A recent article in Organization Science magazine has highlighted the importance of group social skills as a key success factor in high performing teams. Susan Pinker’s article in the February 21 Globe and Mail- Why Smart People Don’t Necessarily Make Smart Groups   - highlighted the finding from the research. The smartest groups were composed of people who were smart in different ways from the old IQ version of smart. The best groups had members who used skills that engaged the intelligence of the other members to produce the best results. The three key factors to success were: the overall social sensitivity of the groups members to tune in to each other; the degree of engagement of each other by turning the conversation from one member to another – versus a focus on self and the number of women in the group.

The author, Dr. Anita Wooley, professor of organizational behavior at Carnegie Mellon Tepper School of Business , described a phenomenon that I have seen over the years that she has called collective intelligence - where the collective brainpower of the group members, working in harmony over time, co-produce higher quality results that emerge from the collaborative problem solving process.

“ It’s about the people and the tools that will enhance collective intelligence. “ she stated. 

I look forward to connecting with Dr. Wooley. Our Smarter Meetings system was designed to help groups shift into the performing stage more quickly and consistently. We designed it to deliver simple tools to get people onto the same page and working together more effectively by following a disciplined process to tap into the total intelligence of the members and of the group. It is built on a process of high engagement and respect for individual contributions as part of the way of getting to outcomes. This is exciting and important work that is mirrors some of the finding of Marcial Losada that show success is dependent on how people talk to each other – positive, affirming and open versus negative; , questioning each other to deepen understanding vs. taking stances and group vs. self focused contributions – all three the keys to accelerating collaboration and improving the quality of business solutions.

Check out the article by Susan Pinkers - http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/managing/susan-pinker/why-smart-people-dont-necessarily-make-smart-groups/article1915600/