A common error that’s made when projects for implementing change are thought to be is to compare the intelligence of the individual members of an organization with the overall intelligence of the organization itself. It would appear the more smart members that an organization has the more clever the organization would be in an additive or exponential sense. Frequently, though, the case turns out to be opposite from the expectation. The emergent intelligence of an organization of people has a tendency to be less than that of the individual members. This doesn’t bode well for implementing change.

The irony of the problem is that for more basic forms of life, there’s an additive principle for the overall intelligence of affiliations. Take, for example, the activity of ants and ant colonies. An individual ant is capable only of a very limited set of actions. However [*COMMA] an ant colony is capable of terribly complicated sets of activities such as building or defense. Despite the absence of individual intelligence, when placed into a group situation, ants will naturally fall into organized and regimented activities. The emergent intelligence of the ant colony is greater than that of an individual ant.

When placed into groups that are implementing change, homo sapiens do not adopt networked activity. Likewise, the more smart the people involved, the harder it becomes to get them to engage in networked behavior. Maybe this is due to the avowal of individuality, but the end result is that affiliations of homo sapiens have a tendency to respond slowly and ineffectively without the presences of a strong, organizing intelligence.

in essence, implementing change in affiliations filled with smart people is about making better networked behaviors. The individuals need to be brought onboard with the change, usually thru the intervention of a high ranking executive. This allows the change professional or change team to more successfully manage the relatively low emergent intelligence of the organization in such a fashion that it’ll implement the changes required by the project or situation.

For more information, please see our website: Implementing Change