Generating Group Genius is for emerging leaders in new industries, and in sectors at a crossroads. Emerging industries like Web 3, where equity-driving innovations take place at light speed, yet whose impact is inhibited by the incongruence between values and practices. Sectors such as education and ecology, where major changes are needed to address growing gaps, yet whose antiquated processes inhibit the intended impact. This book provides an entry point for leaders in traditional and emerging sectors who want to foster a healthy, nimble, thriving culture that drives and sustains world-changing work.
The world is increasingly connected, while we are ever more isolated and polarized. While amazing progress has been made on many fronts, many new challenges are evolving; requiring organizations to keep pace with these changes and maximize opportunities by releasing human potential at the highest levels. Group genius has never been more in demand or needed.
History informs us that when groups come together, the quality and accuracy of the hive mind often produces less than the parts of the whole. A quick glance at democratic institutions around the globe provides ample evidence of this unfortunate pattern of human behavior. The catch-22 we find ourselves in is that the challenges we face are so large that it is only collective action that can surpass the Sisyphean efforts we are striving to resolve.
By bringing your people together (e.g. teams, stakeholders, constituents) in radically engaging ways that effectively invite their unique perspectives and experiences while supporting the convergence of their individual contributions, we can reverse the all too common patterns of the whole being less than the sum of the parts. By practicing novel ways of convening and engaging your people, you can begin to create cultural practices that foster creativity, trust and performance.
Maybe you are trying to create a new model for K-12 education; regenerate habitats; expand access to financial services to the global south. Whatever the cause, achieving your goals requires an enormous amount of mental and physical energy that is far beyond the ability of any one individual. Your laudable goals can only be achieved as a collective, working in coordination with your staff, neighbors, industry partners, aligned organizations and policy makers.
After working with hundreds of groups in all corners of the world, solving for X in nearly every sector, I’ve collected a blend of processes and practices to help groups hack the human habit of group think, while maintaining the alignment and engagement needed to catalyze collective action. This book provides accessible, practical and playful ways of how emerging leaders are, and can better support their stakeholders in generating group genius.
