Time frame: 30 minutes.

Group size: 20-40+ people.

Materials: Open space, index cards, one for each participant.

Rapidly generate and sift a group’s most powerful actionable ideas by spreading and sorting them 'out and up' as everyone notices the patterns in what emerges. Though it is fun, fast, and casual, it is a serious and valid way to generate an uncensored set of bold ideas and then to tap the wisdom of the whole group to identify the top ten. Surprises are frequent! Everyone is included and participates at the same time. Everyone has an equal opportunity to contribute.

This exercise uses the collective intelligence of a group to find solutions.

Instructions:

1. Explain the process. For example: “First, every person writes on an index card their bold idea and first step to making it happen. Then people mill around and cards are passed from person to person. ‘Mill and pass only. No reading.’ When the bell rings, stop passing cards. Each individually rate the idea/step on your card with a score of 1 to 5 (1 = low, 5 = high) and write it on the back of the card. This is called ‘read and score.’ When the bell rings, cards are passed around a second time. ‘Mill and pass’ until the bell rings. We’ll repeat this cycle five times.” (3 min)
2. Demonstrate one exchange-and-scoring interaction using a sample index card to clarify what is expected during the milling, namely no reading of the cards, only passing the cards from person to person so that each person has one and only one card in hand. The process can be confusing for some people. (2 min)
3. Invite each participant to write a big idea and first step on their card. (5 min)
4. Conduct five 3-minute exchange-and-scoring rounds with time for milling (and laughing) in between. (15 min)
5. Ask participants to add the 5 scores on the back of the card they are holding.
6. Find the best-scoring ideas with the whole group by conducting a countdown. Ask, “Who has a 25?” Invite each participant, if any, holding a card scored 25 to read out the idea and action step. Continue with “Who has a 24?” and so on. Stop when the top ten ideas have been identified and shared. (5 min)
7. End by asking, “What caught your attention about 25/10?” (2 min)

Time frame: 30-60 minutes.

Group size: 10-40 people.

This method helps to increase individual participation and clarify opinions during group debates. It enables people to explore and develop their views, behaviour and attitude in response to a topic. It also helps to give some structure to debate that may otherwise dissolve into chaos.

This exercise uses the collective intelligence of the group to make decisions.

Instructions:

1. Display the relevant statement on which there is likely to be a range of views.
2. On the wall spread out the following signs from left to right: No; no, but; yes, but; yes.
3. Give a little time for each person to reflect on their position on the statement.
4. Invite all participants to stand by the sign that represents their view.
5. Facilitate debate. It can be good to start with someone who’s view is in a minority, or someone who tends to contribute less, and ask them to argue their case.
6. Encourage movement if people find themselves being swayed by others arguments.
7. Consensus is not necessary but can be sought through suggestions for change to the wording of the suggested statement.

Note: Encourage people to explain their own view rather than going along with dominant opinion and to challenge and modify the original statement rather than try to force consensus.

Time frame: 30-60 minutes.

Group size: 10-40+ people.

Materials: Chairs for people to sit in pairs face-to-face, paper for participants to take notes, flip chart to record the stories and assets/conditions.

In less than one hour, a group of any size can generate the list of conditions that have led to its, or a project’s, success. You can liberate spontaneous momentum and insights for positive change from within the group as “hidden” success stories are revealed. Positive movement is sparked by the search for what works now and by uncovering the root causes that make success possible. Groups are energised while sharing their success stories instead of the usual depressing talk about problems. Stories from the field offer social proof of local solutions, promising prototypes, and spread innovations while providing data for recognising success patterns.

The exercise uses the collective intelligence of the group to learn and adapt.

Instructions:

1. Describe the sequence of steps and specify a theme or what kind of story participants are expected to tell. (3 min)
2. Ask, “Please tell a story about a time when...”
3. Ask participants to pair up preferably with someone they don’t know well. In pairs, participants take turns conducting an interview and telling a success story, paying attention to what made the success possible. (7-10 min each; 15-20 min total)
4. Invite pairs to join with another pair. In groups of 4, each person retells the story of their partner. Ask participants to listen for patterns of the conditions or assets that supported success and to make note of them. (15 min for groups of 4)
5. In plenary, collect insights and patterns for the whole group to see on a flip chart. Summarise if needed. (10-15 min)
6. Ask, “How are we investing in the assets and conditions that foster success?” and “What opportunities do you see to do more?” Use 1-2-4-all to discuss the questions. (10 min)

Time frame: 30 minutes.

Group size: 5-20+ people.

Materials: A copy of the folk tale. You can print this from the Collective Intelligence Design Playbook: activities PDF (activities PDF) on page 147.

This activity will help people understand that collective intelligence involves combining diverse viewpoints to build a more complete picture of a situation.

This exercise is inspired by a traditional folk tale from India. It illustrates how individuals can have many different interpretations when asked to describe the same thing. In the original story, six blind men have different explanations when they are asked to describe an elephant based on what they have heard about elephants from other villagers.

Even when they encounter a real elephant, each man is only able to ‘see’ what he already believed to be true.

They continue to disagree until Rajah reminds them “Perhaps if you put the parts together, you will see the truth”. The story acts both as a warning against confirmation bias and a reminder of the value of perspective awareness. Collective intelligence is built up by combining many unique views of the world based on personal experience, language, and culture.

Instructions:

1. Read The Blind Men and the Elephant, a folk tale from India. You may want to read it out or let participants read it themselves.
2. After sharing the story, use the following questions to guide a group discussion about how different perspectives can enhance the collective intelligence of a group and the relevance for tackling complex problems.
   1. Do problems like this happen in real life? Think of times when a project failed because people saw situations from different points of view, or when only some people’s views were considered. Describe what happened.
   2. What if the men in this story were not blind? Would they still have different perceptions about elephants? Why or why not?
   3. Does the story give you any ideas about how these problems can be solved? Refer to the overcoming biases guide, on pages 99-100, and crowd facilitation guide, on pages 101-102 in the activities PDF, for advice on how to surface unique perspectives in group discussions.
3. Introduce participants to the collective intelligence design principles and use as a basis for discussion around the benefits of trying to harness collective intelligence and why it needs conscious orchestration.

Time frame: 15-30 minutes.

Group size: 20-40+ people.

Materials: Bell or timer to announce transitions. Sufficient space for participants to work face-to-face in pairs and foursomes.

This activity will demonstrate how collective intelligence enables you to generate better ideas and more of them faster by tapping into the knowledge that is distributed widely.

Engage everyone simultaneously in generating questions, ideas, and suggestions. You can immediately include everyone regardless of how large the group is. You can generate better ideas and more of them faster than ever before. You can tap the know-how and imagination that is distributed widely in places not known in advance. Open, generative conversation unfolds. Ideas and solutions are sifted in rapid fashion. Most importantly, participants own the ideas, so follow-up and implementation is simplified.

Instructions:

1. Begin by asking a question in response to the presentation of an issue (for example, what opportunities do you see for making progress on this challenge? How would you handle this situation? What ideas or actions do you recommend?)
2. Then ask everyone to jot down their ideas and answers to the question during a period of silent reflection. (1 min)
3. Generate ideas in pairs, building on ideas from self-reflection. (2 min)
4. Share and develop ideas from your pair in foursomes (notice similarities and differences). Maintain the rule of one conversation at a time in the whole group. (4 min)
5. Ask, “what is one idea that stood out in your conversation?” Each group shares one important idea with all (repeat cycle as needed). (5 min)
6. Ask the group with a show of hands “who felt they came away from that activity with different ideas or insights?” Explain that because the activity engaged every individual in searching for answers we created more ideas and more diverse inputs, we created a safe space for everyone to contribute. In doing this, we harnessed the collective intelligence that is in this room.
7. If the group's ideas were too similar or information was not divergent, ask them why might this be? Is it because they chose to only share knowledge that they knew they would have in common, rather than insight that was unique to each of them? Or is it because they all come from similar professional backgrounds or experiences?
8. Refer back to the principles of collective intelligence design - particularly the importance of diversity and allowing everyone to contribute independently.

Tip: If you don’t have a specific challenge or issue that is relevant to your group, consider taking one of the sustainable development goals and ask people about the opportunities they see to make progress on that goal.