When Michael Jordan started playing for the Chicago Bulls, Coach Phil Jackson gave him a career-changing piece of advice. He explained that Michael would become great if instead of competing with his other teammates he helped them all play at their peak. Michael got it. He became great but so did others like Scotty Pippin ... and the team was memorable.

There is a major inflection point occurring right now. It is not about basketball or even sports. It is about how people develop concepts and ideas. But it could be every bit as career changing as the shift that Phil Jackson inspired in Michael Jordan.

In order to understand why, let’s review a few numbers. There are 31 billion public searches on Google every month up from 2.7 billion in 2006. Facebook took only 2 years to reach a total of 30 million users. My space has 112 million users with 20 million hits per day. Twitter has grown from 4 to 20 million users in the first six months of 2009. Add to that a recent estimate that the amount of new technical information doubles every two years. That means that ½ of what students learn in the 1st year of college will be outdated by the 3rd year.[1]

People are sharing information in unprecedented numbers ... not only about their personal lives ... but about ideas. Knowledge is growing exponentially. This isn’t because people are smarter ... more intellectual versions of Michael Jordan nailing three pointers. It is because there are more versions of the Chicago Bulls. We are seeing the leading edge of a major inflection point that is resetting the way we develop products of thought ... one in which no one works in isolation of other people’s ideas. Just as a great basketball team is collective, all intelligence is collective.

As is true of all inflection points, those that recognize it and develop the competencies to leverage it will achieve new levels of performance. Those that don’t will have ever-diminishing influence which will come straight out of the bottom line. There are skills and competencies that are unique to the ability to create collective intelligence that is inspired. Where do you start?

• Build social networks that include diversity and dissent.
• Build social capital that sustains the tough conversations.
• Create conversations that break apart and reconstruct ideas to create new forms.
• Create fluid structures and connections that transform the way ideas are developed.
• Think in a way that triggers people’s best instincts.

The companies, and the people in them, that learn to leverage collective intelligence will be well-positioned to ride the upward curve of the new inflection point.


[1] Source for this last statement is a You Tube video entitled: “Did you know?” produced by Sony.