weight" with "I am going to lose fifteen pounds in the next six months so I can cross the finish line with my colleagues during the company's 5K run." The latter creates much stronger future pull. Aiming your imagination involves envisioning what you want to achieve and directing it toward your intention. This requires recognizing what constraints exist (time, resources, skills) and designing creative approaches within them, much as a hang glider works with changing wind conditions rather than fighting against them. The breakthrough practice of "creating future pull" demonstrates how we can use pressure that might otherwise immobilize us to propel us forward toward our aspirations. The profound power of this mindset shift appears in organizations where leaders successfully align collective attention, intention, and imagination. In one example, a new CEO transformed a fragmented leadership team by redirecting their focus from individual problems to a shared vision of unleashing employee potential. Instead of departmental presentations filled with defensive statements, they engaged in "walk-and-talks" that encouraged creative thinking, then captured their collective intention visually as a mural that guided their work together. This shift from thinking apart to thinking together enabled them to tackle challenges they had previously considered insurmountable.

Chapter 5: Team Intelligence: Creating Environments for Collective Thinking

Team intelligence emerges when we create environments that maximize intellectual diversity and enable people to think better together than they could alone. Traditional meetings often diminish collective IQ by up to 30 percent compared to individual thinking, but deliberately designed collaborative processes can reverse this trend, creating what Peter Senge calls "the fifth discipline" where the whole truly exceeds the sum of its parts. The foundation for team intelligence begins with making intellectual diversity visible and valued. By mapping team members' mind patterns and thinking talents, leaders can clearly see the cognitive resources available and identify gaps that might limit effectiveness. One healthcare organization discovered their team had abundant innovative and procedural talents but lacked analytical thinking, explaining why they generated countless ideas for improving services but rarely implemented them successfully. By partnering with colleagues from operations who brought complementary thinking styles, they finally bridged the gap between ideation and execution. Beyond mapping intellectual assets, team intelligence requires creating physical and social environments that support diverse thinking styles. For many teams, this means reimagining meeting spaces and processes. Traditional conference rooms with fixed seating arrangements and linear presentations disadvantage those who need movement to focus or visual aids to process information. Multi-sensory approaches—like standing conversations around whiteboards, "walk-and-talks" for kinesthetic thinkers, and periods of silence for reflection—create conditions where everyone can contribute their best thinking. Team intelligence also requires shifting how we communicate and coordinate. The "CQ Playbook" offers practical guidelines for reading cues that indicate how someone else processes information and adjusting accordingly. When a colleague consistently misses content in emails, for instance, this might signal that visual information triggers open rather than focused attention for them—suggesting that phone calls or brief in-person conversations would be more effective. Similarly, understanding that someone who fidgets during presentations isn't being disrespectful but may need movement to concentrate allows teams to accommodate rather than criticize these differences. Perhaps most powerfully, team intelligence emerges through intentional practices that build "connective tissue" between diverse thinkers. The Collaboration Handbook, where each person documents how they think best and what others should know when working with them, transforms hidden cognitive preferences into explicit resources for the team. This simple practice helped one senior leadership team overcome years of fragmentation by acknowledging differences in how they processed information, communicated effectively, and received feedback. The essence of team intelligence is captured in the statement "I think better when I think with you." This perspective represents a radical departure from competitive individualism toward recognizing our fundamental interdependence. As world-class CEOs increasingly acknowledge, the next great leader will not be a heroic individual but a diverse team that can harness the full spectrum of human intelligence to address our most complex challenges.

Chapter 6: Future Pull: Aligning Attention, Intention and Imagination

Future pull represents the magnetic force created when individual and collective attention, intention, and imagination align toward a common purpose. This powerful alignment draws people forward not through coercion or manipulation, but through genuine connection to shared aspirations. We see examples of this in history's great collaborative achievements, from Nelson Mandela uniting South Africa around the 1995 Rugby World Cup to the Three Tenors creating transcendent musical experiences by elevating rather than competing with one another. Creating future pull begins with aiming collective attention toward assets and possibilities rather than deficits and limitations. Leaders who master this strategy understand that attention is a precious resource in our distracted age—one that cannot be commanded but must be earned. They recognize the different ways people give their attention based on mind patterns and create conditions where everyone can be fully present. Simple practices like beginning meetings by acknowledging specific contributions each person has made or creating multisensory environments that engage different thinking styles can dramatically shift the quality of collective thinking. Aiming collective intention involves finding the common purpose that magnetizes everyone involved. Effective leaders use inquiry to reveal what truly matters to each person, then identify the overlapping aspirations that can unite diverse perspectives. In a remarkable example, mediators working with Nigerian government officials and oil company executives transformed decades of conflict by moving their meeting from corporate headquarters to a hotel ballroom filled with evocative photographs. Instead of PowerPoint presentations, they asked participants to craft stories about how they could create a thriving future for Nigeria. This shift in environment and process allowed a shared intention to emerge where none had seemed possible before. Aiming collective imagination means creating conditions where innovative thinking can flourish across diverse mind patterns. This involves recognizing that different people need different environments to think creatively—some require movement, others visual stimulation, still others periods of reflective silence. The CARE process (Create ideas, Analyze for effectiveness, Refine into action plans, Execute by aligning task and talent) provides a practical framework for integrating imagination and action in ways that honor these differences while moving the group forward together. Perhaps most importantly, future pull emerges when we cultivate what aikido practitioners call a "quality of mind" grounded in respect—for ourselves, for those who stand beside us, and for those who will follow. This perspective recognizes that each person around us carries "a dormant seed of greatness" waiting to be acknowledged and nurtured. When we approach collaboration from this mindset, we move beyond seeing differences as obstacles and begin to recognize them as essential resources for addressing our most complex challenges. The practice of future pull transforms organizations by creating what Göran Carstedt calls "mind share"—where ideas and relationships carry greater value than transactions, and where the more we share, the more we all have. This shift doesn't eliminate competition but balances it with collaboration directed toward serving something larger than any individual or organization could achieve alone.

Summary

Collaborative intelligence fundamentally reframes how we understand human capacity, revealing that intelligence occurs not just within minds but between them. By mastering the four strategies presented—understanding mind patterns, leveraging thinking talents, practicing artful inquiry, and cultivating a mind-share mindset—we can bridge the differences that typically divide us and access collective wisdom that far exceeds what any individual could generate alone. The journey toward collaborative intelligence begins with recognizing our own cognitive preferences and blind spots, then expands to appreciating the diverse ways others process information. As we develop this awareness, we gain the ability to create environments where everyone can think at their best, to ask questions that open rather than close possibilities, and to align attention, intention, and imagination toward shared aspirations. The ultimate goal is to reach a state where we can genuinely say, "I think better when I think with you"—acknowledging that our future may depend less on individual expertise than on our capacity to think together across differences toward what matters to us all.

About Author

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Dawna Markova

Dawna Markova’s passion awakens through storytelling and finding open questions to help people discover how to love the life they have been given.

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