Collective Intelligence — Francie

What does collective intelligence mean to us?

It would be the synergy created by collaboration between people from a group, a community. For this synergy to take place, several factors must be present: there must be an intention and energy to work together, a willingness to be open to others but also to oneself, to dialogue, to difference and to the desire to be connected. Collective intelligence makes it possible to tackle complex situations and can even become a force for individual, group and societal change.

Diving into collective adventures is engaging! We often put our heart, our energy into it, we bring bits of our personal stories with us. So to live this kind of experience, why not prepare for it in advance? Participating in an association, joining an NGO, joining a work team, throwing a festival and even going on holiday with friends, what questions should we ask ourselves to ensure that our projects are based on cooperation ? How do we wish to organise ourselves? How can we promote more equal access to speech? How can you argue without fighting? How can we make decisions without leaving people behind ? How to integrate the intelligences of each person into our project? How can we identify the power relations that exist in our group? How to create spaces for creativity, for bonding with your group?

This training is an opportunity to take steps aside from our operating habits. Our cultures, for many, are based on the idea that there is a “law of the jungle” where the strongest and most deserving win. But cooperation by putting collective intelligence at the service of our projects is another law that already exists in our world and deserves a greater place in our societies. We want to create an environment that fosters interaction and creativity, stimuli, resources, working methods, games, pace, attention and awareness, etc. that allow participants to participate in the creation of content. Participants connect with their own experience, share, refine their research and build together knowledge, resources and tools tailored to each other. They will analyse the dynamics of their training group and look for solutions to create an organisation based on cooperation and collective intelligence.

To compose our toolbox for this workshop, we will get from various universes, such as popular education, as a process of social transformation. This approach will offer both spaces to question oneself, to test the animation posture, to equip oneself and to share experiences and feelings. We will combine it with creative and bodily expression and play in order to move away from a purely  mental approach; to stimulate creativity and participation; to encourage authentic expression; to  generate pleasure and joy; and to go deeper into the broad theme of collective intelligence.