Collective intelligence is what it’s called. The term is borrowed from economics. It refers to the notion that inventiveness and the rate of cultural change in a society is determined by the amount of interaction between individuals.
Collective intelligence explains why the rate of change in the previous agrarian period was so much slower than the rate of change in our modern urban culture. When living rurally there simply wasn’t as much interaction between people. And less interpersonal interaction means less innovation.
For many decades scientists and especially psychologists have studied creativity and intelligence as residing in the individual. We wanted to know how Picasso saw what he saw. Or what made Bill Gates the genius he is. We were curious about what it was about Oprah that she could reinvent herself and stay on top for so long. We were looking for their individual characteristics.
The problem was we were looking in the wrong place. Truth is the sophistication of our time lies not within the individual but in the collective. In our day no one does anything of greatness on their own. That includes the apparent individual feats of Picasso, Gates and Oprah. In fact, a reasonable claim can be made that everything that we do and the tools we use to do them are the consequence of the exchange of information between people.
Consider that the car you drive, the computer you use, the food you eat, everything is the consequence of a group effort. No one person could create even the simplest of the tools we use regularly.
And this is pretty much right brain stuff. Remember it is the right brain that is more creative and relational. The right brain sees the big picture.
True, the left-brain is the logical, analytical hemisphere. And we must have critical thinking in order to advance as a species. But the increased importance of the right brain is the critical difference of the last century.
All the best left-brained thinking got us through the 19th century. The advances in transportation, communication and even medicine in the 20th and 21st century are due to the collaboration of individuals.
So if you want to maximize your potential. If you want to move beyond your finite personal intellectual capability. If you want to free yourself for new ideas and opportunities spend more time in the right brain. Be open, be playful, see the big picture and, most of all, engage others. It is after all, The RightBrain Revolution.