Why dominant team members are bad for collective intelligence, and what to do about it.
“Groups where a few people dominated the conversation were less collectively intelligent than those with a more equal distribution of conversational turn-taking.” (Source: Woolley et al., 2010, p. 688)
This is such an important research finding. And it is a hopeful message for leaders who position teams as the basic building block to elevate performance.
So, what can we do to promote equal turn-taking behavior?
Asking the right questions helps engage people and unearth novel insights. Below are a few of my favorite questions.
Questions to deepen the conversation:
1. What underlying thoughts guided you to this insight?
2. What’s a concern you have about this?
3. What might happen 10 minutes, 10 days, or 10 years from now if we implement this idea?
Questions to broaden the conversation:
1. What do others think?
2. What could be a dissenting view here?
3. What alternatives did we talk about less?
Source:
Woolley, A. W., Chabris, C. F., Pentland, A., Hashmi, N., & Malone, T. W. (2010). Evidence for a collective intelligence factor in the performance of human groups. science, 330(6004), 686-688.