Collaborative Intelligence is the ability to create, contribute to, and harness the power within networks of people. Fire fighters, Emergency Room units, and sports teams mention ‘CQ experiences’ a lot. They speak about the entire team acting as one, almost as if they had tapped into a ‘group mind’, or a ‘collaborative force field’.

Collaborative Intelligence enables participants to coordinate their actions closely with everyone else. The book 'Teaching an Anthill to Fetch' is also about alignment, treating people fairly and employee motivation, factors that all effect business success.

People also refer to the experience as accessing intelligence beyond their own. As if they are augmented by something outside of themselves. These extreme experiences of collaboration are examples of collaborative intelligence at work.

While these circumstances may be exceptional, collaborative intelligence or CQ is not limited to these extraordinary circumstances, in other words CQ can be developed within any group of people. This is what CQ Tools have been developed for - to help people and teams become more collaborative.

Several million ants sharing a colony do a better job collaboratively, than we do in most of our organizations. Unprecedented levels of connection via the internet and intranets have, as yet, to be transformed into unprecedented levels of collaboration.

There is a direct link between the level of collaboration within a team and employee motivation. In other words employee motivation does not only depend on the attitude of the individual but also on the quality of the relationships within the team.

Technology is an incredibly useful tool. Collaborative intelligence is quantified by what humans can and will do together, rather than what a piece of software will allow them to do.

• CQ is a systemic intelligence that emerges as we come to realize individually that ‘we are all in this together’
• CQ is a set of capabilities, everyone has in them; in the most part they are simply not expressed or accessed as much as they can be
• CQ can be expanded and strengthened through specific processes
• Treating people fairly and employee motivation is integrally linked to collaborative intelligence

You might like to take the CQ Quiz to find out just how collaboratively intelligent your team is right now.

The future is bright because there is a growing awareness of the deeper levels of connection that exist between all human beings. This is just as true for business. People are becoming more systemically aware. For the first time in human history the average North American has access to information showing them the connection between something happening on the other side of the planet and their own spending habits, for instance.

What’s the Difference Between IQ, EQ (Emotional Intelligence) and CQ (Collaborative Intelligence)

What can CQ do for my team?

The Conference Board of Canada claims that by the year 2015 North American business will be ‘missing’ 10 million workers. Having insufficient staff to fulfill customer requirements can be just as damaging to the bottom line as not having enough customers. So the game has changed. The businesses that will thrive over the foreseeable future, will be those who can attract the right number and quality of employees rather than simply more customers.

Put another way, customer motivation has an impact on the quantity of business you do, employee motivation impacts the quality of that business.

'High CQ' Teams :

• Attract and retain high quality team members
• Create a sense of meaningful participation
• Collaborate in highly effective ways
• Connect to a strong sense of purpose
• Balance leadership and followship

Have you taken the CQ Quiz yet?

What are CQ Tools (collaborative tools) ?

CQ Tools are processes that enable people to grow the collaborative intelligence that is lying in wait to be developed. In many cases CQ processes can be used just as easily with virtual teams as with ‘terrestrial’ teams, indeed technology offers many ways to accelerate how CQ is expressed.

Collaborative tools enable business professionals to explore the true potential of the group or team to which they belong.