The Wisdom of the Crowd (Aug 08)

What is wisdom for you?

· Wisdom is a combination of insight, experience, underpinned by transparent values

· Intuitively doing the right thing without considering personal interest

· Sometimes it means being brave about the truth

· There are some wise people but not always in positions of power so wisdom gets wasted

Examples of a gap between the wise solutions and the ones that get implemented

· The widespread belief that we are victims of our communities instead of potential leaders / initiators / bridge builders

· The USA legal system with success fees for lawyers

Techniques that harness the wisdom of the crowd

· Listening and trying to understand where they come from by asking questions and encouraging others to speak up

· Participating in local associations - as long as the association is designed to have open access, and not to create barriers of inclusions/exclusion

What are the personal benefits we get from a good debate?

· Helps clarify my own ideas by explaining them and considering new input

· Gives me a better perspective - sometimes you can get in a rut with your thinking

· Makes me think (again)

What works in debating?

· A wide mix of experience and viewpoints, but where individuals aren't just on their own soapbox

· Show respect

· Open minds, willingness to change

· A diverse audience

… and what goes wrong?

· A lot of the failure stems from uneven power structures. Paying lip service to public consultation (or employees views) but having no intention of acting on it

· Rhetoric and defensiveness

· Hidden agendas

· When you know it's just a talking shop to pretend to ask for input

· Boring, lots of words without meaning

· Too much talking and not enough listening

What will we do differently tomorrow? (impact of the debate)

· Tell a couple of friends about this regular event - the more of us who are involved, the wiser we can be

· Remember to listen with an open mind, you never know when someone is going to make a useful contribution

· I’ll ask some people the same question tomorrow