The Distributed Mind: Achieving High Performance Through the Collective Intelligence of Knowledge Work Teams

by Kimball Fisher, Mareen Duncan Fisher

For the first time in history, more employees work with their minds than with their muscles. Their value lies in their mental abilities and their knowledge. Collectively, they are the "mind" of the company -- a mind spread across many individual brains. The authors of this breakthrough book call it "the distributed mind." The distributed mind is a powerful force, for if two heads are better than one, imagine how much better 20 heads are -- if it is possible to manage them all! That's the fascinating subject of this how progressive companies are creating teams of "knowledge workers" and coordinating their individual efforts into a web of high performance. Using interviews they conducted with hundreds of knowledge workers, the Fishers have identified six trends that will change forever the way we work. The Distributed Mind provides an intriguing look at how *understand the characteristics of knowledge work teams (and the innovative concept of "vertical multiskilling")
* organize multiple specialists into a cohesive unit
* share knowledge without creating information overload * coordinate activities when half the team is spread across the globe (or never in the office)
* understand the critical role of technology in this new work structure
* grasp a whole new organizational form, called "the learning lattice"
The Fishers point out that "knowledge workers" aren't just engineers, lawyers, and programmers. They can be found on the assembly line, as well. It's a new world of work for all!

Hardcover

First published October 24, 1997

About the author

Kimball Fisher is a best-selling business book author who also writes children's literature. He lives with his sweetheart in Portland, Oregon. You can reach him at kimball@kimballfisher.com

Reviews

[mono · Rating 2 out of 5]

α - I forget where I found this and why I wanted to read it. iirc some random hackernews article highly recommended it.

Ω(»,Σ,ı) - This is a dated look at managing teams in the information age aimed at business managers. Nothing earth shattering, but the material is sound. The presentation of the book is straight forward and extremely dry. Personally, I think you could learn more from The Idea Factory which focuses on Bell Lab's rise and fall or The Dream Machine which covers JCR Licklider's career at DARPA & Xerox.

I was looking forward to the chapter about information overload, but the advice presented distilled down to letting the squeaky wheel get the oil.

"You can't yell at tomatoes to make them grow faster." - Steve Hill - Exec VP, Weyerhaueger Corp.