We are living in an ever-increasingly connected world, both in terms of the connection type and of the service. Are we making the most out of our actual and potential connections? Being connected is a lot more than having 500 “friends” on Facebook and sharing your lunch pictures on Instagram.
This book looks at the concept of connectional intelligence and how we can share in the world’s collective knowledge, solving big problems, changing policy or even saving lives in the process. It need not be a stressful, onerous task either, it is just like trying to solve a jigsaw puzzle, albeit with the pieces spread around the world and hidden in often-unexpected places.
At first it was hard to warm to this book. Maybe it was a bit of a slow starter but there was just something that made it a little bit too easy to put down. Yet other parts proved to be fascinating and engaging. It is almost as if the book has two distinct identities when it needed to be a more unified, powerful singular entity. The price wasn’t too exorbitant so it is possible that there was sufficient interest to justify the price…
So there’s another new buzzword to add to our business lexicon – CxO – and the authors define connectional intelligence as “… the ability to combine the world's diversity of people, networks, disciplines and resources, forging connections that create value, meaning and breakthrough results.” It does sound good, doesn’t it. Too good even?
The authors note that it is not really a new thing, it is just something that is significantly easier and quicker to do with today’s technology. “Humans have always been connectional. We've always been curious. We've always combined things. We've always been travellers. We've always been conversationalists. We are living in a new era in which the traditional routes to power—the schools you go to, the contacts in your address book, the families you are born to—are no longer the only ways to get ahead. Never before have so many people, of so many different backgrounds, been able to connect with such a vast network of ideas, information and resources. One of the key things to understand is that connectional intelligence combined with inclusive connection is inherently democratic,” say the authors at the start of the book.
Quite a few examples are given to support the concept of CxO, such as Nike granting access to hundreds of its patents to inspire public research which has yielded benefits for other companies and, of course, Nike itself. Intelligent connections helped survivors of the 2010 Haitian earthquake and it has even contributed to the growing of super-sized pumpkins thanks to cross-disciplinary research and ideas sharing. The potential can be limitless. The combination of connectional intelligence, question-asking, data analysis and so-called inclusive intelligence allowed a young, unknown graduate student to even put a major hole in economics research that had been the “gold standard” for a generation of academics, economist and politicians alike. The highly respected academics that got the equivalent of a black eye were not so openly thankful and impressed. Slightly po-faced, would be a British English description to their reaction.
Some of the changes are being brought about by the younger generation too, the generation that is used to sharing and reaching out to friends, colleagues or even strangers in possibly rival companies to share the knowledge. It appears that some smart companies are seizing this advantage and encouraging it, rather than fearing it and clamping down on it, which would be the old-school way of doing things.
This has the potential to be one of those books that you didn’t think you had a need for, yet once you’ve read it you could be immensely grateful that you have done so. This reviewer was glad that he persevered with the book and didn’t cast it aside. It has possibly nudged his thinking a little bit more into the “right”, connected, collegiate side of life.
Get Big Things Done, written by Erica Dhawan and Saj-nicole Joni and published by St. Martin's Press/Palgrave Macmillan Trade. ISBN 9781137279781, 256 pages. YYYY