i-programmer.info: Researchers looking into the concept of "collective intelligence" have discovered that factors for working effectively in a group are highly correlated to being a woman.
Some research published in Science is of interest to developers facing the prospect of managing or working in teams.
The research by Professors Thomas Malone (MIT) and Anita Woolley (Carnegie Mellon) set out to to discover whether "collective intelligence" can be used to predict group performance over a wide range of tasks in the same way as "general intelligence" applies to individual performance.
3 comments:
I think this article is incredibly interesting and valid. Not just about women, but about how having a group of people with different levels of intelligence could be extremely effective, especially when the "most intelligent" people are not attempting to dominate a group. In my experience, when someone who considers them self more intelligent than the rest of the group, therefore attempting to take over, very little creativity can occur or collaboration of ideas. When members of a group stop worrying about being the head chief in charge and instead worry about group cohesion and collaboration, the best work can be accomplished. Whether this means having more women in a group or just people who are more concerned with the group as a whole rather than just themselves, so much can be accomplished with that type of attitude rather than one of domination and control.
This article some up perfectly to me how being the smartest group isn't always the best. I can see through these discoveries how they have affected groups Ive worked with in the past and how the points are valid. I always feel more effective working with a mixed gender group. The group takes time and is more open to everyones ideas. I can see how the IQ level isn't based upon everyones IQ level, but the social awareness of the group. It goes to show that to maximize cohesiveness you have to be willing to open up and really think about not only the task at hand, but how to accomplish it and with who.
Collaborating is obviously very important to creating a team that can function correctly. I think that people should not think about others as the most intelligent but more in terms of people's strengths and weaknesses. This article clearly states how one should not look to the person deemed the smartest, but this begs the question who should they look to? Is it the person that collaborates the most? Is it the person that makes sure that everyone is heard?
I will say that I understand that the data says a group with women is more productive and creative, I will say that I find that on the whole, men are more confident about their ideas and this can lead to a much more confident team. So I think a good mix of men and women is good.
Post a Comment